Kendra Leigh Castle

Archive for October, 2009

I’ve got a preschool party AND an elementary school parade to go to today (not to mention three costumes to get together this morning, plus my hair is wet right now…this is what I get for looking at cars online with my husband last night instead of doing what I’m supposed to).  So while I’m on the fly, I want to wish everyone a very Happy Halloween!  I can’t tell you how much I miss Trick or Treating.  It was always one of the year’s highlights, and I reeeeally stretched it as far as when I quit.  Yes, I was one of those obnoxious teenagers dressed up and STILL begging for candy!  I enjoy taking my own kids, and seeing all the orange and black decorations and jack-o-lanterns.  I do miss the great specials they used to play on Halloween night, though.  I think Disney’s Halloween Treat was my favorite.  So with that said, I leave you with a segment that I used to watch every year, one of the sequences from Fantasia, actually, and a bit I have always loved for its spookiness.  Confession: I have a small Chernabog on my desk (that’d be the mountain demon).  Here’s A Night On Bald Mountain.  Have a wonderful, candy-filled weekend, everyone!

Okay, so count me among those eagerly awaiting the November release of Adam Lambert’s album.  I absolutely loved him on American Idol, and don’t even get me going on how he was robbed of the title.  I mean, I’m sure Kris Allen is a  very nice guy and everything, but Adam is the most interesting and talented contestant I think they’ve ever had.  Whatever, I don’t think not winning will hurt him any.  Didn’t hurt Daughtry.  But anyway, Adam finally released the cover for the album this week, aaaaaaannnnddd…well, have a look.

It’s very…well, it’s very 80s, I’ll say that for it.  It looks like it needs a glittery unicorn in the background.  And possibly a spaceship.  *sigh*  Okay, I get what he’s going for.  I love that Adam is unabashedly theatrical, and heavily glam rock influenced, and I love his style and the guyliner and am VERY sad that he only likes guys because really, this is a loss for all women (he does have a hot brother, I think, who is straight).  I get that it’s retro on purpose, and I don’t mind so much that it’s a little Xanadu-esque because hey, I LOVE Xanadu.  All that said…I kind of hate this cover.  I think it blew right through “nod to the 80s” and wound up mired deeply in purple and blue cheeziness.  Even the font horrifies me.  Both fonts.  The one is lifted from Prince’s Purple Rain album, I think.  I will say that Adam looks beautiful on it, but I’m not sure it’s possible to make him look bad!!  Oh well, with luck, the music will kick so much ass that the cover will cease to matter.  I’m just not at all sure about this as a marketing decision.  I expected different, but…well, whatever.  What do you guys think?  Do YOU like it?  I keep trying to, but it’s not working yet.

Anyway, here’s Adam’s newly released single for the movie 2012 (which I want to see, because it is a festival of special effects, much like the same director’s The Day After Tomorrow, in which the acting was stupid and secondary and I didn’t care and loved it anyway because dude, Dennis Quaid).  His gorgeous voice is on full display, as is his air of hot vampire.  It’s an over the top disaster movie anthem, and I loooove it   Enjoy your day, everybody!

At least they do when they look like our friend Marco!  Thought it was time to bring him back to the blog, since he’s been absent a while.  I’m holding the chain leash, of course…you just can’t see me

He’s even wearing guyliner.  I’m done for.  *swoon* 

It’s still raining here, and I accomplished…very little, actually…yesterday.  So today has to be better.  I did watch a very cool special on the History Channel last night (I know, I’m a dork) that I had DVRed, all about digitally reconstructing the faces of famous people by scanning their death masks with this new technology.  It was really cool to see these famous characters in the flesh, and I had no idea that death masks were such a status symbol way back.  Abe Lincoln actually had two life masks done, which was slightly less creepy.  There was a brief discussion about how Julius Caesar was a noted man whore (for both sexes, because it’s good to be the emperor, LOL), and we also got to see George Washington’s dentures.  You would’ve had to really want to have some teeth to put those things in your mouth on a regular basis.  Ow.  Anyway, it was fascinating to look into the faces of some of history’s most famous men, and the technology is amazing.  Even the skin texture was scanned and incorporated from the masks.  None of them looked a damn thing like Marco, unfortunately.  But it was still very cool.

