Blog A Go-Go

In which we talk about film development

A few weeks ago, I was asked by Marshal Zeringue to contribute a piece to his fabulous project, My Book, The Movie where writers get to talk about who we would like to see cast in the film version of our books. Have a snoop around the archive--it's vastly entertaining. Personally, I'm intrigued by the whole development process, mostly because Hollywood never seems to cast anybody I would have thought of in the film adaptations of books I love. (Clearly, I have no business working in Hollywood.) But I do get asked on a fairly regular basis who I would like to see cast as Julia and Nicholas, and be sure to check out Marshal's site if you want to know the answer. (As a side note, I am using specific actors as models for characters in book four, and I will be very interested to see if readers can identify them.)

And big thanks to the Australian reader who sent an e-mail imploring me to consider Hugh Jackman for the role of Nicholas. It will never be up to me, but the photo was much appreciated. (Next time, send a beach shot, mmmkay?)

In which I love the British, again

As I mentioned earlier, Silent in the Grave is just now debuting in the UK. There have been some lovely blog reviews, but this one by Caroline Smailes is really superb. The Brits have a knack for writing superbly-crafted reviews that give you an excellent sense of a book without giving away any of the surprises. After reading this review, even I wanted to go read this book and I wrote it. (Caroline is a writer herself--I suspect a gifted one.) Many thanks!

And as a side note, I am thrilled to have British bloggers writing so enthusiastically about the book. Naturally I was nervous about the reaction to an English book written by an American, but much more so because I haven't actually even gotten a copy of the British edition yet. (Lots of people think I have great influence over the foreign editions. Um, no. The truth is, not only do I have no input whatsoever, I don't even SEE the book before it goes on sale. To be strictly accurate, I don't always see it after it goes on sale. The Italian edition has been out for at least eight months and I have yet to get a copy! So, while I have rather a lot of input into the text of the North American edition, for the others I am wholly reliant upon the kindness of strangers.)

And for even MORE Britlove, I have a hopeless book crush on Scott Pack, the commercial director of The Friday Project who interviewed me a few weeks back. I mentioned that The Friday Project is the world's first web-to-print publisher, and that I was drooling over some lovely things in their catalogue. Two days ago, they appeared in my mailbox! I received a copy of Andrew Wheeler's Eat Britain!--a must-have if you love British food as much as I do or if you've ever wondered what Marmite really is; Scott Rice's It Was a Dark and Stormy Night (The Very Worst Opening Lines in Fiction)--two pages in and I was howling; Michelle Abadie and Susan Beale's Nothing to Write Home About (Celebrating the British Holiday Postcard)--just as magnificently nostalgic as you would expect it to be. And in a separate package I also got The Equivoque Principle by Darren Craske. It's a limited edition novel and let me just say this: Victorian London, savage murders, a traveling circus. Doesn't that sound DIVINE?

In which the British are coming

Due to the vagaries of publishing, when the American and Canadian readers are digging into Silent in the Sanctuary, the UK will just be getting Silent in the Grave. Review copies went out recently, and the book is getting some very warm reviews. Here is the Material Witness blog. It is extremely well-written and full of delicious ideas of things to read. (I have been invited to do an interview with Ben, and I'm very much looking forward to it.) And here is The Friday Project review by Scott Pack. Hands down, it is my favorite review EVER. I would love him for reading the letters of Jessica Mitford alone, but he thoroughly enjoyed MY book, and that is even better.

I am extremely excited about the UK release. It has been a long time in coming, and that has only made me keener. In fact, lean closer and I will whisper something that you mustn't tell anyone else: I want the book to sell very well in the UK. I want it to sell SO well that I am forced to travel there to promote it because it is my very favorite place IN THE WORLD. So, welcome UK readers, settle in and stay awhile, won't you?

In which I offer a pronunciation guide

It often comes up in interviews that people are uncertain how to pronounce the names of my characters. So, to help out, I'm posting a guide. It is phonetic, but not formally so. Just sound it out and you'll be fine.

Brisbane--bris-buhn (like the city in Australia, no hard "a" in the last syllable)

Aquinas--uh-kwine-us

Morag--morruck (roll the "r's" HARD if you can)

Lysander--lie-san-der

Eglamour--egg-la-more

Violante--vee-oh-lan-te (the "t" is a mere suggestion)

Hermia--her-mee-a

Portia--por-sha

Valerius--vuh-lair-ee-us

Hortense--or-tahnse

(And because it has been asked several times, my last name is Ray-burn.) Hope this helps!

ETA: on a side note, today alone I have been googled by folks in Australia, South Africa, Germany, Spain, and Canada. So to them I say, "G'day, Guten morgen, Buenos dias, and hello." I'm going to have to learn to say "hello" in Afrikaans...(Did you know South Africa has eleven official languages? I had no idea. Maybe I should learn greetings in Zulu and Sotho too.)

In which I am nervous as a cat

On a hot tin roof or in a room full of rocking chairs. Doesn't matter. Today is D-Day! Silent in the Grave is for sale in massmarket paperback! This is the laydown date, which means you OUGHT to be able to go into any bookstore and find it. (I wanted to have Silent on the Moor finished by today so I could obsess about the release of Grave, but I'm a trifle behind. Just a few things left to polish up, but enough to keep me from monitoring every last mention of the book on the web.)

