#orange county romance writers

[alexa-santi-author]

My Saturday is going pretty good. How’s yours?

[bllsbailey]

Robert Telles, Disgraced Democrat Official Sentenced To At Least 28 Years After Murdering Reporter

Robert Telles appears in court for an arraignment on an open murder charge in Las Vegas Justice Court at the Regional Justice Center on September 20, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

What ever happened to "eye for an eye justice"?

For the murder of investigative journalist Jeff German, former Democrat elected official Robert Telles was sentenced on Wednesday to at least 28 years in Nevada state prison.

Robert Telles was a former Clark County Public Administrator. He assumed office in 2019 and left office in 2022.

Two years ago, the now-deceased writer, who worked for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, revealed an intimate relationship between Telles and a female coworker in addition to other articles of his criticizing Telles’ inappropriate behavior and corruption in the workplace.

After a jury found Telles guilty of murder in August, the court later added sentencing enhancements for factors like “lying in wait, using a deadly weapon, and the reporter’s age” to add eight more years to the minimum 20-year term.

“Lying in wait” refers to “holding oneself in a concealed position to watch and wait for a victim for the purpose of making an unexpected attack and murdering or inflicting bodily injury on the victim,” according to Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Telles spoke to German’s family during the sentencing and expressed his condolences, but he still tried to claim that he was innocent, according to CBS station KLAS-TV.

In his defense testimony, 47-year-old Telles denied killing German by stabbing him in September 2022. However, there was substantial evidence against him, including his DNA found under German’s fingernails.

Telles was the elected administrator of a county office that deals with probate property and unclaimed estate issues at the time. He has been in jail without the opportunity for bail since his arrest.

Nevertheless, Telles plans to appeal his conviction, according to Robert Draskovich, his defense lawyer. The slain writer, German, was 69-years old. He was a well-respected journalist who covered corruption, justice, and crime in Las Vegas for 44 years.

After German’s articles were published in May and June 2022, which detailed chaos and harassment at the Clark County Public Administrator/Guardian office as well as a secret relationship between Telles and a female employee, Telles lost his primary for a second term in office. After his arrest, his legal license was also suspended.

“Police sought public help to identify a person captured on neighborhood security video driving a maroon SUV and walking while wearing a broad straw hat that hid his face and an oversized orange long-sleeve shirt. Prosecutor Pamela Weckerly showed footage of the person wearing orange slipping into the side yard where German was stabbed, slashed and left for dead,” CBS News reported.

Police discovered a maroon SUV at Telles’ residence, along with sliced fragments of a straw hat and a gray athletic shoe that appeared to be those worn by the individual captured on local CCTV.

When Telles took the stand to defend himself, he was still unable to explain his DNA being found on German or the components of the disguise that were discovered on his home.

For the first time in his lengthy testimony, Telles also acknowledged that the office romance was real, admitting that the reporter’s article was factual. However, he still denied killing German and claimed that a large-scale conspiracy, involving the police, a real estate corporation, DNA experts, former coworkers, and others had “framed” him.

“I am not the kind of person who would stab someone. I didn’t kill Mr. German,” Telles claimed. “And that’s my testimony.”

Telles maintained that German ruined his career, damaged his reputation, and endangering his marriage, according to prosecutor Christopher Hamner.

Additionally, Telles told the jury that at the time German was killed, he went to the gym and went for a walk. However, there was proof that Telles’ wife had texted him, asking, “Where are you?” about the same time he was killed. According to the prosecution, Telles was unable to be traced because he left his phone at home.

After three days and almost twelve hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Telles. Before determining that Telles would be eligible for parole, the tribunal heard testimony from German’s brother and two sisters regarding his punishment, as well as heartfelt requests for leniency from Telles’ mother, wife, and ex-wife.

Because German was older than 60, Judge Michelle Leavitt of the Clark County District Court was authorized to increase Telles’ sentence by up to eight years for both lying in wait prior to the attack and employing a lethal weapon in a willful, deliberate, premeditated death.

Steve Wolfson, the district attorney, expressed his “hopeful and confident” belief that the judge would sentence Telles to a life sentence in prison.