‘Kay, I’ll be dragging Marco off now for various nefarious purposes.  I’ll leave you with a song I’ve been playing out lately, which is semi-appropriate because it’s called “Rainy Monday”, even though it’s Wednesday!  Very bouncy and fun, though.  Band is Shiny Toy Guns.  Enjoy, and have a great one!

Seemed like a good day, considering it’s gloomy and pouring here, to bring Richard over so we can all admire him.  Tousled dark hair, burning eyes…and yes, shirt open!!  I’m not really much on bulkily muscled men…tall and lean with some nice definition is just fine, and this one fits the bill nicely   For evidence, see the scene where Guy of Gisborne is hanging out shirtless.  Or, Hell, just watch this excellent fan vid of the man looking hot.  It’s in there.
Hope you all enjoy the day.  I suppose the rain might be a sign to park my butt and do some serious work, so we’ll see how that goes.  I did some serious Frankenstein damage to a chapter yesterday…you’d have to see what a manuscript looks like after you’ve completed your first round of edits, but the editors like you to leave the Track Changes on so they can see what you did.  That means the lovely story is covered in red and blue marks and is generally kind of a mess.  But seeing it that way does make you feel like you’ve accomplished something, I guess! 

Have a great Tuesday!

Yes it is, and I’ll have you know I did some SERIOUS digging around to find a man worthy of the sash and tiara this week!  I, like Cheryl, am very picky, and there hasn’t been much out there that makes me go “wow” lately.  However, just as I was about to fall into despair and go console myself with a cookie, I stumbled upon the very beautiful Igancio Casano, who not only has a cool name but is also a complete knockout.  And lucky us, he appears not to have a problem with having shirtless pictures taken.  Behold, and admire.  Guy has GREAT eyes!

Lovely, yes?  Looks rather hot blooded to me.  I vote he gets to be a werewolf in a book somewhere.  What do you all think? Shall we make Ignacio a vamp or a were?    Along those lines, my revamped vamp proposal (ha ha) should be on my editor’s desk by now, which gets the clock ticking on another look-see.  I don’t know how long it’ll take before I hear, but keep some mental fingers crossed for me.  It would be a big deal if it got picked up.  It also means that Richard Armitage might start hanging out at the blog more, since he IS Tynan MacGillivray, my dark vampire hero, and more Richard is always a good thing.

I blew off work last night and read the new Nora book, Bed of Roses, which is the second in her Bride Quartet.  It was, as expected, a lovely way to spend an evening.  Curling up with a new Nora Roberts book is my mental equivalent of taking a nice, long, hot bath.  It lets me go to one of my mental happy places.  Definitely recommended, even though I did get somewhat more annoyed than usual with the hero before he redeemed himself.  It happens.  In fact, I probably spend more time than I ought to stewing over imaginary people, but that’s the nature of the beast!  Have you all read any good books lately?

Okay, have a happy Monday, everyone, or as happy a Monday as possible!

Yay, Friday!  My mom is here for a visit, and I can’t seem to think of much interesting to share this morning…augh, brain cramp!!  Instead, I believe we’ve talked about this, but here’s the trailer for the upcoming film Legion (which features Paul Betttany’s hotness) that I want to see, even though it will probably freak me out.  It’s that angel doing the elongated freaky walk in the beginning of the trailer…that stuff creeps me out.  So what do you all think?  Will YOU be seeing this one?  Looks like a fascinating premise to me.  Could be cheezy, but I’m interested.  I love the movie The Prophecy, and there are so few angel-centric movies that come out.  Here’s hoping this is a good one   have a happy Friday and a great weekend, everyone!!

I was busy playing the soundtrack for one of my very favorite movies yesterday, The Nightmare Before Christmas…the movie manages to be both creepy and cute, and the music is just fantastic.  A couple of years ago, they re-released the soundtrack with newer bands covering the songs, and I thought I’d share a video someone made to go with the Marilyn Manson version of “This is Halloween.”  I can’t actually think of anyone who would have been more appropriate to do this song!  And the video is just right   I still love Halloween, and I miss dressing up, but I’m sure some year I’ll find an excuse to again!  Enjoy.

…for some rugby-related hotness.  And I have to give Lisa credit for directing me to the bounty   This is from a new 2010 rugby calendar in the UK, and I want it!  Who cares if I don’t actually watch the sport??  LOL.

