Harlequin Horizons is now known as DellArte Press. While I haven’t had time to fully explore either the DellArte website or eHarlequin for evidence, apparently there is no longer any mention of Harlequin on the DellArte website, and there is no mention of DellArte on the Harlequin website. Excellent!

I haven’t heard any news about whether Harlequin form rejection letters will still steer rejected writers to DellArte, as was the original intention with Horizons… Let’s hope not.

How did the corporation arrive at the new name for their vanity publishing venture? Obviously, I can’t speak for HQ/TorStar, but if you search DellArte on the ‘Net, you’ll find references to “Commedia dell’arte,” Italian improvisational theater stretching from the 16th century later referred to as the Harlequinade. The Harlequin (or Arlechinno) is listed as a comic servant character in this form of theater. A graphic of the harlequin is also a Harlequin logo and appears on every Harlequin category romance (just the Harlequins, not the Silhouettes). He’s the little jester guy in the white diamond on the cover and spine.

The DellArte website still refers to their services as “self-publishing.” In another area, they call it “assisted self-publishing.” Granted, “vanity publishing” doesn’t sound very good. “Predator publishing” (which authors on some loops have suggested would make a better fit) sounds worse (for HQ).

Frankly, if HQ decides against referring heartbroken writers to DellArt in Harlequin/Silhouette rejection letters, I’ll be happy. Predator/vanity/assisted self-publishing has been around for decades (centuries?). Contrary to what some vanity publishing websites would have browsers believe, it is not a new concept. I first heard of vanity publishing back in 1979 (I know, hard to believe I could learn such things while still in the womb, but that’s what brilliance will get you). I think the “new” in the concept is that clever websites can appeal to a writer’s ego and reinforce the myth that most writers pay to have their work published, which is not the case. Back in 1979, it wasn’t anywhere near as easy to obtain information on how to get published as it is now. Therefore, there wasn’t as much misinformation floating around, either.

Not that I wish for pre-Internet days…

I admit that during this whole debacle I couldn’t help but wonder if including the Harlequin name in the “assisted self-publishing” venture wasn’t a clever P.R. move to obtain lots and lots and lotsa press. With a back-up plan that if the crud hit the windmill they could do just what they have—remove the Harlequin name from the venture. Meanwhile, all the publicity is still out there, and “the only bad publicity is no publicity,” as they say.

Thoughts?

Hah, tricked you with the title change, didn’t I? Usually it’s Tell ME Tuesday.

You can go ahead and tell me, anyway. How’s the writing going? Life? Any good news/bad news to report?

After the blogging kerfuffle of last week, I needed a little break. Pretty much waiting to hear what’s next from Horizons Vs. RWA. Plus, I had the H1N1 shot yesterday. It wasn’t a bad experience, but it did make me feel slightly lethargic. I took advantage of my brain-deadness to do something that makes me feel even more braindead—compiling a fiscal year end for delivery to our accountant. No sense wasting the H1N1 glow on something ambitious like writing.

Last night I watched the Thanksgiving episode of Dexter for a second time. My Liege had an early Sunday night, so I watched it myself then. All I can say is, “Wowzer!” The way this season started out, I thought, “Ho hum, another serial killer introduced in the form of Trilogy, Dexter will be trying to figure out a way to get rid of him without revealing the monster within throughout the whole season, and then he’ll succeed.” But the Thanksgiving episode contained a number of Wowzers!, the little switcheroo at the ending being the best one. I thought I knew what was going to happen at the end of the episode…that Trinity would begin a new killing cycle with J’s new girlfriend. Did not see the twist coming at all.

Still waiting for the onion that is Rita to be peeled. I have theories that drive Youngest Son nuts. “Not everyone on the show has to turn out to have some sort of psycho past, Mom.” Sure, but Rita’s gotta have a darn compelling reason to act like a Stepford Wife. I swear, the voice alone drives me insane.

On a side note, is anyone getting flashbacks to Dick from Third Rock from the Sun while watching John Lithgow as Trinity? I keep expecting that guy who could talk to the Big Giant Head to show up…

It’s NaNoWriMo time! (National Novel Writing Month for those not in the know). I’m not NaNo’ing this year. In fact, I’ve only done participated once. It was fun, but I’m deep into revisions on the first of two manuscripts. No time to NaNo. Yano?

Are you NaNo’ing? Why or why not? If you are participating this year, what are you working on? Did you honestly not write a word of your manuscript before November 1st? Just planned? Or have you tweaked the NaNo write-50K-in-one-month-without-editing parameters to suit your personal creative process? I wouldn’t blame you if you have.