Actually, I will probably be MORE nervous on December 1 when the displays go up in WalMart for the Read of the Month. I still cannot quite wrap my head around the fact that for one month, in every WalMart store in the country, there will be a special display of my book. MY book. There is a surreality to that fact you can't possibly imagine. (It's not at all surreal to the people who worked so hard to make it happen. Mark, my little birdie of good news, Ann, Ken--thinking of you all and wondering if I should sent you chinchilla sheets for Christmas.) The lovely thing about having a team of people working their tailfeathers off is that you always have someone who is just as excited as you are about the amazing things that get conjured up on your behalf. So for everyone who has worked so hard to put the massmarket edition together, I humbly thank you. It is beautiful--far lovelier than I would have imagined it could ever be, and it has been buzzed and hyped and flogged with tireless enthusiasm by the most dedicated, most delightful people. I am honored to know you.

*Note: the last edition of updates went out yesterday. If you have subscribed and didn't receive an e-mail, please be sure your e-mail address is up-to-date. If you have not subscribed and would like to receive updates, drop me a line at deannaraybourn@yahoo.com

In which People Magazine is KILLING me

People Magazine has just announced this year's top fifteen in its annual Sexiest Man Alive issue. AND THEY ARE KILLING ME. I have specific taste, VERY specific taste, and People has missed the mark by a mile for me. (Justin Timberlake? Seriously? And what's with all the baby faces in the list? Until a man can grow facial hair, he's just not sexy. I move they restrict the list to men OVER 35 because that's when they start to get interesting.)

Of course, taste is highly subjective. My much-beloved friend Jerusha and I are diametrically opposed in our opinion of what makes a man sexy. She prefers the pale, consumptive poet-rocker look; I'm more inclined to appreciate a solid guy with a five o'clock shadow and the ability to order alcohol without being carded in 48 states. (Hypothetically speaking, of course.) The upside to this is that if there was some sort of nuclear catastrophe and she and I were the last two females left on earth, there would be NO catfighting over the cabana boys.

So, with apologies to Jerusha for the abundance of chest hair in today's post, I've compiled my own list in protest:

*Gerard Butler--Scottish and wickedly funny in addition to being shockingly handsome. I have watched some astonishingly bad movies just because he was in them.

*Daniel Craig--ordinarily I can't stand blondes, but I will happily make an exception. He is going to be the definitive Bond.

*Toby Stephens--usually I'm not attracted to redheads either, but Toby Stephens is magnetic. He also has absolutely massive shoulders.

*Hugh Jackman--God really should have just stopped there. Honestly, it isn't as though the Almighty is EVER going to make a better set of pecs. (And as a side note, in spite of the Sexiest Man Alive debacle, I would like to extend a personal thank you to People for regularly printing pictures of Hugh Jackman at the beach. You folks do God's work.)

*Clive Owen and James Purefoy--we'll just lump them together as "Englishmen we wouldn't mind being stuck next to during a transAtlantic flight."

*Alex O'Loughlin--the Aussie actor who plays the vampire in "Moonlight". He's just pretty.

(A while back several of my friends got into a heated discussion about who should be cast as Nicholas Brisbane if there were a film version of Silent in the Grave. Several of the men listed above got mentioned, and blows were nearly exchanged. These women are seriously opinionated. Interestingly enough, no one cares who gets cast as Julia Grey because they all see THEMSELVES in the role.)

So, who did I leave out?

Here's the link to People Magazine's List . And do you know what goes perfectly with the Sexiest Man Alive issue? Pineapple vodka. My darling and stylish friend Ashley dispatched bottles of it last Christmas, and I nearly cried when mine was empty. It is the purest essence of pineapple with a mule kick for a finish. My limit is ONE chilled martini glassful. She hinted yesterday that she might not make it this year and I could have sobbed. Of course, I have the recipe and I could make it myself, but that is no fun whatsoever. She's threatening to make vanilla vodka this year. I may hide under the duvet until New Year's.

Revision count: 500 pages done. Husband is out of town, which means that no one is bringing me cups of tea or tivo'ing war movies or Marilyn Monroe musicals for me, but it also means I can pile up books in the bed and work as late as I want. (In fact, I'm terribly bitter because I just discovered he'll be attending a barbecue on Thursday night with Jack Hanna. Do I ever get to hang with Jack Hanna? No, I do not.)

In which I need a spangly costume

because this is the sort of news that deserves a chorus line with jazz hands and a fan-kick finish: Wal-Mart has chosen the paperback edition of Silent in the Grave for their December Read of the Month! That means that when everybody and their grandmother's cat is doing their Christmas shopping at the largest retailer in the country, my book will be featured, perhaps with a neon light display and its very own greeter showing people where it is. Okay, maybe no neon lights. And maybe no personal greeter. But it will be featured, and I think if you're in a Wal-Mart store in December, that book is going to be pretty hard to miss!