I picked another book to read from my successful free downloads from iTunes.
This time I picked 'One of Us' by Antonia Adams. Antonia Adams joined the Xcite team in 2010, but she is no stranger to writing. She uses various pseudonyms and her work has been published extensively in the UK and abroad for the last 25 years. She also lectures in creative writing at events around the country. This book is a small one, comprising only of 136 pages on my iPhone 5.
The story is about successful 35 year old artist Natalie Crane who meets handsome, independent and spirited Will Falcon at her art exhibition. A romance is quickly formed with the secretive Will, only to end in heartbreak and betrayal, so Natalie thinks. As Natalie's art show comes to a close, so does her relationship with Will, especially since he stands her up on her last day in Dorset. While the romance is in full swing the sex is hot and steamy and very well written. While in Dorset, Natalie's most beloved and treasured painting, 'Waiting for her Lover' is stolen and Natalie jumps to the conclusion that it was the enigmatic Mr Falcon, who only recently was found to be admiring it too closely. When Natalie goes back to Dorset to confront Will...a different surprise awaits her.... It is a well written story and I enjoyed it thoroughly even if it was a really quick read.
Other books written & edited by Antonia Adams include:
Firstly, final weeks of Uni and this week saw me finishing not 1 or 2 assessment items BUT 3 assessment items! And received marks for an earlier assessment piece - which was very disappointing.
Two more to go and then another semester is over.
To be honest...not doing so well this semester. The semester started out very slow and somewhat disorganised (aussie spelling lol). This is reflected in the results. The best I can hope for is a pass, which is still achievable - after a lot of cramming! :-)
I'm no brainiac - obviously, but at least when I put my mind to something I can still do OK. Nothing wrong with average! Some knowledge still leaks in and stays in sometimes.
So after my epic post I got very busy and hardly even had any time to scratch myself let alone study much. The weekend after my epic blog I basically just buckled down and researched for my debate topic. Team meeting and more research. The debate was on Friday at 4:30pm - who does that to people? Obviously law lecturers don't have a sense of humour or a very cruel one!
Anyway, day off work to do more research and then a team meeting before facing the firing squad. My team was lucky because we got there early enough and the lecturer asked if we wanted to sit through the debate before ours and listen to the adjudicators comments. Did we ever? Lucky we did because I think the comments were an enormous help. Needless to say we won the debate, even though I felt that I stuffed up my 5 mins of fame :-). I'm just not good with having to think on my feet and prepare a rebuttal then and there. I didn't do too well at that! Regardless of my performance the team won anyway and that was mostly due to my insistence that we link the topic to the course materials. THANK GOODNESS I INSISTED!!!! This is what won us the topic.
Oh yeah, our topic was "Traffic speeding laws are legitimate and effective". My team was selected to argue from the negative side. I enjoyed the research for the topic, not so much the delivery. On top of preparing my argument, I also had to prepare a 2000 word argument, due a week later, representing the affirmative side. This wasn't too hard because basically most of the material I used I had come across when researching the negative side; however it still took me around 5 days to put it all together and especially making sure that it tied in with the course materials and was properly referenced. That was lodged on Wednesday and unfortunately, the results will not be known until almost the end of the semester.
The 3rd and final assessment item due this week was a 40 question multiple choice exam on Contracts. Oh what fun! I'm not doing so well in Contracts because the other subject is taking up all my time with research and this reflected in the multi-choice test. I scored, drum roll please!?, 22 out of 40! SHOCKING!!!! So in total with the other assessment pieces, I have 24 out of 40 points, which is still a passing grade, but it just means that I have to really cram from now until the end of semester exam to actually maintain the pass. I CAN DO IT!
With all this frantic studying and research I haven't had much time for anything else, including sleep. I think probably over the last week I may have had around 10-12 hours in total. On top of all the study/research I also work full-time and have an 11 year old child who has a life too! Cricket season has started so we had our first training night on Wednesday and the first game is on this Saturday - 8.30am start. Why?
Between my travels in the library and trawling through internet sites for research materials I did manage to snag a few hours for some personal 'interesting' reading. A girl gotta have her priorities straights!
Not much, just some good entertainment and some very thorough education on BDSM. It certainly is an eye-opener and made me wonder if there are really people out there who are into this kind of sexual kinkiness?
But if I'm honest, I have to admit that some of it sounded kind of exciting and had me questioning myself if I would ever try anything like it if given the opportunity?
Let me run through the characters:
We have the very predictable main male character "Mr Christian Grey", who is needless to say tall, somewhat dark and extremely handsome. But, of course, the positive attributes don't just stop there! He also happens to be filthy rich, a considerate and very skilled lover, who no doubt is very well endowed. To top it all off he is also very talented, good at everything, philanthropic and very generous with his money. Now we know that this is a fairy-tale, because in reality such a man does not exist! But in fantasy land he is every woman's dream come true :-)
then we have:
The very beautiful, naive, skinny, virginal, main female character "Ms Ana Steele". This charming leading lady is not only all of the above, but she is also smart, intelligent and has a will of iron. She won't let any man - regardless of his character or bank balance - boss her around. I think deep down though she is just a little too stubborn and also not possessed of a lot of common sense. A lot of the story-line could have been avoided if only she wasn't soooo lacking in common-sense. Nevertheless the character on the whole is endearing and had me rooting for her all the way to the end. (but that's only because I myself am a closet feminist)
E. L. James then thought up a few extra characters to pad out the story in order to fill 3 whole books of around 500+ pages each. There was no real purpose in the additional characters as there were no real stories involving them, except in the last book...but I won't discuss details for those who haven't read them!
I found it most admirable that this author could take a very popular, extremely well written and entertaining series of books which were later converted to movies - change the qualities, names and attributes of the main characters - and then come up with a whole story of her own. I realise that this trilogy saw its beginnings as fan-fiction, but to be able to develop a story such as this with such humble beginnings is admirable. It got me thinking, if she could do it why can't I? But I think the answer to that is that the story to pseudo copy has to be something that is very popular and has sold a lot of copies with a potential movie deal in the wings. If the right story could be nabbed, there is a winner!
Here comes the million dollar question. Who do you think should play the leading characters of this movie?
My pick for Christian Grey is definitely Matt Bomer. Check out his fan site! Unfortunately, some disturbing news is that he may be "too busy". I don't believe it! Who would say no to a role like this? In other news, Ian Somerhalder, is playing it cool, but is willing to step up for the auditions. Does anyone think he would make a good Christian Grey? I'm undecided on him as my heart is set on Matt Bomer!
Matt Bomer
I'm uncertain about the actor for Ana Steele. Some suggestions refer to either Ashley Greene or Alexis Bledel. I personally am leaning towards Alexis Bledel. Sorry Ashley, but as much as I love you in Twilight - I just don't think the role of Ana is for you. I think I'm skewed by Twilight, but I can only imagine you as Christian's sister Mia. I think, in order to distance itself from Twilight, actors should be picked who had nothing to do with the original Twilight series. This would make the movie feel a little bit more independent and not just a spin-off from the Twilight series.
Alexis Bledel
So what does everyone think? And now I've added an unofficial trailer starring both my favourite picks - Matt Bomer and Alexis Bledel.
And finally, here is something for the not so faint hearted! This one is with the delectable Henry Cavill - who, by the way, is also a good choice for Christian Grey. Enjoy!
