Stay Tuned For...

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I don't know about you, ladies, but my life has been hectic and then some lately. When I spend all day driving daughters and husband around, walking dogs, dashing into the grocery store/hardware store/gas station/Michaels for bags of tiny mirrors that have to be delivered to the high school (CURSE YOU SCIENCE TEACHERS AND YOUR "HANDS-ON PROJECTS"!!!) and, of course, squeezing in some time to actually, you know, make my living by writing a book-- whew! After a day like that, the only thing I want to do is fall back onto the sofa and veg out in front of the tube.

So what am I watching? Youngest and I are both into SLEEPY HOLLOW with super-dreamy Tom Mison playing an Ichabod Crane that old Washington Irving would never recognize. SLEEPY HOLLOW and our other fave, ONCE UPON A TIME, have several things in common: 1) smoldering bearded men in leather pants 2) strong female characters 3) plots that are so utterly absurd you just have to surrender your right brain and go with the flow.


Youngest tried to get me to watch REIGN, which is ostensible about Mary, Queen of Scots during the years she lived in France, but after seeing one episode, I declared a boycott. I could maybe excuse the modern prom-dress stying, or the fact the ladies of the court wear their hair like they're headed for a hippie music festival. But when the writers changed Mary's attendants names from Mary, Mary, Mary and Mary, to  Kenna, Greer, Lola  and Aylee (Aylee?!?!) that was a bridge too far.

Ross and I like to watch AGENTS OF SHIELD, which has plots, superheros, backstabbing, Clark Gregg (love him!) and conveniently wraps up by our bedtime on Sunday (9pm.) My very favorite show, ELEMENTARY, has just started up its third season! I remain impressed with the writers of ELEMENTARY, because setting up and solving a decent mystery in 45 minutes of screen time is close to impossible - and they consistently do it. I only figure out the murderer in about half the episodes, unlike my old fave CASTLE, where I could usually spot the killer by the second commercial break.


As you can tell, I look for sheer escapism when I watch TV. No doctor dramas, no heartfelt families struggling with blah, blah, blah. And, hopefully, nothing that gets cancelled in half a season.

How about you, Reds? What are you watching?

LUCY BURDETTE: I have a one-track mind right now, and it's on NASHVILLE. I know it's a soap opera (geez will every single character have slept with every other character by the time the run is over?), but I love it anyway. Yes, I'd like to shake them all and tell them to talk to each other, but I wouldn't miss an episode. Love the music too!

This is off the TV topic, but when we're in Key West, we can walk to the Tropic Cinema. So we've seen two movies recently--GONE GIRL and THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU. Both recommended, especially the latter if you want something funny and poignant, with an upbeat ending. The ending to Gone Girl was true to the book--brutal...

 
RHYS BOWEN: Of course for the last few weeks I've watched Giants, Giants and more Giants. In fact I've developed arthritis in the hips for not moving for three hours at a time. But my current favorites are the new Sherlock Holmes, Call the Midwife and The Amazing Race. But I have to confess that the nerdy side of me comes out watching TV and I'm often to be found staring at Nova and the origins of the universe.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I was mesmerized by OUTLANDER, even on the episode when I said to Jonathan--this is kind of repetitious, isn't it? But I didn't care. It was gorgeous. And I want all those knit scarves. MADAM SECRETARY and THE GOOD WIFE, both wonderful. Cannot wait for more GAME OF THRONES.  





Sherlock, of course, and Amazing Race.  You know my guilty pleasure is Project Runway, still.  Being on the road so much is making me miss everything, but Jonathan is dvr'ing like mad. He happily watched baseball, knowing we'll see our favorite shows together when I get home. HOMELAND is waiting!  (I have never seen Nashville, Lucy! Dare I begin...?)


HALLIE EPHRON: I confess, I do veg out in front of the TV at night. Two shows I try not to miss: THE GOOD WIFE and SCANDAL. The former is seriously good, amazing writing and acting; the second is outrageous and just ridiculously addictive. I'm addicted to ANTIQUES ROADSHOW and SHERLOCK (will there be more episodes?) Am I the only one who watched the PBS show about penguins? Mesmerizing.



JULIA: How about you, dear readers? What's the must-see TV at your house?

Putting down characters... can we do it? Should we??

HALLIE EPHRON: I feel for the writers of Downton Abbey and The Good Wife. They found out that their hunky male supporting actors were not signing up for another season.