“This defendant has shown absolutely no remorse, no acceptance of responsibility,” said the elected regional prosecutor. “And in fact, his behavior is such that I believe he is an extreme danger to the community if he is ever released.”

Telles’ conviction has sent “an important message that the killing of journalists will not be tolerated,” said Katherine Jacobsen, the U.S., Canada, and Caribbean program coordinator at the committee.

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

[cocktailsfairytales]

The Hubble

by Cindy Kehagiaras Stories

(Tennent Surf, #3)

Publication date: June 26th 2024

Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

Kelly, aka Katia, and more alias’ is ready to leave her job as the cyber specialist for an international clandestine group of “fixers” and return to her hometown in Orange County, California, and her first love, Brad Tennent. She’d only met him once eight years ago; her hacking experience allowed her to follow Brad over the years and learn exactly what kind of girls he liked. Blonde, flirty and ditzy. And that’s exactly who she will become. She needn’t have bothered with the dye job, spray tan, and dumb act. He was smitten at their first meeting with the weird goth girl, her bossy opinions, and her stunning lips and cheekbones. He’d compared every woman to her for eight years. Brad, known as the pretty boy heir to The Tennent Surf Company, lets everyone in his life make decisions for him. He spent his days surfing, dating many women, and partying. But meeting the strange, judgmental girl years before and her insistence that he could do anything he put his mind to made him question his entire life.

“The Hubble” is the third book in The “Tennent Surf” series, PREQUEL to “The Perpetual” and “The Dasher”.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/.../213227760-the-hubble-a...

Purchase:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3KKhm0G

AUTHOR BIO:

🏆"The Perpetual," my over 40-second chance romance, has won the coveted "Stiletto Award" by Contemporary Romance Writers in the Mid-length Contemporary Romance category.

BIO: My writing journey began after my 50th birthday, and the pandemic lockdown allowed me to write. Some of my stories have haunted my dreams for decades. When the characters shouted day and night, I knew I had to write about them. These days I love to read and write stories about second chances with GenX characters in over 40, later in life, and mature steamy romances.

My previous lives have been in advertising, fashion, and small business owner. I've made it my life’s ambition to push through the challenges of dyslexia to consume novels, poetry, and articles and tell my stories.

A proud native Californian, I live in Hermosa Beach, CA, with my husband of 17 years, two beautiful kids, and two spunky-rescue kitties.

Please find me on all social media platforms.

https://linktr.ee/cindykehstories

GIVEAWAY

The author is hosting a Goodreads giveaway for a copy of The Hubble.

Enter to win here: https://www.goodreads.com/.../391533-the-hubble-a-tennent...

Hosted by Xpresso Book Tours

[sijey]

18 Years of Existence | Autobiography

I am Coleen Jasmine Priagola, I just turned 18 on last 9th of March 2023. I'm the eldest daughter of my parents Roxan and Dave Priagola. I am currently residing in Dasmarinas City, Cavite while my dad lives in General Trias Cavite. I grew up idolizing my lola, who died of health complications years ago. Writing my autobiography appeared to be a simple task before, but after what happened to my lola, I found it difficult to explore and observe the events in my life. I am a student at Emilio Aguinaldo College and have been an Emillian since 2021. As a student, I strive to be active and functional not only in my classroom, but also in school organizations. I joined the Supreme Student Government, Journalism, and Hygiene Advocate organizations in junior high, but as a senior high school student, I was only able to join journalism as a news writer. I enjoy a wide variety of music and art, I like all sorts of music genre such as pop punk, rock, opm, country music, indie, and a lot more. As of the moment, I enjoy listening to Rex Orange County, Taylor Swift, My Chemical Romance, Eggboy, Queen, and many more. I sometimes enjoy listening to classical music most especially the one made by Antonio Vivaldi. I have eight cats whom I consider my family since my lola died. Their names are Patoti, Bachi, Pawi, Pawpaw, Popaw, Tsooya, Ampi and Pochi. These cats have been with me through thick and thin and I can safely say that I am more attached with them than any other animals of even people. Coffee is my favorite drink aside from matcha and iced tea. I drink coffee when I am happy, sad, stressed out, burnt out and even when spacing out. I drink coffee causing me to have health complications but anyway coffee is life as they say.