Not much going on here today but work, and what looks to be some sunlight too (hooray!).  I’m determined to finish fixing up my vampire proposal this week, because then I have to concentrate on edits for Sinfully Yours and THEN I have to get my butt in gear on Sinfully Tempted, the second book!  I never have as long as I think I do, not exactly helped along by the plague that descended.  Really, though, I’m anxious to get the vamp story right.  My editor really loved the story idea, I’ve just gotta tweak…well, to give you an idea of the sort of things you get asked/told to do, she wanted me to keep the prologue, scrap chapter one, and start halfway through chapter two so that the reader is dumped right into the action.  I had the usual writerly reaction, which is sort of a resigned, “But maaaaaaan…”  HOWEVER, as is also typical, once I did it I could see that she had been right.  Not that I didn’t love what I had to dump, but I’m getting pretty used to, as the saying goes, “killing my darlings.”  So today is about finishing up the NEW chapter two, and also fussing with the synopsis a little more.  We all know how much I love synopses

Hope you all enjoy your day, and some rugby abs!!

Another day, another cup of coffee, and another opportunity to post pictures of Taylor Lautner.  I really have to stop my inappropriate fascination with the way he looks…but damn, he does not look 17.  And he’s not helping me by doing pictures like these.

I mean, seriously.  Why does Bella like Edward again?  I will happily take her leftovers, thanks.  And I maintain, despite the fact that I do love vampires, that a hot blooded guy would be a LOT more fun.  Team Jacob!

So now that I’ve brightened everyone’s morning (and now that I’ve been distracted by that delicious tattoo a half dozen times), the New Moon soundtrack is out as well.  Muse is, of course, on it with a remix of a song off their new album, and I like it quite a lot, so I’ll share that too.  I stuck it on my facebook page yesterday, but what the hell, it’s good morning music and I don’t mind being occasionally redundant   Hope you all have a great day…we got our first frost here last night, but it’s supposed to warm up again now.  Usual weird Fall weather!  And I’ll be diving back into work, which has sufffered some over the course of riding the Swine Flu Express (we weren’t tested, but the nurses all said that it most likely was…the youngest has it now, but I’m at least recovered and can handle it).  As a silver lining, I suppose it was an excellent way to jump start that diet I’d been meaning to go on.  Okay, I’m reaching, but it did work that way.  Now if I can just continue to stay out of the Cheetos!

Enjoy your day!

Yes, I have returned triumphant!  Okay, well more tired than triumphant, but I’m back   I’m glad I took last week off, because as soon as I got Maddie over being sick, I went down hard with it.  I knew I was getting a cold, but that apparently should have been th least of my worries.  Wednesday was bad.  Thursday was worse.  Friday my husband demanded I go to the doctor…I guess it could have been the continuing high fever, aching, and the fact that I was starting to wheeze…and I got all kinds of medicinal goodies, though nothing got any better until mid-Saturday.  Sunday, as I’m writing this, is the first day I’ve started to feel normal, though I feel pretty wrung out.  NOT, however, wrung out enough to keep me from Mantastic Monday!

So today I’ve decided to bestow the crown and bedazzled man sash to the lovely Ian Somerhalder, who met a very unfortunate end on Lost (thanks a lot, Locke, for removing an important piece of Lost’s eye candy so early on) but lives on immortally on the new show Vampire Diaries.  Which I, um, still have to watch.  Lately it’s all I can do to keep up with the shows I’m already committed to!  But Ian is playing the bad boy on there, a thing that you all know I find pretty irresistible.  I’ll check it out at some point.  Anyway, he’s tall and gorgeous, but his eyes are just incredible.  He photographs beautifully, but you know, it’s funny…I actually prefer to watch him in action.  Ian is almost TOO pretty in pictures!  He’s a lot more…I dunno, guyish, for lack of a better word…when you can actually watch him.  Highly recommended pastime

There we go, love his smile in this one.  He looks like he might be a smartass, which is a weakness of mine (oh, if you only knew my husband).

Congratulations to the new Mr. Mantastic, who shall lounge artfully about the blog all week looking fabulous.  And congratulations to me for making it through these last couple of weeks with (most of) my sanity intact.  I dunno if this crap is swine flu, but I have NEVER been knocked on my ass like that from a non-stomach flu.  It was weird.  And it is going around here.  Um, well, if it was, I guess I’ve achieved natural immunity.  Yay?

Happy Monday everyone!  Glad to be back!