Instead of letting them go gentle into that good night, both series killed the characters off. In Downton, Matthew went out in a car crash after visiting his newborn son. Will Gardner went out in a hail of bullets in the courtroom, shot by his own client. Both deaths: wrong place, wrong time. Leaving fans stunned, Lady Mary and Alicia Florrick grieving, and the shows' writers scrambling.

Fortunately our fictional characters can't up and decide they don't want to be in our next novel. But what if they could? What if Peter Wimsey's Harriet Vane had announced she'd had enough. Or Spenser's Susan?  Or Stephanie Plum's Joe Morelli?

Can you even imagine: What if one of your main characters, the love interest for example, suddenly telling you he's had enough? What kind of havoc would it wreak?

LUCY BURDETTE: Honestly, most of us kill characters off with every book, right? But it's very hard. Very. And I admit I don't get too attached to these victims before I dispense with them. It would be truly awful if a main character decided he or she had had enough. I would be very tempted to let them go quietly.

Say have Miss Gloria move to Michigan to live nearer her sons. Or Wally decide he needed to be nearer his mom, or better still, offer him a fabulous job in Miami or New York.

But if the writers are going for tension, and angst, Matthew's death sure torqued things up. And Sybil too. But as a viewer, I hated those turns. And it simply wouldn't have worked to have Matthew decide he'd had enough of the marriage.

RHYS BOWEN: It's funny that you've posted on this topic today, Hallie, because I've recently had letters from fans saying that I should never have let Molly Murphy marry and that her marriage has spoiled her freedom to operate as a detective. One of them suggested I kill off Daniel.

But I couldn't do that, and leave Molly grieving and trying to raise a child alone in the hostile world of New York City.  And for every one reader who wants Daniel out of the way there would be a thousand who'd attack me for killing him off.

I know from experience that killing off a love interest means angry readers who probably won't read our books again.
And I'm still angry about Matthew's death. I thought the whole driving force behind the plot of Downton was the Mary/Matthew romance. Once that went we were left with nineteen actors in search of a plot and we still haven't found it..

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Am I the only Red who thought killing off Downton Abbey’s Matthew was a good idea? Didn’t think so at the time, but I love how this past season it forced Lady Mary to change and grow — and challenge her father’s authority and thus the patriarchy, mirroring other gains women were making.

Also, young widows in that era have a peculiar power. Not virgins, not married, and not crones, they have a certain freedom that other women of the era don’t.

As far as killing off my own characters goes, all I can say for now is — fasten your seatbelts, kittens; it’s going to be a bumpy ride….

HALLIE: WHOA! You heard it here first, folks!!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Susan, you are a tease. And I love all your main characters.  Now biting nails...

And Rhys, no, you can't kill off Daniel. I'd never forgive you. But I did love A City of Darkness and Light where Molly got to manage on her own again. But that is a dilemma for a woman in Molly's time.

I wouldn't kill off any of my main characters. I hope I've managed to come up with enough drama in the series without doing that. But I have been very emotionally attached to characters who have died or been murdered in specific books, and it's HARD. It feels like a real emotional loss. There have times when I've really had to push myself to write through it...

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I haven't killed off any romantic interests...yet. I shouldn't tease, though. I hate as a reader when I become invested in a relationship and then the lovers don't get their HEA (Happily Ever After, for those of you not conversant with Romancelandia terms.) On the other hand, I've read lots of books where the "love interest" looks more like the author being forced to throw in a guy or a gal because the editor wanted a relationship. In that case, sure. Kill 'em off.

That being said, I've killed off some very nice secondary characters, people who in no way deserved to have anything bad happen to them. Why? Because the story demanded it. Also, if you're trying to create a reasonable facsimile of life? You're going to have to include injustice, cruelty and death. 

I agree with Debs, though. It's hard. I remember writing the next-to-last chapter of my third book and crying the whole way through. 

HALLIE: So what do you think? Will killing off Matthew or Will turn out to be a good thing for Downton Abbey and The Good Wife? Should we feel less precious about our supporting characters and cast their fates to the wind?

2010: Jungle Red's Hits and Disses

HALLIE: Here we are at the end of 2010, a year when Twitter took off, Facebook took off again (for the middle-aged and electronically challenged), smartphones were everywhere, the E-reader hit its stride, and it got even harder to reach your kids if you don't text.