All of these facts about myself are part of my journey as a senior high school student, and I hope to look back on them when I go to college. To be a lawyer is what I want to attain and in able to acquire that, I must be consistent, persistent and wise in every steps and plan that I will take to make my dream of ideal self happen. Upon thinking deeply of my ideal self I realized that aside from being a lawyer, it is essential for me to be happy also. Treat yourself like a plant that needs water, air and sunlight to grow. For me, to be able to have my dream profession it is also important for me to prioritize my happiness and mental health. To conclude, my ideal self has to be mentally strong and capable to handle things in life. Unibersidad ng Pilipinas has always been my dream school although it is indeed difficult to pass UP's standard, I am still hoping to pass the qualifications.I took a picture when I went there once that has a sign saying "never again, never forget". This sign represents my political stand, principle and political awareness. Last presidential election I became woke about the injustices roaming around the Philippines and I realized how people are blinded by fake news, red tagging, misinformation, distortion of history made by dirty driven politicians, Marcos’s clan for example. Leni Robredo the one I supported had serve as a light for the hopes of many Filipinos. Concluding my existence would be too early, although my 18 years of existence have been tough for me, I sometimes wonder how life will turn out if I will continue my life’s journey.

[mariannedonley]

The 2022 Book Buyers Best Contest

Hurry! The 2022 Book Buyers Best (BBB) Contest, sponsored by the Orange County Romance Writers (OCRW), closes on March 31, 2022, but it’s not too late to enter if you act quickly. @OCRomWriters

Hurry! The 2022 Book Buyers Best (BBB) Contest, sponsored by the Orange County Romance Writers (OCRW), closes on March 31, 2022, but it’s not too late to enter if you act quickly. The BBB Contest is for published writers of traditional or indie romances that are novella- or novel-length and were published in print or e-novel format during 2021. Non-refundable entry fee: $25 for OCRW members; $35…

[tcm]

In Conversation with Eva Marie Saint and Norman Lloyd by Susan King

Anybody who has attended the TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL in Hollywood knows what a magical experience the event is for fans of vintage movies. There’s such good will, love and friendship there that it’s hard to choose what the favorite event is at the Festival, which would have celebrated its 11th edition this April until Covid-19 cancelled the four days of classic films.

One of the most popular presentations are the “Live From” events, which features some of the greatest actors and filmmakers from the Golden Age of Hollywood in conversation with the late, great TCM host Robert Osborne and now with Ben Mankiewicz, the channel’s primary host. These interviews have played on TCM over the years. And a select few, including interviews with Oscar-winners Luise Rainer, Eva Marie Saint, Faye Dunaway and such legends as Norman Lloyd and Peter O’Toole, will be featured during the TCM Classic Film Festival: Special Home Edition.

As a movie writer for 26 years at the L.A. Times. I’ve had the good fortune of interviewing many of these legends. Here are some memories of my conversations with two of my favorites, Eva Marie Saint and Norman Lloyd.

Eva Marie Saint

I have lost count of how many times I have interviewed Eva Marie Saint, now 95, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar as Edie, the girlfriend of Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), in Elia Kazan’s 1954 Academy Award-winning masterpiece ON THE WATERFRONT.

But I remember the first time.

I was at the now defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner when I was assigned to talk to her in 1986 about director Garry Marshall’s NOTHING IN COMMON, which stars Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason in his final film. Saint had long been a favorite of mine. I was a huge fan of ON THE WATERFRONT and admired her performances in 1957’s RAINTREE COUNTY opposite Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 romantic thriller NORTH BY NORTHWEST opposite Cary Grant and Otto Preminger’s 1960 epic EXODUS, where Saint was romanced by Paul Newman. I had also seen her on stage in 1979 in Los Angeles opposite Henry Fonda in the hit comedy First Monday in October.

From the moment she opened the door of the Westwood townhome she shared with her late director husband Jeffrey Hayden, I felt an immediate bond with her. Not only did we both hail from the same hometown, East Orange, N.J., Saint was down-to-earth, friendly and smart as a whip. And she’s always been frank and funny.

