Sunday, April 29, 2012

99 cents for a hot sheriff?

At Amazon for 99 cents only until May 15th!
For 99 cents until May 15, you can have one yummy Texas sheriff, the gal next door and their red hot love affair!
What's not to love?
Go to AMAZON here: http://tinyurl.com/7o7guuk

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Watching Women in Movies, Part 1, Doris Day (aka What Would Friedan say?)

All pix in the blog from http://www.dorisday.net
Marathoning? Watching Doris Day movies a few weeks ago, I got my popcorn, my beer and sat myself down for hours. I laughed, I roared in delight and by the end of Doris's 88th Birthday Week, I chomped at the bit to write this ditty.
Watching lovely blonde cutie Doris for more than 10 movies, I was struck as never before by how influential these images of her were in my life. While her too-sweet-for-words looks and voice sometimes made me wince even as a kid, this week I was enthralled by her range. But I am also struck as never before by how much she marks the specific years of her work as an icon of that moment in time.
Note that the following week, I watched Doris's polar opposite and contemporary artist, Rita Hayworth, Bad Girl Personified. I hope to have a few thoughts on her persona, too. Later.
Going from band singer to movie star, Doris started her career as the "sweet kid next door" who can get the man. With laughs and a ploy here and there, Doris sang her way through charming feel-good flicks of the post-war era of the 1940s. With a note of drama here and there, she remains in each script the Girl who is Normal, Sweet and Deserving of the Hero. Even in such dramatic pix as The Man with the Horn (1951), Doris portrays the foil to sophisticate Lauren Bacall opposite an alcoholic trumpeter played by Kurt Douglas.
But in 1955, she gets the role of blues singer Ruth Etting in Love Me or Leave Me, starring with ever-so-bad bully James Cagney.
I remember seeing this as a kid, being told by my father that "Ruth was a great singer and this guy she married was a bum."
Watching this the other night, I recalled this from my Dad with a smile, but wow, was I looking at Cagney as more than just a bum. He was the villain, the thug, The Man Every Woman Wants to Hate. And he was the guy we some know put on our Watch List: The Abuser.
And as we watch Ruth deal with this man, we see why Betty Friedan did so well so quickly with her theories of the need to rise up and break the chains that bound women.
Cagney blusters, bullies and brow-beats. He struts and manipulates and totally cows Ruth, first as a singer whom he "discovers" and gets her her first gig. But then later, he builds on that, makes her beholden and ensures she remembers it.
The astonishing facet to me, of course, is that with this portrayal of a woman living in the 1920s, Ruth Etting never questions that he has a right to bully or berate her. (At least this is true in the script.) And this makes me cringe, point my finger and say, wow, Ruth, you never thought you had options?
Answer?
No. She did not. And she, sadly, was not alone.
The rule of the 1920s and as we can see in the portrayal of 1950s housewife Betty Draper in MadMen, many women thought there was no way out.
They took what they could get, paid for it with a devotion that was half dead and then paid other prices in self-esteem, drugs, alcohol and who knows what effect upon their children.
Fast forward to the movies at the beginning of the 1960s. Gee, golly, what a difference for Doris and the rest of us!
Three comedies of hers with different leading men had me laughing like a loon.  Yes, they had cute but not wildly unique plots and scrumptious leading men. James Garner in the Move Over, Darling and The Thrill of It All (written by Carl Reiner, no less!) were 2 great choices. Rock Hudson is a hoot in Pillow Talk. Less thrilling than either of those two simply because he acted this in such a flat, poker-faced manner was Cary Grant, age 58 at the time to Doris's 38, in That Touch of Mink.
While I leave it to you to watch these yourself, I will say my conclusions about what is happening to women in the first three years of the sixties is phenomenal.
I know. Because I remember those years VERY WELL.
In the Rock Hudson movie, we see Doris as as professional woman who works her butt off to succeed in business and she is foiled mightily by a scheming no-good wily man who is her rival for the same accounts.  The plot is terribly funny and in the end she loves him, he loves her. AND WOW, we wonder why!
At no time in the movie except for the last ten minutes does this man show any redeeming qualities. Yes, he is handsome. A CATCH, right? He is rich, successful, and the fact that he has been unprincipled toward her and his clients seems to matter not at all! SHE LOVES HIM! If I wrote this in a book, captured this man's essence in words, I WOULD BE REJECTED. He is about as worthy a hero as Vlad, the Impaler. But of course, that is what he reps, isn't it? A Romantic Vlad.
We will have a moment of shuddering here....
In the Thrill of It All, we get Doris with James Garner. A delight visually, this couple can bring on the laughter. But the substance of the plot?
This flick left me rather agog that I had watched this then...and now!
Why?
She is his wife and mother of his two charming children. He is a noted OB-GYN. Quite by chance, she becomes a spokesperson for a product that sweeps to her onto billboards, fame and money. When hubby Jim gets fed up with her celebrity, his bright idea to bring her back to home/heel/submission (do choose a word you like here) is to get her pregnant again.
He actually has a moment in the film where he sits at his desk and recalls one of his patients telling him that there is no finer calling in life for a woman than to have a baby.
Okay, then!
While I had three of my own babies, and loved every moment of being pregnant and their early lives and bringing them up to adulthood, I must say that they rank up there with a few other events in my life.