It’s the first week. Four to go. Good luck!

The other night I saw MY SISTER’S KEEPER with my mom and the Little Pisser. My mom lent me the book by Jodi Picoult two weeks ago, but naturally I forgot to read it until I realized the movie was looming (um, don’t visit the link to Jodi’s website, if you were thinking about it, until you read my spoiler alert, down below). So I ate the book with my brain, finishing this weekend. Usually, I’m disappointed in movies made from books. But MY SISTER’S KEEPER, the movie, which was pretty decent, was a good representation of the novel. The movie even kept the multiple first-person viewpoints of the book intact.

Sure, the movie wandered from the book here and there, but not in a way that bothered me. Even the ending didn’t bother me, but…okay, I’m going to have to put this part in white font, because it’s a spoiler. If you’ve read the novel and plan to see the movie, DON’T READ this spoiler. If you’ve seen the movie and now really want to read the novel, DON’T HIGHLIGHT the big white section below. If you don’t give a rip and want to read the spoiler, anyway, highlight the white section with your cursor. My words will magically appear! (I am truly amazing sometimes).

SPOILER ALERT!! (Just in case I wasn’t clear).

The movie changes the ending of the book big time. I can kind of understand why the producers, the director, or whoever makes these decisions, did change the ending. In the novel, the ending was a complete surprise to me. It worked, on the page, but it might have come across a bit too soap-operish on the big screen. You see, in the movie, the wrong sister dies.

In the novel, the sister with cancer doesn’t die. The courtroom scenes play out pretty much like they do in the novel, except for one part in the novel where Anna, the sister without cancer, tells her lawyer that what she wished for the future was to see her sister alive in ten years. That she would gladly give her sister her kidney if her sister would allow her to.

Then the lawyer and Anna drive off in the pouring rain, get in a car accident, and Anna dies. Yes, Anna dies. Well, she’s brain dead, hooked up to machines, and Kate, the sister who needs the transplant is still alive. The parents are trying to decide what to do when the lawyer rushes in to announce that Anna wanted to give her sister the kidney, Kate will die without the surgery, so sign the organ donor forms.

The novel ends with an epilogue set ten years later. Kate survived her cancer and has gone on to live a rewarding life. Now, you tell me, isn’t that a huge departure from the film, where Anna doesn’t give Kate her kidney and Kate dies?

End of Spoiler.

Spoiler P.S. What I discuss in the spoiler is addressed on Jodi Picoult’s website and includes her thoughts on it, so I’m warning you, don’t visit her website link if you don’t want to know.

I don’t want to discuss MY SISTER’S KEEPER, the movie, or even MSK, the novel, because I don’t want to ruin it for others. But the experience got me thinking about other novels to film. Which have worked for you and which haven’t? I was super disappointed in the film adaptation of SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD. I read the book before the movie. I loved the book and couldn’t have given two hoots about the film. However, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, I saw the movie before I read the book, and I enjoyed both greatly. FIRST BLOOD, I’ve never read the book, and I thought the movie was great. So maybe I should stop reading books before seeing the movie. But that’s hard to do when you don’t know which books will get made into movies.

Do you prefer to read the book and then see the movie, or vice versa? Does it drive you nuts when the movie veers extensively from the book? Or can you separate them in your mind and enjoy both versions for what they are? 

If you’re interested in sharing your thoughts with the director and screenwriter about the book-to-film process of MY SISTER’S KEEPER, you can do so here.

Agents Kim Lionetti and Jessica Faust of BookEnds are holding a pitch contest on Twitter (thus the Twitch). (Yeah, at first I thought they were talking about the runner-up from So You Think You Can Dance last year, too). You have to follow them on Twitter to participate (here’s Kim’s page, and here’s Jessica’s). The cool thing is you can pitch your manuscript to both Kim and Jessica at different times this week. But you have to watch their tweets to monitor when each is taking Twitches. They’re tag-teaming, you see.

If you can compress your book into 140 characters, this is a great opportunity. The winner at the end of the week gets a critique of a partial.

Details are on the BookEnds blog.

Well, I’ve done it. I’ve broken down and joined Twitter. I confess, I’m finding it ultra-confusing. I don’t understand how to use the @, and I pretty much don’t care. I’ll try to get over there every couple of days to see if it suits me. I’m sure I’ll get used to it over time. Or, you know, if I bothered to read the help files. But I’m very busy right now tackling a mountain of To-Do’s on my desk, and figuring out Twitter isn’t high on my list.