The last time I interviewed her in person in 2014, Saint talked about doing live TV in the late 1940s and 1950s. “My God, terrible things happened,” she said with a laugh, including exposing more than her talent on the soap opera One Man’s Family. Saint was doing a scene in a small pool opposite the actor who was playing her brother. At one point, she recalled, “someone was doing something offstage. You learn not to look away from what you are doing because you can be distracted.” But she finally looked, only to see a man off camera pulling his shirt up and down. “I looked down and saw my boobies were showing coast to coast,” Saint said, laughing. “I just kept in the scene and slid under the water. What could I do? It was live television. To this day, all of these years later, someone will say to me ‘Miss Saint, you were doing One Man’s Family…’ and I’ll say, ‘I remember.’”

Saint was married to Hayden for 65 years until his death at 90 in late 2016. And he was as exceptional a person as Saint, sweet and friendly. I asked her how the two met. Saint was a young actress and model in New York in the late 1940s, and Hayden was working in radio at NBC. “He saw me on the subway from the back, and he liked the way I walked,” Saint said with a smile. Hayden also noticed a big black book she was carrying that was her modeling portfolio. “The book I was carrying said ‘Eva Marie Saint’ in gold letters,” she noted. “He thought ‘I like the name.’”

They were fated to meet. Not long after seeing her on the subway, Hayden saw her again at Radio City talking with actor Arnold Stang, who also happened to be the only actor that Hayden knew. “So, he could go over to Arnold and Arnold would say ‘Hi Jeff, do you know Eva Marie?’”

The married in 1951, had two children and grandchildren.

My heart skipped a beat when she talked about how strong their marriage was after six decades. Saint noted she had been “thinking about life and I guess I was a little low. I said ‘Jeffrey, what in today’s world inspires you?’ He put his head up and said ‘You.’”

Norman Lloyd

Norman Lloyd, who is still going strong at 105, is one of the most accomplished actors/producers/directors. Beginning as child actor in the 1920s, he starred on Broadway as a member of Orson Welles’ legendary Mercury Theatre in the late 1930s.

He’s appeared in countless movies, including as the evil villain who falls from the Statue of Liberty in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1942 classic thriller SABOTEUR, as well as Jean Renoir’s 1945 THE SOUTHERNER and Charlie Chaplin’s 1952 LIMELIGHT. And TV audiences may know him as the kindly Dr. Auschlander on NBC’s acclaimed medical drama St. Elsewhere from 1982-88.

Lloyd also had one of the strongest marriages in Hollywood. He and his wife Peggy, who died in 2011, were married for 75 years. Having interviewed him several times, I can attest that he is a terrific storyteller and the sweetest of peas.

When I chatted with him at his cozy Brentwood home in 2014, he was still playing tennis twice a week and regaling me with stories about Hitchcock (Hitchcock, Renoir and Chaplin were among his best friends.) In fact, Hitchcock saved his career in the 1950s. Lloyd had discovered jobs hard to find because of the Hollywood Blacklist. Though he was not officially blacklisted, his liberal leanings and friendship with those who had been blacklisted hurt his career.

That didn’t stop Hitchcock from hiring him to be an associate producer on his classic anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1957. CBS told the Master of Suspense that there was a “problem” with Lloyd. Hitch persisted. “He said three words: ‘I want him,’” Lloyd recalled.

The Tiffany network, not wanting to upset one of the biggest directors in the world, immediately greenlit Lloyd, who initially worked with producer Joan Harrison, eventually became the executive producer of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour which ran until 1965. Lloyd also directed episodes of the series, including the devilishly fun 1960 installment “Man from the South,” starring Peter Lorre, Steve McQueen and the King of Cool’s then-wife Neile Adams.

Hitchcock and Lloyd reunited in the late 1970s for THE SHORT NIGHT, a thriller Hitch was hoping to make after 1976’s FAMILY PLOT. “Hitch, by the way, was not at his physical best,” Lloyd recalled. “He was really getting old and had difficulty walking. We were working on the script one day and he says to me, ‘You know, Norm. We are not going to make the picture.’”

