Category: Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh . . . by Geralyn Corcillo

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Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh … I Celebrate an Amazing Lady

July 27, 2017 by in category Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh . . . by Geralyn Corcillo, Writing tagged as , , , , , , ,

Things that make me go mmmrrh ... | Geralyn Corcillo | A Slice of OrangeI am a very lucky duck to know book reviewer and entertainment journalist Tracy Miller  Tracy is also a gifted and prolific poet who has published over 20 books of poetry! After working diligently for over two decades as a lawyer (after winning full scholarships to Temple and University of Pennsylvania Law School), she is now fulfilling her life-long dream of writing full time. And Tracy doesn’t just write poetry and reviews of books and television – she uses her talent to write birthday poems for people she knows, admires, remembers, as well. On July 4, she and her twin sister Stacy celebrated their birthdays, so I wrote Tracy her very own birthday poem and pasted it all over Facebook this past July 4 . And Here is the birthday poem I wrote for her:

 

 

A peculiar Lady stands in line
At Whole Foods and the bank.
And if you try to suss her out,
You’re sure to draw a blank.

She speaks into a hand-held mike
And says the strangest things
Of plots and tropes and characters
And poetry that sings.

Her mind’s forever active
And her heart’s always replete.
She’s composing all the live-long day
Her demons to defeat.

She celebrates the lives, the art,
The love both here and gone;
The memories she yet holds close
Their might she pushes on.

She’s like a warm and searching poker
Stirring ashes ‘neath the grate
To find the embers burning there
And make them glow. But wait-

No, not a piece of iron
To grow cold when set aside.
But a lively torch that catches flame
To light the air on which it glides.

Like a Firefly she bops along
Brightening the dark,
Building fires or fanning flames, or
Nurturing a spark.

That well sprung magic of her own …
Oh! Such poetry transports.
To be precious, mentioned, known so well ..
Or just to read these dear reports!

It’s not just about her poems though
That makes her heaven-sent.
The prose she writes in her reviews
Is truly incandescent.

To know that someone’s work reached out
And lit another fuse …
To share the secret, bounding joy
Of audience and muse!

When someone’s efforts speak to her
She tells it to the world
In such detail you’ve never read
Creation is unfurled.

Writing is her full-time gig
After decades of the law.
She made her precious dream come true.
Tracy Miller I applaud!

Tracy, Girl, I know that life
Has hurt along the way.
But know that I am grateful
You and Stacy have this day!


Enjoy Tracy’s work on the website she’s dedicated to her mother, Arlene Miller Creative Writing and read her reviews of books and television in the online magazine The Nerdy Girl Express.


When she was a kid in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Geralyn Vivian Ruane Corcillo dreamed of one day becoming the superhero Dyna Girl. So, she did her best and grew up to constantly pick up litter and rescue animals. At home, she loves watching black & white movies, British mysteries, and the NY Giants. Corcillo lives in a drafty old house in Hollywood with her husband Ron, a guy who’s even cooler than Kip Dynamite.

 And she loves to connect with Readers! Check out her monthly post here on A Slice of Orange and drop by to see her daily posts on Facebook and Twitter where she would be thrilled to comment back and forth with you. And you can sign up for her RomCom Alerts emails to get access to exclusive content, deals, freebies, contests & more!

 

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Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh … My Hero

May 23, 2017 by in category Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh . . . by Geralyn Corcillo, Writing tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

Things that make me go mmmrrh ... | Geralyn Corcillo | A Slice of OrangeLast week, I blogged on a special day to introduce you to Arlen Black, the hero of my romantic comedy Queen of the Universe. He was one of 30 contestants up for Book Boyfriend 2017. I am blogging again today on a special day to announce …

Arlen won!!! ARLEN BLACK won the title of Book Boyfriend 2017!

