In memory of Sandra Canfield

Beloved romance author Sandra Canfield (aka Karen Keast and Sandi Shane; b. 1944) passed away on January 23, 2003 in Shreveport, Louisiana following a lengthy illness.

A charter member of RWA, Ms. Canfield was the recipient of numerous writing awards and honors, including a Romantic Times Award in 1988-89 Continuing Series Romance (Mariah) and a RITA in 1991 for Romantic Suspense (Night Spice).

To read more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/15630894/

In memory of Sandra Canfield

Beloved romance author Sandra Canfield (aka Karen Keast and Sandi Shane; b. 1944) passed away on January 23, 2003 in Shreveport, Louisiana following a lengthy illness.

A charter member of RWA, Ms. Canfield was the recipient of numerous writing awards and honors, including a Romantic Times Award in 1988-89 Continuing Series Romance (Mariah) and a RITA in 1991 for Romantic Suspense (Night Spice).

To read more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/15630894/

Heath Ledger

Here in Italy the news appeared only yesterday night and I saw it this morning on the news during breakfast.

This morning was a very strange one, I have a bad nightmare during the night and was not in mood for anything, then I heard this and... well I let you imagine. He was younger than me, and I think I have seen by him 10 Things I Hate About You, A Knight's Tale and Brokeback Mountain. Obviously I like very much BM, here in Italy between my friends, I think I was one of the few to have read Annie Proulx's book a long before it was adapted for the screen. I have still the novellete in its first Italian edition.

It's like a flashback. When I was very young I had an actor I like very much. Is name was River Phoenix. He had an amazing role in My Own Private Idaho by Gus Van Sant. The movies was forbidden for people under 18 years old (what? it's a wonderful movie, River won an Award to the Venice Film Festinval for his role, and the Venice Film Festival was a festival for essay film) and I lied to the cinema reception to enter the movie (luckily they don't ask me a ID). He was destined to be a great actor, one you remember when you are old. He died at 23 years old.

Sincerely at my age, I always am surprised when I read something like that... It's not natural to die when you still have a lot to do in your life...

Heath Ledger

Here in Italy the news appeared only yesterday night and I saw it this morning on the news during breakfast.

This morning was a very strange one, I have a bad nightmare during the night and was not in mood for anything, then I heard this and... well I let you imagine. He was younger than me, and I think I have seen by him 10 Things I Hate About You, A Knight's Tale and Brokeback Mountain. Obviously I like very much BM, here in Italy between my friends, I think I was one of the few to have read Annie Proulx's book a long before it was adapted for the screen. I have still the novellete in its first Italian edition.

It's like a flashback. When I was very young I had an actor I like very much. Is name was River Phoenix. He had an amazing role in My Own Private Idaho by Gus Van Sant. The movies was forbidden for people under 18 years old (what? it's a wonderful movie, River won an Award to the Venice Film Festinval for his role, and the Venice Film Festival was a festival for essay film) and I lied to the cinema reception to enter the movie (luckily they don't ask me a ID). He was destined to be a great actor, one you remember when you are old. He died at 23 years old.

Sincerely at my age, I always am surprised when I read something like that... It's not natural to die when you still have a lot to do in your life...

Memories Erased by M.E. Reid

Reading this book I can clearly say that the author is a woman: the characters are too good and too sexy to be written by a man, it's through a woman's eye that we see them.

Devin is a secret agent. Not from FBI or CIA, but of a private Agency which works side by side with the "official" agencies. He is just out of a relationship, one that is not finished well, and he goes to his preferred hung point to or kill or fuck someone, one or the other is the same. When he sees Ewyn, he chooses for the sex. While Devin is a big and strong man, Ewyn is the pretty and cute type. Of Sweden ancestors, Devin is blonde and blue eyes, while Ewyn, of Italian origins, has dark hair and green eyes. They make a good pair, since the first night, but Ewyn has a problem: his former lover is an abusive man, and a Russian mafia leader, and hasn't taken well Ewyn abandon. Plus Ewyn is the hidden brother of a Italian mob padrino. But Devin has no trouble to make him Ewyn's problems: he makes a mission to spoil Ewyn (who is just a brat due to his family) and to free him from all the dangers around him. But when Ewyn's ex-lover is found dead, and the blade which killed him has Ewyn's prints on it...

