Serena J. Cavanaugh :: Blog

November 22, 2009

Literary Flings & Affairs Episode 4

Filed under: Cultural Rants, Literature — Tags: , , , , — serena @ 6:55 pm

The Rebound/ Spin Off 

Andrew  Jones  of  Penn  St  and   Mike  Tisdale  and  Calvin  Brock  of  Illinois   contest   a  rebound  during  the  game.   picture  appears  courtesy  of  ap/photo/ Darrell   Hoemann  .....................

We read a book that sweeps us off our feet and into another world that we never want to leave. But it doesn’t leave us a choice. The End happens, just like that.

 

We feel empty, hollow, and worst of all needy. Then the Spin Off comes along, promising us everything we got from that special novel – we get to see Mr. Darcy again! Or the DeWinters! The idea alone gets our hearts all a-flutter. (more…)

October 24, 2009

Odd Couples, Episode 1

Shakespeare and the Swine Flu 

 

 

It seems like an odd couple, but not when you really think about it. Imagine: you are locked in your house, unable to venture out into the healthy world. Two sick kids, who tend to complain and moan much louder than you, have commandeered the TV with the DVD player. What to do?

Well, naturally, you read. (more…)

October 8, 2009

The Writing Life II

Filed under: The Writing Life — Tags: , , , , — serena @ 12:34 pm

The Problem with Titles

 

 

 

So, I finished the first draft of my second novel! (applause, gasps, sighs)

 

Now for the hard part – the edits, the volunteer reader comments, the …. (drumroll) TITLE.

Lucky are those authors who get their titles first and then write the book around the it. I guess I’m just not lucky. (more…)

September 4, 2009

Literary Flings and Affairs, Episode 3

The Short Story

 

 

There was a time in my life when all of the sudden, short stories were all I read. Granted, they always had their place: say in school for Literature study purposes and in the doctor’s office, just to kill time. But this particular period of my life, I actually purchased volumes of collections and read one after the other.

 

My husband, in his younger years, suffered something similar. We call them compulsive one night stands. (more…)

August 3, 2009

Literary Flings & Affairs, Episode 2

Filed under: Cultural Rants, Literature — Tags: , , , , , — serena @ 5:24 pm

Bodice Ripping Romance

I read my first bodice-ripping romance at fourteen. Don’t judge me: I did mature early, blooming into a full fledged reader a couple years prior with Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Gone with the Wind and Grapes of Wrath secured tight under my belt. So I was ready and willing.

Imagine the intrigue when I found, at the home of the children I babysat every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, a ten foot closet shelf double packed with paperback novels. The covers depicted hard muscled men literally tearing the bodices off voluptuous women, all in historic costume. (more…)

May 27, 2009

Literary Flings and Affairs, Episode 1

Filed under: Cultural Rants, Literature — Tags: , , , , , — serena @ 12:36 pm

       Dark Seduction        

 

            I don’t usually read Science Fiction and Fantasy, but I have a little brother (and no matter how much taller he is than me, he’s still little) who devours the stuff.

 

             Several years ago, he got me involved with a fellow named George R.R. Martin. Utterly helpless within the forceful grip of his story, I succumbed completely and with abandon, to the seduction of his characters and the foreign world they inhabited. By (more…)

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