Alison Kent's Blah Blog

If you’d like to see THE SWEETEST TABOO digitized by Harlequin, you can go and vote at this link.

Have been watching this daily for a week now thanks to Lauren Dane. Just sharing here as I’m doing my best to not spend time at the computer this week, letting my wrists, elbows, and shoulders rest a bit after my writing frenzy.

Oh, did I mention I’m done? THE ICING ON THE CAKE came in at 68,825 words before revisions (yet to come) and went into my editor before I turned in for the night Sunday. REALLY slept well, and slept a lot of Monday, too!

When I saw Jaci Burton and Smart Bitch Sarah were doing a “garden-off,” I sent Sarah photos of our annual container tomatoes. I wasn’t really so interested in prizes, just having fun with the growing, until she mentioned gnomes . . .

Anyhow, we’ve de-ghosted the largest tomato since the first pics (click for a larger version). We’ve got five plants, the biggest one planted about three weeks before the others, and we’ve got five long containers of onions. This plant is flowering now.

Here was the day most of the tomatoes were planted, and the onions. The bigger tomato plant was already underway.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I’m a fan of the new Fox show, Human Target staring Mark Valley, Chi McBride, and Jack Earle Haley. The show’s premise:

The series follows the life of Christopher Chance (Mark Valley), a unique private contractor, bodyguard and security expert hired to protect his clients. Rather than taking on the target’s identity himself (as in the comic book version), he protects his clients by completely integrating himself into their lives, to become the human target. Chance is accompanied by his business partner Winston (Chi McBride) and hired gun Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley). He puts himself on the line to find the truth behind the mission. Even his own business partner Winston doesn’t know what drove him towards this ‘life’

If you don’t know, Human Target is / was also a 1970s DC Comic (and according to Wiki, was also made into a TV series in the early 90s, starring Rick Springfield, heh).

In the 3/24 episode, Corner Man:

Chance takes on the case of a heavyweight boxer threatened by a crooked businessman, and falls for a dead fighter’s daughter.

The rest of this post is behind the cut as I’m going to spoil the episode to point out what I thought was a brilliant use of both the Chekhov’s Gun literary device and the Rule of Three writing principle. (And people say it’s a waste of time to watch TV!)

The name Chekhov’s gun comes from Anton Chekhov himself, who stated that any object introduced in a story must be used later on, else it ought not to feature in the first place.

The rule of three is a principle in English writing that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things.

Read the rest of this entry �

The winner of the KISS & TELL anthology and the Swedish copy is:

Suzy R.

Suzy, send me your mailing address (ak AT alisonkent.com) and I’ll get those sent out asap (which means probably next week after I get THE ICING ON THE CAKE turned in)!

This last week I’ve received at least four boxes of foreign copies – all for Kiss & Tell. Italian, German, and this anthology from Mills & Boon with three full Blazes novels included for a whopping 700 pages of good steamy reading! In English even!

The best one was for the Swedish copy; isn’t that gorgeous? I have no idea what the title means . . . Double Life, maybe? I seriously think Sweden does the best covers I’ve ever seen. Every single one I’ve received has been really artistic and evocative.

To win both copies – the English version with 3 full stories, and the Swedish version for fun – leave a comment here telling me if you have a favorite Easter candy or a favorite Easter dinner dish or a favorite Easter tradition. Me? I shall be writing. I’ll draw a name from those who comment by Monday, April 5, 2010, 8:00 p.m. CDT.

I’m back. Sorry about being offline yesterday. There was a lot of server stuff happening and I had to take care of that on the backend and deal with client issues, so my own blog had to wait. I’m here now and with the list of my March contest winners! I doubt I’ll be around much this next week as I need to get THE ICING ON THE CAKE finished up. Sorry to post and run, but that’s where I am at the moment!

*****

I used Random.org to pull March’s winners then linked to the comments. If you’re listed, click to make sure it’s your comment, then email me your mailing information!

Copies of WITH EXTREME PLEASURE

Sherri
Rhonda
Chelsea B.
Colleen
Janet

Amazon $15 Gift Certificate

Mary