The story is pretty simple, probably you will have no problem to find the guilty, but it's not for the suspence aspect that I have read this book, pretty long, in only two night: it's the interaction between Devin and Ewyn that makes the core of the story. Devin is the classical alpha male, but one of that alpha male who makes you smile: fully self-consciousness, he never doubts of him and of his love for Ewyn. He never does anything wrong. He is the perfect man, one the female in me wants to find. Pity he is totally gay and he is totally caught by Ewyn.

Ewyn is the classical cute and feisty bottom. He is the iperactive puppy genre, the one who never stays where you put him. The one who needs a saint to support him, but also the one you can't not love, cause he is too pretty.

This is why I say that I feel the woman's hand in this book: these two "classical" characters are the main reason, I believe, why M/M romance are so popular among women. I don't know if they are a truthful representation of gay men, but for sure I like this characterization.

Another reason why I like very much Memories Erased (why this title? sincerely I don't find in the book the answer...) is the writing style: it's very strange, the first pages have left me a bit perplexed, they are a brainstorming of Devin's mind, without continuity. But once you have the hand on it, this style makes the book fresh and fast, very simple to read and makes you want to finish it soon.

http://www.loose-id.net/prod-Memories_Erased-633.aspx

Amazon Kindle: Memories Erased
Publisher: Loose Id LLC (January 22, 2008)

Waiting Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=waiting+reading+list&view=elisa.rolle

Memories Erased by M.E. Reid

Reading this book I can clearly say that the author is a woman: the characters are too good and too sexy to be written by a man, it's through a woman's eye that we see them.

Devin is a secret agent. Not from FBI or CIA, but of a private Agency which works side by side with the "official" agencies. He is just out of a relationship, one that is not finished well, and he goes to his preferred hung point to or kill or fuck someone, one or the other is the same. When he sees Ewyn, he chooses for the sex. While Devin is a big and strong man, Ewyn is the pretty and cute type. Of Sweden ancestors, Devin is blonde and blue eyes, while Ewyn, of Italian origins, has dark hair and green eyes. They make a good pair, since the first night, but Ewyn has a problem: his former lover is an abusive man, and a Russian mafia leader, and hasn't taken well Ewyn abandon. Plus Ewyn is the hidden brother of a Italian mob padrino. But Devin has no trouble to make him Ewyn's problems: he makes a mission to spoil Ewyn (who is just a brat due to his family) and to free him from all the dangers around him. But when Ewyn's ex-lover is found dead, and the blade which killed him has Ewyn's prints on it...

The story is pretty simple, probably you will have no problem to find the guilty, but it's not for the suspence aspect that I have read this book, pretty long, in only two night: it's the interaction between Devin and Ewyn that makes the core of the story. Devin is the classical alpha male, but one of that alpha male who makes you smile: fully self-consciousness, he never doubts of him and of his love for Ewyn. He never does anything wrong. He is the perfect man, one the female in me wants to find. Pity he is totally gay and he is totally caught by Ewyn.

Ewyn is the classical cute and feisty bottom. He is the iperactive puppy genre, the one who never stays where you put him. The one who needs a saint to support him, but also the one you can't not love, cause he is too pretty.

This is why I say that I feel the woman's hand in this book: these two "classical" characters are the main reason, I believe, why M/M romance are so popular among women. I don't know if they are a truthful representation of gay men, but for sure I like this characterization.

Another reason why I like very much Memories Erased (why this title? sincerely I don't find in the book the answer...) is the writing style: it's very strange, the first pages have left me a bit perplexed, they are a brainstorming of Devin's mind, without continuity. But once you have the hand on it, this style makes the book fresh and fast, very simple to read and makes you want to finish it soon.

http://www.loose-id.net/prod-Memories_Erased-633.aspx

Waiting Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=waiting+reading+list&view=elisa.rolle