At long last a LiveJournal by Jeri Smith-Ready

It's Valentine's Day here in Hallmarkistan, which means authors (especially those of us who write about The Love Thang) are being asked all sorts of broad questions about romance.

Book Spot Central invited me and several other science ficiton/fantasy authors to tell them which movies/TV shows/books had the most influence on us as viewers/readers?  At first I thought that meant, "Which were your favorite?"  But I'm glad I didn't answer it that way, because I would've given the same response as Paul Malmont (Groundhog Day) or Carrie Vaughn (The Princess Bride).

Instead, I answered the question literally and honestly.  Read our responses (I'm fourth from the bottom, right above my favorite answer by my friend Dave Williams).  And try to have a good Valentine's Day.

*even though in the final blog post it's written as "favorites" not "most influential."  Maybe this is what Sarah Palin meant by "gotcha journalism". ;-)

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Now playing: Bikini Kill - Jet Ski
via FoxyTunes   

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Germans signed the Armistice agreement ending one of our planet's greatest tragedies of all time: World War One. Naturally, it wasn't called that at the time--in fact, Woodrow Wilson declared it the "war to end all wars." It wasn't.

Here in the States we observe this anniversary with Veterans Day. In most of the British Commonwealth it's known as Remembrance Day. Australian folk singer Eric Bogle (whose concert Chris and I saw in Wilmington, DE, in 1993) wrote a song called "No Man's Land." Lots of bands have covered it, and most refer to it by the name The Fureys gave it, "The Green Fields of France."

I like Dropkick Murphys' version best, due to the use of pipes and drums, just as the song describes. Here's a video an American soldier put together to accompany the song, honoring the fallen. (Some of the images are also shown in Dropkick Murphys' official video, but I liked this one slightly better.)

Warning: you will cry. But the twenty million soldiers and civilians who died in that war deserve a few tears.

Today I'm filling in all the little blanks in Bad to the Bone, all the spots I put in brackets, things to look up later. Some are easy and quick, like sunrise/sunset times and moon phases. Others involve inserting descriptions, like Youngstown at night.

Many are music-related. I had to find a band with a cool Halloween song from either the 80s or 90s that was playing a date in Baltimore in the months following October 30, 2007 (long story). It took nearly an hour to find "(Everyday Is) Halloween" by Ministry (who played Ram's Head Live in April, FWIW).

Here's a video, complete with great moments from horror films of the distant and not-so-distant past (warning: some are scary/gory--duh):



More later!

As an amateur-turned-professional-turned-amateur environmentalist, I tend not to celebrate (or even notice) this Gaia-honoring holiday. To me, every day is Earth Day.

However, every day is not Misha's birthday. The only cat I've ever had whose birthday I knew for sure (we got him from a coworker whose harlot kitty came home knocked up one night), Misha turns Lucky 13 today.

To join me in celebrating the Day of the Guy, please enjoy this instructive video, "An Engineer's Guide to Cats." It even contains a potential solution to global warming at the end, thus fulfilling my holiday obligation.

( Click for video and a semi-sleazy picture of Misha. )