Exploring new worlds and a nod to TV

"Space...the final frontier. These are the voyages of the star ship Enterprise. Its continuing mission...to boldly go where no one has gone before."

I discovered a new planet yesterday, people. It is called Manic Readers. It is a place to learn about (guess what?) books. It is actually a review site, but they give authors the opportunity to put ourselves there on our own mini websites. So while Sarah Palin was making her big speech, I was being manic.

Manic allowed me to do something I've been wanting to do since I contracted The Jinx. That something was to share the original ending to the book. Okay, it wasn't the original ending to the book. The original ending actually was a tender scene in a hospital room right after the fountain incident. I loved the second ending, but it wasn't as good as it could be, so Corinne and I kept working at it until we came up with the third and final ending. But I I hated that no one would ever see the second ending. So, I've made it my free read on the Manic Readers' website. Manic Readers seems to be a very easy site to maneuver, so if you have some free time, go visit. You do have to register to get any free reads offered, but just check or uncheck the appropriate boxes, and you should be okay!

Manicreaders.com/

There are lots of authors and books on there. Who knows what you might find as you "explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations..."

I'm not a trekkie. Not really. I did have a serious crush on Jean Luc though. I still love to watch The Next Generation. Oh, man! I never thought a bald guy would make me sigh. And when he'd tug his shirt hem, it would tear me up!! I think it was the accent, actually.

I can also quote the monologue for the early "Remington Steele" episodes. I LOVED Pierce Brosnan early on. And Stephanie Zimbalist. She was smart, independent, savvy, and ambitious. Exactly the role model I was looking for in my late teens. Okay, yes, it was problematic that she was okay with a guy taking the credit, but this WAS the 1980s after all. Progress happens in stages. I really believe that.

"Try this for a deep, dark secret. The great detective Remington Steele? He doesn't exist. I invented him. Follow. I've always loved business and excitement, so I studied and apprenticed and put my name on an office. But absolutely no one knocked on my door. A female private investigator seemed so...feminine. So I invented a superior. A decidedly masculine superior. Suddenly there were cases around the block. It was working like a charm. Until the day he walked in, with his blue eyes and mysterious past...." well, you get the idea.

Angie, one of my writing group buddies, bought Remington Steele on DVD (not sure which season, but I'm hoping the first!). She's going to let me borrow it. If you can get over the 80s clothes and hair styles, it is a great show.

Cool! I just checked on Playlist. They have the monologue for Star Trek: TNG as well as the theme from Remington Steele (written, by the way, by Henry Mancini who wrote a ton of other great pieces, like The Pink Panther, The Elephant Walk, Breakfast at Tiffany's) so I have a bunch of theme songs today! Could not pick just one. Two for Star Trek. Two or three for Henry Mancini. AND if you missed the peanut butter, jelly song, you definitely should hear it. Just scroll down my playlist past Mancini's works. It comes from the hilarious, but disturbing adult cartoon called "The Family Guy". The song after is from "The Greatest American Hero" a brief, but wonderful TV show in the early 80s. And, I just realized, Vonda Shepard is on after that singing the Ally McBeal theme song. Wow! I used to watch a lot of TV! Of all of the decades, though, I guess you can tell that the 80s was mine. Also, my music decade. I think it might have something to do with crazy teenage hormones. Those were my years LOVING the music, TV, and movies.

Enough TV and music talk! I need to get busy exploring the written world!