Lloyd asked him what he meant by the statement. “He said to me a classic line: ‘Because it’s not necessary.’ When he died, the Directors Guild asked me to write a tribute to him, which I did. That’s what I ended it with.“

[alexa-santi-author]

That fantasy romance novella of mine that I keep half-jokingly saying is my thinly-veiled Tom and Zawe fanfiction?

It just came in first in the Paranormal Romance category of the Orange County Romance Writers’ Orange Rose awards. (And my Regency romance came in third in the Historical Romance category.)

More proof after they post the finalists on their website. 😊

You can pre-order the anthology it’s in on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Under-Your-Spell-Fairytale-Collection-ebook/dp/B09QLNWY1Y/

The announcement:

https://ocromancewriters.org/contests/orange-rose-contest/

[appleteez]

I was tagged by my beautiful Suni, the Changkyun to my Jooheon (monbebe romance, anyway..) thanks love~ @ckyunoirs ♥︎

Relationships: One for a little bit over a year, and I guess kinda in one right now?

Breakups: 3 (two of them were middle school breakups so I don’t count them as relationships)

Kids: Either 2 or 3, I really want twins and the gene runs in my family so fingers crossed. 

Brothers and Sisters: Two little not so little brothers :]

Pets: I have two cats ! Dinky and Mia and they’re idiots but the loves of my life. 

Surgeries: Oof two, three if you count wisdom teeth. 

Tattoos: None.

Countries: I travel a lot so a pretty long list, I’m just gonna say my favorites: Spain, France (lived there), Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Morocco, and Belgium. 

Been in an airplane: Multiple times. 

Been in an ambulance: Too many times.. 🙃

Sang Karaoke: If you count alone in my room at 3am after having mental breakdowns for my college classes then yes :)

Been Ice-Skating: Yes, but I prefer roller blading. 

Been on a Cruise: Not specifically a cruise but I’ve been on boats to go to another country (Spain -> Morocco) 

Driven a Motorcycle: I want to get my permit so bad. 

Ridden a Horse: For a few years, and it was the best :)

Stayed in a Hospital: Yes.

Favorite Fruit or Berry: Passion fruit 

Favorite Colors: Yellow and red~

Last Text: “I miss you so much” :(

Coffee or Tea: Both but I will lean towards one more depending on my mood. I drink a lot of coffee lately. 

Favorite Pie: Apple pie (not the American one though… French apple pie, the real one. Sorry not sorry any American pies are disgusting.) 

Favorite Pizza: I’m not a huge fan of pizza but probably a classic mozzarella, tomato, basil :)

Cats or Dogs: Cats !!!

Favorite Time of Year: Beginning of fall when it’s still a bit warm. 

Met a Star: Alexander O’Connor (aka Rex Orange County) 

Flown in a Helicopter: Nope. 

Been on TV: Nope.

Broken a Leg: Nope. 

Seen a Ghost: Nope (don’t believe in them) 

Been Sick in a Taxi: Nope.

I’m gonna tag : @lovely-kpop-writer @13-scoups @incorrectmonbebe if you cuties want to do it :) and anyone who wants to do it ♥︎

[safflowerseason]

i do think that it's kind of funny how everybody decided to forget all the stupid things seth cohen does in s1 and 2 just bc adam brody turned out to be hot and a decent (as far as i know!) human being. like, there are legitimate reasons why he should be up there w ted mosby and ross as a 'nice guy' who's not that nice. but he isn't! and you know what? i'll allow it.

I’ve heard somewhat mixed things about Adam-Brody-the-human-actor...nothing monstrous, just, like, that maybe he’s not *that* different from Seth Cohen. Or wasn’t while he was filming the show, anyway, which was a long time ago.

Seth Cohen is basically Ross in high school, if you think about it...if Ross grew up in Orange County in the early 00′s, hahaha...a nerdy Jewish kid who likes comic books and has a long-standing crush on a girl who barely acknowledges him. There are a lot of similarities in the way that Seth acts around Summer and Ross acts around Rachel, especially in the earlier seasons of both series. (actually...I wouldn’t be surprised if Schwartz was subconsciously influenced by Ross and Rachel...Friends was such a phenomenon at that time.) Another Anon wrote in a few weeks ago about the similarities between Seth and Ted Mosby, but HIMYM is dead to me as show, so I don’t have as much to say there, lol. 