Taking a look back at the lighter side of 2010, here's my list of hits:

TV shows...Mad Men, The Good Wife, Castle, Masterpiece Mystery Sherlock, Life on Mars
Movies...Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I, Winter's Bone
Books... Room (by Emma Donoghue); Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter (by Tom Franklin)
Food... fish tacos, bacon
Cocktails...vodka and pomegranate juice
Stores...I finally visited Target and Costco: I get it now
Games...Catch Phrase, and still as always bridge
Conveniences...Online restaurant reservations

And misses. I'd like to see a lot less of...
Dancing with Stars
Four-inch heels
Purses the size of dirigibles
Leopard prints
Lady Gaga
Mel Gibson
Oil spills
Vuvuzelas
Bedbugs

What are your hits and misses of 2010?

ROBERTA: TV show...Friday Night Lights, really you must go back to the beginning and watch this. The drama and characters are top notch.
Movies...I know I must have liked some but I can't remember what they were!
Books...thumbs up on CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER, THE HELP, THE SCENT OF RAIN AND LIGHTENING by Nancy Pickard, BORN ROUND by Frank Bruni, SPOON FED by Kim Severson Game...Bananagrams
Trip out of the US...Rome
The farmer's market
Food...Yes! all of it!

Misses
Oil spills
Squabbling politicians
Bedbugs
Snow and ice


RHYS: Oh definitely squabbling politicians to top my miss column.
And all those samey reality shows-- Biggest Loser, Survivor 29, Endless talent or non-talent shows...
And I could do without Lady Ga Ga.

Hits were:
Olympic games in Canada
Fun and chunky bling
Two weeks in Nice
Twenties Girl (loved it!) and I've just seen a fabulous production of the Nutcracker today

I'm sure more will come to me the moment I sign out.

JAN: Hits were--
TV: Madmen, The Good Wife, The Sing Off, the conclusion of the Tudors, Empire Boardwalk, Craig Ferguson.
Movies: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, the The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest.
Books: The Well and The Mine by Gin Philllips, The Creative Brain by Shelley Carson, All Souls by Michael Patrick McDonald, Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
Jersey Boys on Broadway
The fabulous weather this summer
First I-Phone
George, my first experience with a cat

Misses--
Screaming talk show hosts
Red Sox season of injuries
Sex and the City II
Twilight series
Cape-like cardigans
Return of the oxford shoe

ROBERTA: Oh yes, I'd like to pile on for 3 of Jan's--my iphone, Jersey Boys, and a cat in the house!

HALLIE: And I second screaming talk show hosts and their screaming guests

HANK: Hits?
TV: The Good Wife. Masterpiece Sherlock. Brilliant.
Fashion: you can wear anything you want. I love that. Wearing stuff that doesn't match. Wow. (I learned that from my idols Heidi and Tim.) And, Hallie, I like leopard.

HALLIE: I knew you'd say that. That's because you can off pull of leopard print (and 4" heels).

HANK: Books? I judged YA for the Edgars. More I cannot say. I'm fascinated by the growing realization that ebooks are real, and not a work of the devil. This is truly a time of transition. (I do worry for independent bookstores though. We'll see what happens this year.)

Misses?
Gosh, I just dont get the wii.
Or xbox, or whatever those things do. Sorry, I'm old.
The vuvuzela, SO annoying. Except that day they put it behind everything on YouTube, whch was so hilarious and so meta.
Bedbugs, puh-leeze. But Roberta taught me how to look.
Food? Well, of course, bacon. And vodka, champagne and elderflower liqueur. (One.)
Movies. Huh. Did we see any good ones?
Annoyances: People who are ALWAYS on their phones, talking, texting, whatever. People are making themselves alone even when they're with you. Worrisome.
Guilty pleasure? Watching the singing flashmobs on You Tube.
So excited for the year to come!

HALLIE: Elderflower liqueur -- Really? With champagne? Sounds like something to try on New Year's Eve. And interesting, isn't it, how much this was a better year for TV than for movies. Go figure.

I agree on flashmobs. I love the one where everyone froze in Grand Central - in fact, I used something like that in my new book (March 22!)

So what are your hits and misses for 2010? Please, dish!!

(And stay tuned! Later this week:
Tuesday: Are you as intrigued as I am by Patricia Highsmith? She invented the villainous hero and the suspense novel. Meet Joan Schenkar who wrote the definitive and fascinating biography, The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith. She says writing it nearly killed her, and it's easy to understand why.
Wednesday: Meet Mike Wiecek who just sold (at auction!) his thriller Clawback and a sequel to Viking.
Thursday: I'll be talking about my new writing book, just out.
And we have special treats in store for New Year's Ev en and New Year's Day!