Silence Has A Sound / Cover Update

Quick update: a cover change for His.

+ a great cover of a song I was never wild about, but this is amazing. I love Draiman's voice.

I looked for an official video & there doesn't seem to be one, so here you go:

Forget Him Not (Hellfire Vampires Bloodline 3)

It’s been a wild year, one way or another. There’s an old saying, or more appropriately, curse: may you live in interesting times. This last year or so has lived up to that promise. It's also meant that I haven’t kept this blog updated nearly as regularly as I would have preferred. Without tempting the Gods, life is returning to its usual tempo.

Since the last post I’ve read some fabulous books, met some great people, seen some incredible films and at some point will write about or review them (the books & films, not the people, although that WOULD be hilarious ;)

I’ve also published Forget Him Not, the third in the Hellfire Vampires Bloodline series. It follows Easton and Grisha’s story, together with that of Nix, Roark and the future of the Hellfire themselves.

I really enjoyed writing it, unraveling the dangerous forces around Easton and Grisha and giving them a HEA. As Easton discovers in the book, there really IS nothing like family ... or sibling rivalry.

xoxo

J

Cult Movies & Crushes

As ever, I’m a bad, slack blogger... However, I thought I’d write about movies, and not the ones that are always easy to find, but the ones that are cult and compulsive viewing.

Dredged from the depths of my mega trivia laden mind, here is a tasty trio: Siesta, Revolver and Performance.

Siesta, 1987. This one features Spain & Gabriel Byrne, who is, to say the least, smoking hot in this film and plays a Spanish trapeze instructor. Yes, you did read that right. The film has an absolutely incredible cast: Ellen Barkin as a badass stuntwoman who draws no lines, Byrne, Julian Sands, Isabella Rossellini, Martin Sheen, Grace Jones and Jodie Foster. It's backed by one of the best, most evocative soundtracks conceivable, by Miles Davis.

What is this movie about? Umm. Let’s just say it opens with Ellen Barkin waking, lying in a field in a bloodstained red dress, convinced she has committed a murder but sidelined by rolling amnesia. Julian Sands may be a dilettante photographer … or her guardian angel. And all she wants, and may have had, is one last good time with her ex, Augustine, AKA Byrne. Wouldn’t we all? But then again, maybe the blood on her dress is his … or his wife’s.

She’s hoping it’s Mrs Augustine’s.

Hot, surreal, dreamlike, all of those good words. This is one arty film worth finding, even if simply for the soundtrack and the atmosphere.

Trailer for Siesta:




Revolver, 2005. Directed by Guy Ritchie, written by the brilliant Luc Besson & Ritchie. Starring Jason Statham and Ray Liotta, amongst others. This is one cool, complex, tricky movie with a great premise and no, Statham isn’t his usual total-action self. He’s actually pretty damned good. There’s chess in it, on a board and as strategy, a gambler who gets panic attacks, and it is way better and more intriguing than the panning it got would indicate. I quote Statham’s character, Jake, from the film: ‘One thing I've learned in the last seven years: in every game and con there's always an opponent, and there's always a victim. The trick is to know when you're the latter, so you can become the former.’ Watch and work it out, my lovelies.

Trailer for Revolver:




Performance, 1970. Mick Jagger, James Fox, Anita Pallenberg. An East London gangster, Chas/Fox is on the run and crash lands in the ramshackle (this was 1970) Notting Hill home of reclusive faded rock star Turner (Jagger) and his girlfriend Pherber (Pallenberg). This is one wild, trippy film that makes you wish you could time travel back to the last days of swinging London. Naturally, Jagger and Pallenberg perform a major mindfuck on the hapless fugitive, dismantling him piece by piece. Worth viewing if only to see Jagger sing ‘Memo From Turner’ surrounded by naked (genuine?) gangsters.

Performance’s very vintage trailer…




Give at least one of these films a try, you won't regret it,

xoxo

J

Giveaway Goodness

Head over to Sinfully Sexy Books for a fabulous Rafflecopter draw, one eBook, four great books in the mix – by authors Lily Velden, A.M. Sexton, A.J. Jarrett and myself (yikes!), with Objects Of His Obsession.

This is not amongst the four but looks fun... It also prompts the question, exactly what 'strange love in society' is this woman finding on her illicit honeymoon?