It’s pretty crazy to consider how much has changed in the last twenty-five years--even the last ten years--in terms of how we think about “romantic” male behavior. We recognize how problematic characters like Seth Cohen and Ross Gellar are now (not even solely in the romance department, either) Today, viewers (especially women) now feel more empowered to call out what’s wrong with that behavior--how dehumanizing and sexist it can be. And also the way we consume media has changed...we can now watch and rewatch the episodes and shows we love, in a way most people didn’t twenty years ago...in a way it gives us more space to wrestle with the implications of how these male characters were written. 

So in that sense, I think it’s also important to recognize how these characters (and their shows) are products of their time. And to even pull apart the nuances within their characterizations too! Like, I don’t think Friends writers ever framed Ross’s insane jealousy and his controlling tendencies in the earlier seasons as a good thing, even though they obviously were deeply invested in the relationship and used it to handwave all kinds of plot shenanigans on Ross’s behalf.

[escondidolibrary]

Join us for a live Facebook Q&A with NYT Bestselling author Lauren Blackwood in Facebook discussion with Sarah Hollowell, G.K. Ray, and Tanya Ross on Thursday, Feburary 17 at 5:00 p.m. PDT!

We’ll be discussing Young Adult Fantasy Fiction! Purchase book from Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore.

About the authors: Lauren Blackwood is a Jamaican American New Yorker living in Virginia who writes Romance-heavy Fantasy for most ages. When not writing, she’s a physical therapist assistant and violinist who really doesn’t know how to settle on one career field. Her debut YA novel, Within These Wicked Walls, is a NYT/Indie Bestseller and the Reese’s Book Club Fall 2021 YA Pick.

Sarah Hollowell is a queer fat Hoosier writer aiming to up the magic quotient of Indiana. She graduated from Ball State University with a degree in creative writing, and she remains there to this day. A Dark and Starless Forest is Sarah’s debut YA contemporary fantasy novel from HMH. Her work has also appeared on The NoSleep Podcast, Huffington Post, and Fireside Magazine, among others.

G.K. (Garrett) Ray graduated from Palomar College in 2013 with an Associates Degree in English. For many years, he has tutored grade schoolers in reading and writing through his work at Orange Glen Elementary, his old “stomping grounds”. Passionate about reading and the arts, he believes in finding a great story for every child and keeping programs like music in schools.

Tanya Ross was born and raised in San Diego County, her “happy place.” Although Southern California is a particular kind of paradise, she desires a world where everyone is kind, compassionate, and upbeat, which became one of the themes of her new novel, Rising Up.

[mariannedonley]

The 2022 Book Buyers Best Contest

The 2022 Orange County Romance Writer’s Book Buyer’s Best (BBB) Contest is now open for published writers of traditional or indie romances, in novel-length or novella-length, and in print or e-novel format. @OCRomWriters

The 2022 Orange County Romance Writer’s Book Buyer’s Best (BBB) Contest is open for published writers of traditional or indie romances, in novel-length or novella-length, and in print or e-novel format. Entries must have been published during 2021. Non-refundable entry fee: $25 for OCRW members; $35 for entrants who are not OCRW members. We have nine categories. The contest is open now and…

[livinginlandmarketing]

Author and Redlands native James Fallows is happy with HBO’s adaptation of his book “Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America,” which he researched and wrote with his wife Deborah Fallows.

The documentary, which features a segment on the Inland Empire, debuts on the cable channel on Tuesday, April 13, and will also be available as streaming video on HBO Max.

“I’m a person just of the print world,” Fallows said in a phone interview. “I had no idea what it would look like to create a film about our themes. Once my wife Deb and saw it we said, ‘Of course, that’s what it would be.’”

The Fallows spent five years researching their book visiting towns across the nation for their book. The book was published in 2018, and after HBO acquired the rights they hit the road again for 100 days with filmmakers Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan.

“We were astonished and grateful for the beauty of how they reimagined this message in a completely different medium,” he said.