  • My enduring relationship with my husband, now more than 45 years.
  • My enduring relationship with my writing profession, now more than 32 years.
  • And my enduring relationship with my devotion to my intellectual stimulation, now more than...well, let's say...lots of decades!

Doris, you did right by me at the time.  But not all of what you taught us was the whole picture of what a woman can and should become.
On to Rita Hayworth!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Wine, Nibbles, Romance~chance to win this on the blog hop

Win WONDERFUL prizes!
From me, one of you may win my NAPA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA GOODY BAG for a Night of Nibbles, Wine & Romance! Why? Because I believe romance, great food and wine (and great books!) go together!
What's inside this cute Napa Valley California wine bag (which you will reuse forever and a day) are the items to make a night of romance a grand one? 
  •  Cerise DeLand's SANTA, CUTIE story along with others in the anthology print book, MADAME EVE'S ONE NIGHT STAND (Decadent Publishing)
  •  Champagne bottle pressure stopper 
  •  Diva towel from Napa (Just add champagne!)
  •  Napa Festive Food Recipe Cards for Nibbles to go with all things Sparkly
  •  Wine Writer Pen, to personalize wine & glassware gifts

TOTAL VALUE: $59.00 
How to win prizes?
Then, you must answer 40 questions correctly. So this means, you must visit at least 40 authors' websites and find the correct answers to the specific questions for each.  Remember, you need 40 correct answers, so do look at more than that!
Good luck!
Happy Reading!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Spring Break – Sultry, Sublime and Sometimes Scary


When you think of spring break do you think of a bunch of college kids heading to a popular beach resort like Daytona Beach or Fort Lauderdale, Florida and going a little wild? Where did you go on spring break when you were in college? When I lived in South Florida, not far from Ft. Lauderdale Beach, the locals knew NOT to head down the beach during those couple weeks in April. The parking was non-existent, the beaches and walkways were crowded and the restaurants and cafes jammed with tourists and spring breakers. Over the years, it died down and students found other hot spots to invade. 
Here are the most popular spring break hot spots for 2012:

Cancun, Panama City, Fl., Miami, Fl., Europe, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, Bahamas and Jamaica, South Padre Island, Texas, Baja (Rosarito Beach, Cabo), and surprisingly some North American and Canadian ski areas are still open for spring skiing. Frankly, with the price of college tuition, I don’t know how students or their parents afford it. I couldn’t when I was in school. I had three part-time jobs and worked every weekend.
If you’re an old movie fan, there are a number of ‘beach party films’ set in Fort Lauderdale, the setting for my novella SPRING BREAK (release date: April 13th at Ellora’s Cave) http://www.jasminejade.com/p-10007-spring-break.aspx