 

At my very first RWA meeting over a decade ago, I won that month’s first chapter critique from the incomparable Susan Squires, and when they called my name in the meeting, I screamed out from the back of the room, “Oh, my God!”  It was my first meeting and I learned in later meetings that the drawing for 1st chapter critique is usually a bit more sedate. But I was EXCITED! And I was just as excited when I got the news about Arlen Monday morning. “Ron, Arlen won! Arlen won!!” In my exuberance, I spilled my coffee all over my cat, Debbie. I cleaned her up, but she kept her eye on me.

Thank you to you all! To everyone who voted for me, cheered me on, and everyone who’s been loving book boyfriends over the years. This award thrills me because I have been loving books and book boyfriends all my life, and to have written some books that others find delightful just makes me so happy! Who are some of your favorite book boyfriends? Nat Eaton? Captain Wentworth? Michael Moscovitz? Ranger? Mmmrrh …

To see the Slice of Orange post that won Arlen the title, click here.

 


 

First and foremost, Geralyn Corcillo loves reader reviews! In other news…When she was a kid in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Geralyn Vivian Ruane Corcillo dreamed of one day becoming the superhero Dyna Girl. So, she did her best and grew up to constantly pick up litter and rescue animals. At home, she loves watching black & white movies, British mysteries, and the NY Giants. Corcillo lives in a drafty old house in Hollywood with her husband Ron, a guy who’s even cooler than Kip Dynamite.

And she loves to connect with Readers! Check out her monthly post here on A Slice of Orange and drop by to see her daily posts on Facebook and Twitter where she would be thrilled to comment back and forth with you. And you can sign up for her RomCom Alerts emails to get access to exclusive content, deals, freebies, contests & more!

 

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Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh … Book Boyfriends

May 18, 2017 by in category Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh . . . by Geralyn Corcillo tagged as , , , , , ,

Things that make me go mmmrrh ... | Geralyn Corcillo | A Slice of OrangeMmmrrh … Book Boyfriends. For most of my life, I have been dreaming about boys and men who’ve reached right out from the pages and stolen my heart. It all started with Jim Frayne from the Trixie Belden Mysteries. Then came the unforgettable Nat Eaton from Elizabeth George Speare’s The Witch of Blackbird Pond. And Rapheal Sabatini’s Dr. Peter Blood (Some call him Captain). Agatha Christie’s Anthony Cade from The Secret of Chimneys. Mary Stewart’s Rob Granger from Touch Not the Cat. Mmmrrh … the list goes on.

I’m still falling in love with book boyfriends. And even better, I’m creating heroes that readers tell me they adore. This May, Arlen Black, the hero of my romantic comedy Queen of the Universe, is one of 30 candidates up for Chick Lit Book Boyfriend 2017. Meet Arlen …

From the “I’m Trying to Stay Sane” journal of Arlen Black

Why does he need to stay sane, you ask?


From Arlen’s journal: Ray said I should do this, keep a journal. That it helps take off the pressure. The show, the media, my crazy-as-a-duck co-star. But the thing is, nothing about playing this part stresses me out. Are you kidding? After everything I’ve lost … the kids …  saying a few lines on camera isn’t about to faze me.
 
Lola is the one driving me nuts, plain and simple. I said I’d be on her show – and I don’t regret it. She all but tricked me into it, but to say no would have been to crush her dreams. And I couldn’t do it. I WOULDN’T. I wasn’t about to let someone else feel  that kind of screeching pain – not when I could stop it.
 
So no, I don’t regret it. But why did she let me get so close to her? And why did she get so close to me? She says she thought it was all her and she had no idea I was feeling the

attraction, too. Seriously? After that “audition” kiss on the very first day … and then everything that happened on her patio? Man, it’s a good thing I walked out – well, stormed out – when I did.

But I came back. Just to do the show. Nothing else. Because now I know that Lola is a liar and a manipulator and … God, why can’t I stop thinking about her? And why does it keep happening? Every time I’m near her, she makes me feel … God! Even knowing what I know about her – even after everything I lost … Damn it!

She makes me feel alive again.

 

I’d love it if you would vote for Arlen to be Chick Lit Book Boyfriend 2017! To vote, simply email Contest Coordinator Tracie Bannister and say ARLEN BLACK. That’s it! Easy-peasy, and you don’t have to sign up for a thing. Just copy and paste this email address traciebanister@gmail.com  and send a two word email: ARLEN BLACK, and your vote will be counted.

