I'm back!

After a week of posting my The Next Big Thing Blog Hop interview, I am back in the blogging saddle. So, what went on during that quiet week?

My number of book sales more than doubled, which is a way cool feeling! I set up my author page on Amazon. I made more connections in the world of publishing, books, and writers. I relaxed for 25 minutes in a row and finished that Father Brown episode. I commissioned the modification of  my advertising bookcards and ordered 500 to be printed. I approved the initial sketches of some artwork I've commissioned for my website. I made final arrangements for a book signing I will be doing in Orange County this coming Saturday. I connected with some old friends who heard about my book and got in touch. I worked my other two jobs.

Something else that happened was this: one of the two movies I saw in the theatre last year, Argo, won the Oscar for best picture. I love the subtlety and understated tension of Argo as it unfolds an incredibly intense story. As I watched it, I was on the verge of tears and on the edge of my seat for the entire film.

But here's the thing - if I chose to see only two films in the theatre last year, why Argo?

Simple. The Iranian Hostage Crisis is the first real piece of history I can remember in my lifetime. Those "Free the Hostages" stickers that looked like American flags were everywhere in my young world - on school book covers, on cars, on toilet seats. I was horrified by the duration of the terrifying ordeal - nearly one whole half of my life that I could clearly remember since infancy and toddlerhood. One of the hostages was from my hometown - he went to the same high school my nephew now attends. As a result, I think of Argo as my movie - because I have such a personal and visceral connection to it.

Argo is mine. And I doubt I am the only one who feels this way.

These feelings of connection, possession, deeply understood truth, shared history - these are precisely what I strive to evoke in readers with my books and stories. For example, this is one of my favorite lines from She Likes It Rough:

How long would it be before everyone in my family stopped judging me according to the stupid things I’d done as a kid? Wasn’t there any statute of limitations on growing up?

And by the way, the other movie I saw in the theatre last year is The Avengers, the biggest money maker of the year. Something else I strive for when I write my books.

GVR Corcillo

author of

  

She Likes It Rough

"All Summer on a Date"

"Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants"

Queen of the Universe coming this Fall