Hmm, a question to ponder before you hit that giveaway link...


















photo credit: Illicit Honeymoon. No. 32 (August 1949) / Illicit Honeymoon, no 32 (août 1949) via photopin (license)

Dark Reads, Fierce Subject Matter

Facebook cross-post:

Rereading Jane Eyre & A Rice Cry To Heaven. What a combo. The psychology of Jane Eyre has always fascinated me. What an even darker romance that would be if written now, and I’m not talking about Rochester. (Although he has some interesting issues, what with the wife in the attic and the attempted bigamy). Jane herself has a darkness and fixity that is quite terrifying in its own way (apologies to any that find it pure romance).

Quick choice: who would you rather have dinner with? Charlotte Bronte or Emily? Close, but personally I’d vote for Emily. Anyone that could create Cathy, let alone Heathcliff, I need to meet.

As for Cry To Heaven: subject matter. Nuff said. Fearless.

This is my current soundtrack, the magnificent Kate Bush (note the smooth segueway from the Bronte’s to music – Wuthering Heights, geddit ;)

Since I’m currently dealing with the stage:

Teenage Genius

I’m a lousy poster, but here you go, three individuals that crossed my radar and truly intrigued me, followed by the question: what the hell is it to hit brilliance in your teens? Blessing or curse?

Rowland S. Howard. I didn’t realize that he’d written one of my all time favorite Nick Cave numbers, the astonishing and achingly lush Shivers when he was only 16. Yep, sixteen. Check the link at the bottom for a baby-faced Nick Cave’s rendition of it in his Boys Next Door incarnation.

But bookery and not music… I’d have to nominate Raymond Radiguet and The Devil In The Flesh. He finished writing this book at 18, I read it at 18. Um. Just um. Radiguet was an amazing character and I first came across him in a biography of Jean Cocteau, one of his lovers. Cocteau said of him, "He was hard; it took a diamond to scratch his heart." Bloody hell. Who wouldn’t want that said about them? Talk about evil glamor. Radiguet must also have had, in between the alcohol and other distractions, one hell of a work ethic. By the time he died at 20 in 1923, he had another novel under his belt together with other works.

It’s a 180 in style and intent, but I also have to mention the incredible Georgette Heyer. She was a teenage wonder, although unlike the unfortunate Radiguet, she kept on trucking to bigger and greater things. Her first book, The Black Moth, was published at 19. My favorite of her many books, These Old Shades, was, according to my in-depth research (that is, Wikipedia) published when she was around 24. Yowzer.

There are more, most certainly, that could be on that list but that trio should do it for now.

I should also post a link sometime to Boys Next Door's cover of These Boots Are Made For Walking. It’s a hoot.

And now I want to reread The Devil In The Flesh. Right now. Not to mention Shades…

Updates, Bad Movies & Sequel Stuff

Well, it's officially been a long time between drinks (or should I say, posts).

I get the sense that 2014 was a mixed bag for a lot of people. I know that it had its definite great highlights for me, and lovely people and moments, along with some grindingly unpleasant aspects. On the upside, I did get His Sweet Prince out after a drought. At the moment I'm juggling a contemporary and another historical, this one opening in a period of Australian history that fascinates me.

I'm also sussing a way around a sequel/way of working with the Objects Of His Obsession world. It's totally naff for the writer of a book to have a crush on their own characters, but I do love Evander, Ben and Juliana. I really want a follow up or story set in the Obsessions world but it's tricky. A prequel featuring Juliana and her lover really appeals to me but just wouldn't work (it would be a major spoiler alert for obvious reasons, as people who have read the book will know ;). However I think I may have come up with a solution involving all characters, set after the end of the story. I'll see how it goes once I've finished the rock star & the historical.

I read some great books in 2014+ and was amazed and in awe at the sheer genius and magic of some writers. I do love that magic, that ability to create worlds and truly connect with the reader. I really do believe that creators of all kinds – writers, visual artists, musicians, are truly blessed if also a little cursed (because it can be a royal pain in the arse when it's not going right). How much energy do they give to the world when it really works though? Sensational.

I also saw some great films and TV shows that have really stayed with me. Penny Dreadful is probably a TV fave of mine. Who could beat Vanessa Ives/Eva Green as a great, original strong female lead or Penny Dreadful's version of Dorian Grey for sheer fascination? I saw a few films that bored the shite out of me, and one film, Cloud Atlas, that is on my permanent favorites list.

Ah well, it's Valentine's Day, and since I'm feeling contrary, here is a great anti-Valentine's Day song by the very, very brilliant Betty Davis. Please enjoy people, she is wicked talented...