Girl Happy (1965) with Elvis Presley and Shelley Fabares. Rusty (Elvis Presley) and his band head to Ft. Lauderdale from Chicago for their annual spring break gig. Big Frank (Harold Stone) extends their stay so they can keep an eye on his daughter Valerie (Shelley Fabares) in Ft. Lauderdale who is on spring break. Her father thinks Elvis is going to keep Big Frank’s daughter out of trouble. Yeah, right. And Elvis never appears shirtless in this film despite the many pool and beach scenes.
Where the Boys Are (1960) with Connie Francis, is a coming of age story set in Ft. Lauderdale.
There are other films about spring break in other locales. Of course, a few lean toward the teen horror flicks.
Palm Springs Weekend (1963) Connie Steven and Troy Donohue. A boy  in love with the daughter of a police chief. The character names made me laugh: Biff, Boom-Boom, Stretch. Then this was the 1960s.
Spring Break (1983) A couple nerds, wet T-shirt contests, lots of beer and you have an 80s version of spring break. This one is set in Ft. Lauderdale too.
Ruby In Paradise (1993) Ashley Judd in Panama City after spring break, more of a drama.
The Hitcher (2007) teens doing stupid things. A horror flick. A remake of the 1986 flick. Teens on their way to spring break do what your mother tells you never to do: pick up a stranger hitchhiking.
Reno 911!: Miami (2007) A crazy comedy with The Rock as a SWAT agent, a motorcycle cop who wears hot-pants, a prostitute named Terry, ah, too complicated to explain.
Spring Breakdown (2009) Three women who were geeks in college, jump 15 years ahead and go on spring break together.
Piranha (2010) Hard to believe this comedy, horror flick could be considered a spring break film. Richard Dreyfus and Christopher Lloyd are in it. If you’re into the munching on wet teens kind of movie fun, then this one might be for you. Not my type. I did like Jaws, but that’s a classic, and a summer flick.
Have you watched any of these films?
After you’re finished with your film marathon, you might like a sexy, hot read about spring break. If so, I hope you’ll check out my novella, SPRING BREAK. It’s the first of a planned series surrounding a sex club called TropiX. Here’s the blurb:

SPRING BREAK by Kathy Kulig
Ellora’s Cave, April 13th

Spring break beyond your wildest fantasies? If Justin Watkins can stop keeping watch over his college students like Big Brother, he might convince the prim-and-proper Mariko Maguire to be his sex partner at the invitation-only adult club called TropiX.
Mariko is in Fort Lauderdale on business, trying to secure new clients for her PR firm. Abandoning prior commitments for one wickedly lustful evening—a one-night stand of kinky sex—was not on her agenda.

Carter Bosworth is looking for an evening of sex games during his layover in the tropical playground. He’s a regular at TropiX and always open for a new thrill. His plans are sidetracked, but it may be to his benefit after all when he meets the beautiful Mariko. The potent heat developing between Justin and Mariko tempts her into shedding her inhibitions, and an exploration in eroticism develops beyond her imagination at the fetish club.

Thanks so much for having me, Cerise! 
Kathy Kulig
www.twitter.com/kathykulig

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

What I like about my friends

http://sassyseven.com
They are downright funny.
They make me belly laugh.
They like to eat.
And did I mention DRINK? omg.
A lot.
And not just chocolate wine. I mean the hard stuff. Straight, mixed, lots of chasers!
The Sassy 7.
Ah'm just saying.
A hard group of gals to beat.
And each one of us has legs that look like these!
Would I kid you?

Monday, April 2, 2012

Onslaught~New facts about Texas? You need this!