Okay, now that I’ve got you intrigued, if you want to follow me on Twitter, here’s my page. I’m there as cindypk, because Cindy Procter-King is two characters too long (even without spaces) for their user name thingie.

Aren’t I fancy with the accent on the passé? Drove me nuts trying to get it to appear. Then I remembered, gotta use the number pad, NOT the keyboard numbers. Yes, when the mind works, it’s a wonderful thing.

Last week, on one of my writing lists, a writer I respect said she feels that blogs are becoming passé, if they aren’t already. That, basically, in this age of social networking (MySpace, Facebook, etc.) and micro-blogging (Twitter, some aspects of Facebook), blogs are no longer the “place to be” (my words, not hers). I’ve been thinking about this. I personally don’t feel that blogs are passé. Yes, I have a MySpace page and I’m on Facebook, but I still feel blogs are a great way for writers to connect with readers and other writers. For one thing, you don’t have to belong to a blogging network in order to read and post on a blog. At least, you don’t have to with WordPress blogs (such as mine). You don’t have to log in. The most you might have to do is enter a bunch of mixed-up letters in a Captcha and provide a valid email address so you aren’t relegated to spam.

Some blogs do require commenters to log in, but it’s not a must across the board, like it is with Facebook and MySpace, etc.

I’m not into MySpace. It was fun in the beginning, but I quickly grew tired of receiving friend requests from people with huge, ungainly layouts that take forever to load (and I’m on cable). I’ll maintain my presence there, but I’m not actively seeking friends on MySpace.

I enjoy Facebook much more than MySpace, and, I admit, I primarily like Facebook because I play FB Scrabble with several writer friends there. Like when I’m eating lunch or printing out pages for a scene I’ve just drafted and need to revise. Or when my mind needs a quick, two-minute break.

Blogs, for me, are easy, because I keep a list of my favorite blogs in my blogroll. A couple times a week, it’s easy to click through and read what my favorite bloggers have been up to. Again, usually, no logging in. If I have to log in to comment on someone’s blog, I’m far less likely to comment.

What about you? Do you prefer blogs or social networking sites like MySpace or micro-blogging sites like Twitter? If you don’t blog, do you feel pressure to blog? (Why?) If you don’t belong to social networking sites, why or why not? Do you feel that you should join? Do you wish the proliferation of social networking sites WOULD JUST STOP so you wouldn’t have to worry about it?

If you weren’t an author, would you have a presence on Facebook or MySpace or Twitter? If you weren’t an author, would you have a blog?

Or is it whipping me?

Lesson Learned: Never announce on a public forum that you WILL have your work in progress finished by such-and-such date. Because unless you’re working to an editor-set deadline and have no choice but to deliver the project by said date, odds are something will happen to trip you up. Trip me up, anyway.

I’m still writing and revising the last few scenes of my mystery romance. No excuses, really, other than Elle Muse kept wanting me to change the villain at the last moment. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to change the villain, but because she kept hankering about it, of course I had to spend tons of subconscious thought time subconscious-thinking about it. Not to mention the additional conscious thinking time. I don’t know about you, but all that subconscious- and conscious-thinking time impacts on my writing progress. In the end, I went with my original villain. Thanks a lot, Elle Muse!

Then, as a result of the crappy economy, My Liege has begun working four-day weeks, using his amassed holidays to enjoy wonderful long weekends every weekend. Which is great! But when everyone else in the family is having a long weekend, it’s much harder to treat Mondays like work days.

Eldest Son returned home from university two or three weeks ago. He started his summer job on Tuesday, and Youngest Son began his college summer session last week. So, as of this week, with both kids absent from the house during the days, and with the little exception of having M.L. around Monday mornings (he usually golfs in the late mornings, so I can get some work done then), I’m finally back to making decent headway on this book. If I weren’t wise enough to follow my own advice, I might even declare that I WILL finish writing/revising this book by the end of next week. But I’m not that foolish, no. You’ll just have to keep checking in and see.

So, about the American Idol finale last night. Kris Allen won, as my buddy Shelinda predicted. I expected him to win, just like last year I expected David Archuleta to win. But I was still hoping Adam Lambert would win, just like last year I hoped David Cook would win (and he did!). I wished Kris had shown a bit more excitement about winning. Instead, he appeared to be in shock and did that Aw-shucks-it-should-have-been-Adam thing. You won, buddy! Soak it up!