Monday, July 16, 2007

I spent over an hour on the phone last night talking with a friend who has recently developed an obsession for clean romance novels . In particular, this happily married mother of two with a handsome, successful husband has developed an incurable crush on the heroes in Marcia Lynn McClure’s Shackles of Honor and The Visions of Ransom Lake . Since this type of infatuation seemed so out of character for my down-to-earth friend and since I’m in the business of writing and marketing clean romances, I gave her a call and picked her brain on what made Mason and Ransom so irresistible. Besides the fact that McClure’s unique blend of passion and wit elicits giddy romantic reactions in her readers, there is something irresistible in these two heroes that drove my friend’s heart to pumping and propelled her to walk around the house for days with what she referred to as a “silly grin on her face.” Her reactions reminded me of myself at 18 in the initial stages of first love. To come across a book that makes you feel like you did when you were young and in love for the first time (a book that leaves you far from feeling like you need to take a shower just to wash off the filth) is a rare treasure in today’s world. After over an hour of analyzing the personalities of these characters, we came to an important realization about women. Women don’t really want smut. As a matter of fact, click hey want quite the opposite. They may think they want erotic descriptions, but they really don’t.

I'm a big, big fan of collage as an art form. I love the energy that occurs when disparate things come together to create a whole new thing. There is an sense of randomness and magical clash in collage that sometimes is true and sometimes not. Great collage like any art form, can be the result of very deliberate thought and selection. I think Joseph Cornell's assemblages feel that way, so stunningly beautiful and considered in their organization, structure and story. Collage can also be the result of some kind of "scientific" exercise the, like picking up all the stuff found on the way to work everyday and then cataloguing it. The artist Candy Jernigan subscribes to this school of thought, her book Evidence a testament to "objects lost and found". With self imposed restraints, the world is observed differently. And the collection of what you notice is the evidence of seeing through a particular filter. I love that. I like collage as a thinking process too. I've used it as an art form, but I've also used it as a way to work through ideas and feelings. Its a great way to see the intuitive outside of ones own deep creek lake state park ead. And it's a great tool to get others to do the same, if you're working with people or focus groups or teams. Pictures and stuff circumvent the intellect and the story becomes visual and visceral. Which is very immediate and pure. I love what is revealed in the process.

Two further soldiers died in Basra, bringing the total number of British soldiers killed in Iraq to 157. The base that Britain has withdrawn to, the Basra Palace, comes under repeated attacks from Shi'ite militias, since we no longer control the city. Britain has withdrawn hundreds of troops from Iraq, leaving a force of around 5,500 based mainly on the fringes of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad. Their bases frequently come under mortar fire from Shiite militants in the city. The U.S. currently has about 155,000 troops in Iraq. The soldier was killed during an operation to arrest militiamen who had previously been implicated in attacks on British troops. Any incursion of British forces into Basra proper is met with resistance. The patrol that carried out this operation in Tuninah district suffered one dead, and three wounded, out of 1,000 troops participating. The Iraqi government has confirmed that they would prefer to take control of security in Basra over the next three months. This would complete wal mart discover card he transfer of security in the British zone. It is a transfer that Gordon Brown's administration could support, easing financial pressure on the Ministry of Defence and accelerating a withdrawal that is unpopular with the Labour Party. Once the transfer was complete, the armed forces would play a supporting role. Yet, the Army would not have completed its remit of passing security over to a competent and impartial force.

I'm a big, big fan of collage as an art form. I love the energy that occurs when disparate things come together to create a whole new thing. There is an sense of randomness and magical clash in collage that sometimes is true and sometimes not. Great collage like any art form, canada fishing fly in an be the result of very deliberate thought and selection. I think Joseph Cornell's assemblages feel that way, so stunningly beautiful and considered in their organization, structure and story. Collage can also be the result of some kind of "scientific" exercise the, like picking up all the stuff found on the way to work everyday and then cataloguing it. The artist Candy Jernigan subscribes to this school of thought, her book Evidence a testament to "objects lost and found". With self imposed restraints, the world is observed differently. And the collection of what you notice is the evidence of seeing through a particular filter. I love that. I like collage as a thinking process too. I've used it as an art form, but I've also used it as a way to work through ideas and feelings. Its a great way to see the intuitive outside of ones own head. And it's a great tool to get others to do the same, if you're working with people or focus groups or teams. Pictures and stuff circumvent the intellect and the story becomes visual and visceral. Which is very immediate and pure. I love what is revealed in the process.

I spent over an hour on the phone last night talking merchant services account ith a friend who has recently developed an obsession for clean romance novels . In particular, this happily married mother of two with a handsome, successful husband has developed an incurable crush on the heroes in Marcia Lynn McClure’s Shackles of Honor and The Visions of Ransom Lake . Since this type of infatuation seemed so out of character for my down-to-earth friend and since I’m in the business of writing and marketing clean romances, I gave her a call and picked her brain on what made Mason and Ransom so irresistible. Besides the fact that McClure’s unique blend of passion and wit elicits giddy romantic reactions in her readers, there is something irresistible in these two heroes that drove my friend’s heart to pumping and propelled her to walk around the house for days with what she referred to as a “silly grin on her face.” Her reactions reminded me of myself at 18 in the initial stages of first love. To come across a book that makes you feel like you did when you were young and in love for the first time (a book that leaves you far from feeling like you need to take a shower just to wash off the filth) is a rare treasure in today’s world. After over an hour of analyzing the personalities of these characters, we came to an important realization about women. Women don’t really want smut. As a matter of fact, they want quite the opposite. They may think they want erotic descriptions, but they really don’t.

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