 

If you would like to read about Arlen and Lola, Queen of the Universe is available on
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Amazon
Buy from Barnes and Noble
Buy from Kobo
Buy from Apple iTunes

 

 And if you would like to see how the Book Boyfriend Contest can win you a Kindle Paperwhite loaded with 30 Chick Lit ebooks, click here.

 

Thank you for joining me for this special edition of Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh… I will be posting on my regularly scheduled day, May 27, as well. Hope to see you then, too! In the meantime, I’d love to dish … who have been some of your most unforgettable Book Boyfriends?

First and foremost, Geralyn Corcillo loves reader reviews! In other news…When she was a kid in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Geralyn Vivian Ruane Corcillo dreamed of one day becoming the superhero Dyna Girl. So, she did her best and grew up to constantly pick up litter and rescue animals. At home, she loves watching black & white movies, British mysteries, and the NY Giants. Corcillo lives in a drafty old house in Hollywood with her husband Ron, a guy who’s even cooler than Kip Dynamite.

 

And she loves to connect with Readers! Check out her monthly post here on A Slice of Orange and drop by to see her daily posts on Facebook and Twitter where she would be thrilled to comment back and forth with you. And you can sign up for her RomCom Alerts emails to get access to exclusive content, deals, freebies, contests & more!
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A Harvest of Friends

April 27, 2017 by in category Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh . . . by Geralyn Corcillo, Writing tagged as , , ,

Oh, what fun! It has been ages since I’ve written a blog on A Slice of Orange, but I could not pass up the opportunity to get in on this wonderful site’s relaunch. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Geralyn Corcillo and I write romantic comedy about women who try not to trip as they valiantly march to their own bongo beat. I write to amuse and delight readers, and in this column, I will write about what makes me happy – what in entertainment, literature, and life makes me go mmmrrh and fuels my zany fires. What makes me curl my toes in squeeful delight and what makes me well up with tears of utterly verklempt happiness and what makes me laugh my head off.

For instance, one day a few months ago as I was switching channels, I happened across the very first episode of Little House on the Prairie, titled “A Harvest of Friends,” which originally aired in 1974. The Ingalls family had just moved to Walnut Grove, and no one in town would take a chance on an unknown farmer and give him the seed he could not pay for until he harvested his crop in the fall. No one, that is,  except O’Neil, the hard-nosed, flinty merchant, who trades seed for Pa agreeing to stack bags of grain when it arrives in two days. If Pa does not stack the grain by midnight of the day it arrives, O’Neil will take his team of plow horses, and thus his livelihood as a farmer. And then the day before the grain arrives, Pa falls out of a tree and breaks his arm and some ribs. And O’Neil will not give Pa an extension on the deal. So Pa stalks into town, broken arm and ribs, and starts to stack the grain. Concerned for their Pa’s health and safety, little Mary and Laura follow him but stay hidden. Pa stacks grain until the pain becomes too  much to bear and he passes out, most of the grain still unstacked. So little Mary and Laura run from their hiding spot and try to stack the huge bags of grain themselves. O’Neil smugly watches all, not lifting a finger to help.

And then it happens.

Men from all over the town –  the bank, the doctor’s office, the mill, the church, the General Store – walk into the street, all heading toward O’Neil’s, where Pa is passed out and the girls struggle to move just one huge bag of grain. The men form a line and all the grain is stacked within the hour.  O’Neil’s name is now mud in the town and Pa gets to keep the seed and horses. And all the townsmen ask in return is that they can use Pa’s land to hold the church picnic on Sunday.

Gosh, I started crying like you wouldn’t believe as all the men, this harvest of friends, moved as one toward O’Neil’s in common purpose to come to the aid of a fallen man and his little girls.

