Well, I guess the big news in the publishing world is the plagiarism charge being leveled against popular romance writer Cassie Edwards. The web blog Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books, "posted numerous excerpts from Edwards' novels and placed them alongside passages from reference books and magazines that were found by using the Google search." In a New York Times article Candy Tan and Sarah Wendell, the blog’s co-authors, indicated that "while Edwards may not have infringed copyright law, they consider her actions unethical.” Check the
link if you want to follow the whole sordid story.
The coolest thing I got for Christmas this year was the complete 007 movie set—from Dr. No to Daniel Craig in Casino Royale. I love James Bond. Love the novels and I have them all: Ian Fleming’s originals, John Gardner’s (commissioned by the Fleming estate to continue the series,) and Raymond Benson’s (who took over from Gardner.) Next May, Sebastian Faulk will release Devil May Care. Faulk is the latest to pen a Bond novel, the release date coinciding with the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth.
But I digress. Back to the movies. This set is fantastic—21 movies. The only two missing are the spoof of Casino Royale starring David Niven (which I never liked—I take my Bond seriously) and the Sean Connery Never Say Never Again, which was not done by the Broccoli film group. My husband and I are starting at the beginning to watch them in chronological order. Each DVD also comes with a special features disk that gives lots of really cool information. Like, do you know what Gert Frobe (Goldfinger), Ursula Andress (Honey Ryder) and George Lazenby (James in his one and only Bond movie, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) have in common? All had their voices dubbed! I’ll bet you didn’t know that, did you?
Now, it makes no sense for me to like Bond—I’m a fan of kick-ass females—but there’s something delicious about his direct approach to crime fighting. On second thought, maybe it makes perfect sense for me to like him.
And speaking of kiss ass females—did you catch Terminator: The Sarah Connor chronicles? Talk about kicking ass—They’ve certainly come up with some interesting one-sheets to advertise this series! I love it. The
link connects you to an interview with Summer Glau, the cyborg assigned to help Sarah and John. I love how they title it “A Star is Born” as if her work in Serenity and Firefly never existed!
Well, we Whedon fans know different, don’t we?
Want to share your favorite gifts this year?
PS – The Barnes and Noble feature is still going on so
stop by…. Ask a question, leave a comment. You may even learn things about me you never knew.