Things You’ll Learn About Texas from Onslaught

Texas is known as the home of cowboys, space travel and oil derricks. Here are a few other things you’ll learn about Texas when you read my latest romantic suspense novel, Onslaught.
The landscape of Texas is so fast and varied that the places where a murderer might hide his victim’s body are almost endless. More information: there almost three hundred major bays and coves along the Texas Gulf Coast, and many of them are used for nefarious as well as recreational purposes.
Texas’ wild alligators don’t seek human prey but they are opportunity feeders that will take advantage of any meat when they are hungry. Additional information: I once took part in a night-time alligator hunt…and was very grateful when we did NOT find the fourteen-footer for which we were looking.
With immigrants from around the world, Texas was settled by many German immigrants during the 19th century. Additional information: Indianola, Texas was the main port of entry for immigrants until it was severely damaged by a hurricane in 1875 and then destroyed by another hurricane in 1886.
Speaking of hurricanes, the residents of small Texas communities pull together to remain prepared all year for the hurricanes and tropical storms that strike the Texas coast. Additional information: during the 20th century, Texas was struck by 36 hurricanes, second only to Florida, and it has the dubious distinction of enduring the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history—the Galveston Hurricane of 1900.
The Texas coast is lined by the Intracoastal Canal, which runs from Brownsville, Texas to Fort Myers, Florida, and many towns and farms had property taken in the 20th century to create this commercial and recreational waterway. Many of those who lost property to the canal also lost direct access to the Gulf of Mexico. Additional information: my own family farm on the Texas coast gave up several acres of land to the canal in the 1950s.
And now for a bit about Onslaught, the book:
In Texas, weather isn’t the only thing that creates storms. Ronnie Clarke would rather wrestle with a difficult spreadsheet all night than walk the floor at 3 a.m. with a fussy baby. But she doesn’t have much choice when her long-missing mother drops a surprise bundle into her arms and then vanishes through the bathroom window of a cheap motel room.
And Ronnie’s mom left one other thing—a life or death warning. She kidnapped Baby Danny to save him from the religious cult leader who wants to sell him to the murderous boss of an illegal drug cartel. Oh, and Danny is Ronnie’s nephew, the son of a sister Ronnie never knew she had.
If all that isn’t trouble enough, the only safe place to hide is in a small town on the Texas Gulf Coast, within easy striking distance of any devastating hurricane that might crop up. Since Ronnie has a phobia about thunderstorms, she’s practically set up for failure. And the handsome—inquisitive—assistant police chief isn’t making her life any easier.
Robberies, drug trafficking, a suspicious fire…for local cop Joshua Dawson, the only thing missing in this assault on his coastal hometown is a hurricane. But it is September—the month for vicious storms—so he’s not betting against one.

Onslaught, a full-length novel by Teri Thackston
Available for $2.99 at:
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Onslaught-ebook/dp/B007J5ZJBO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331558704&sr=8-1

Barnes & Noble Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/onslaught-teri-thackston/1109464560?ean=2940014303620&itm=1&usri=onslaught+thackston

Smashwords (for PDF or other formats): http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/140723 

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Win my WINE & NIBBLES BAG in Spring Fling Blog Hop

Win WONDERFUL prizes!
From me, one of you may win my NAPA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA GOODY BAG for a Night of Nibbles, Wine & Romance! Why? Because I believe romance, great food and wine (and great books!) go together!
What's inside this cute Napa Valley California wine bag (which you will reuse forever and a day) are the items to make a night of romance a grand one: 

  •  Cerise DeLand's SANTA, CUTIE story along with others in the anthology print book, MADAME EVE'S ONE NIGHT STAND (Decadent Publishing)
  •  Champagne bottle pressure stopper 
  •  Diva towel from Napa (Just add champagne!)
  •  Napa Festive Food Recipe Cards for Nibbles to go with all things Sparkly
  •  Wine Writer Pen, to personalize wine & glassware gifts

TOTAL VALUE: $59.00 
How to win prizes?
Go here: http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nor/Pages/springflingdetails.aspx
Then, you must answer 40 questions correctly. So this means, you must visit at least 40 authors' websites and find the correct answers to the specific questions for each.  Remember, you need 40 correct answers, so do look at more than that!
Good luck!
Happy Reading!