Well, that is what I hope A Slice of Orange turns out to be –  A Harvest of Friends, all moving in unison toward the common purpose of loving good stories – whether we are reading them, creating them, marketing them, or all of the above. I write to make readers happy, and I adore finding pockets in life where generosity, delight, and laughter abound. In my writing, I try to capture the essence of such pockets of beauty and sparkle in everyday life.  A Slice of Orange is one such pocket.

Watch for my column on the 27th of every month and drop by to see my daily posts on Facebook and Twitter. Wherever I am posting, please feel free to comment away and we can dish – I love to connect with other lovers of good stories! And you can find all of my books on Amazon.

 

 

First and foremost, Geralyn Corcillo loves reader reviews! In other news…When she was a kid in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Geralyn Vivian Ruane Corcillo dreamed of one day becoming the superhero Dyna Girl. So, she did her best and grew up to constantly pick up litter and rescue animals. At home, she loves watching black & white movies, British mysteries, and the NY Giants. Corcillo lives in a drafty old house in Hollywood with her husband Ron, a guy who’s even cooler than Kip Dynamite.

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Things That Make Me Go Mmmruh!

May 8, 2012 by in category Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh . . . by Geralyn Corcillo tagged as , , , , , , ,


I Like to Watch 


by Geralyn Ruane


As gardener Chance innocently notes in 1979’s Being There, written by Jerzy Kosinski, “I like to watch.” Like me, he is referring to watching TV. 

Specifically, I like to watch romance. A few days ago, Barb and Jann blogged about what writers read while working on works in progress. For me, it’s more about what I’m watching. And I know I am not alone. 


Take, for instance, ABC’s Castle, created by Andrew W. Marlowe. I hear romance writers refer to this Nathan Fillion treat pretty frequently. The show reminds me of one of my eighties favorites, Remington Steele, co-created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason,  with its by-the-book crime fighter and charming rascal of a sidekick motif. Despite Castle‘s silliness, or maybe because of it, the light cop drama keeps me hooked. So, don’t miss tonight’s Season Finale. As they do at the end of every season, the writers bring up Kate’s mother’s murder. But I’m really hoping that this year, Kate and Castle finally get together. And on screen, if you don’t mind! I cannot stand it when a show builds sexual and romantic tension all year or over several years, only to have the two characters finally unite during summer hiatus! (See The Office and the second time around for Doug and Carol on ER.)

This week is also the premiere of Masterpiece Mysteries Season Two of Sherlock, the tales of the adventures of Holmes and Watson in 2012 London. An alternate title could be Sherlock Holmes Meets The Internet.The show fascinates, galvanizes, and positively tickles. And, as February Afternoon Speaker Jennifer Ashley pointed out, Sherlock is an amazing creation to watch for tips on how to make a character unforgettable. And yes, Jennifer Ashley specifically referred to this modern Sherlock, recreated by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat and played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Martin Freeman’s Watson is equally awesome. This week’s episode, A Scandal in Belgravia, is fraught with sexual tension and unequalled in the series for its sheer brilliance.


For a more classic romance, Masterpiece Classic recently aired Birdsong, based on the novel by Sebastian Faulks and written for the screen by Sebastian Faulks and Abi Morgan. While in the trenches, a British soldier in World War I remembers his pre-war affair, and one day while on leave in a small town in France, he catches up with the life he left behind. What begins as a lush tale of romance juxtaposed with the heart-searing agony of warfare evolves into a profound story about life, death, love, camaraderie, and hope.


And if you are ever in the mood to “watch a contemporary romance novel,” one both delightful and satisfying, check out Chad Hodge’s I Want to Marry Ryan Banks, a television movie gem starring Jason Priestly, Emma Caulfield, and Bradley Cooper. A down to earth bookstore owner gets pushed into starring on a reality show that will determine which lucky contestant is to be the bride of gorgeous movie star Ryan Banks. The movie is light, romantic, sexy (but no sex), and fun, as our girl-next-door heroine finds answers and true love in the most unexpected places. 


Watching romance delights me, inspires me, and makes me consider options.


What have you watched lately? And what does it do for you?

Geralyn Ruane has been avidly watching television since she was very young.


       

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