He said the film “talks about the conjoined histories of Redlands, San Bernardino and Riverside.”

A Martin Luther King Day march in Riverside is featured in the HBO documentary “Our Towns,” based on the book by James and Deborah Fallows. (Photo courtesy of HBO)

“The Inland Empire is a place that people don’t know,” he says that the start of the nearly 20-minute segment. It includes a visit to Project Fighting Chance, a youth outreach program in San Bernardino; Norton Air Reserve Base; an orange packing plant at Redlands Foothill Groves; a homeless survey in San Bernardino County; Cajon High School in San Bernardino; a visit to the Redlands campus of tech company Esri; and the role of warehouses to the local and national economies.

Alert viewers can catch glimpses of the 210 Freeway, a Martin Luther King Day march in Riverside; signage for Taco Joe’s Mexican Restaurant; and people sipping drinks at Augie’s Coffee, the Redlands chain that went out of business last year.

In addition to the Inland Empire, the documentary includes segments in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Columbus, Mississippi; Eastport, Maine; Charleston, West Virginia; and Bend, Oregon.

Shooting was completed shortly before the novel coronavirus lockdown in March 2020.

Some Inland residents who are featured in the film got to preview it last weekend, and he said they shared his impressions that the film is beautiful and “the face of America it presents that people aren’t generally aware of.”

Fallows is a staff writer for The Atlantic and former editor of U.S. News & World Report. He was a speech writer for President Jimmy Carter. His entry into the world of journalism began as a paperboy for the Redlands Daily Facts, and he said he was also a sports correspondent when he was a student at Cope Middle School.

“Our Towns”

HBO: Airs 6 and 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 13 on HBO and HBO HD

Filmmakers: westcityfilms.com

Book: ourtownsbook.com

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  -on April 12, 2021 at 07:50AM by Fielding Buck

[graziadiocenterilpostino]

A message from Dr. Vettore

Dear Friends of Il Postino, In my new role of Chair of the Graziadio Center for Italian Studies I am pleased to personally welcome you all to this Fall semester and give you a few updates about the Center. First, however, I want to thank Dr. Clorinda Donato for the marvelous job she did in leading the Center for the past years and to wish her all the best in her new endeavor as Director of the Clorinda Donato Center for Global Romance Languages and Translation Studies: onwards and upwards, Clorinda! The Graziadio Center and the Italian program, I am happy to say, are healthy: we can look at the future with confidence despite a myriad of changes —small and large— that lately have transformed our physical and emotional landscape.  My tenure as chair could have started, of course, under a friendlier star, but dealing with the present in order to ensure the future success of our students and of the Center seems more constructive than speculating on “if only” scenarios. Let’s therefore look at what new and exciting experiences lie ahead: there will be plenty of them. In the Fall of 2020 our MA cohort has increased by two new students; three, or possibly even four more will join in the Spring semester, for a grand total of thirteen graduate students: a very good trend and a very good overall number for such a young MA program that bodes well for the future. In an effort to attract more undergraduate students to our Italian program, the Center has planned to increase the Italian program’s visibility by actively reaching out to community colleges and high schools where Italian is taught. For the same purpose, and also to reach out to a larger audience for its events, the Center has also started the year by consolidating its already strong ties with the Italian American community in Los Angeles and Orange County and by establishing new contacts with the Italian American community in San Pedro. Club Italia, which I have the privilege to advise, began the academic year vibrantly and contributed to the visibility of the Italian program at large. Under a new president (Mariana Barrios), the Club has thus far organized weekly Tavola Italiana meetings and a pre-screening of a new Italian American documentary (Heirloom, on November 5th). Other student-oriented activities have punctuated the first two-thirds of the semester while upcoming club events will focus on Italian cuisine and culture. You can find the full lineup of the club officers and the list of activities and events in this very issue of Il Postino. For the Fall of 2020, the Graziadio Center has already organized one very successful event and has quite a few more in the making. On October 29th, Drs. Francesco Chianese and Laura Ruberto explored written and visual artifacts from the perspective of the ever-fascinating topic of Italian American identity captivating a strong audience of 65 people! The balance between scholarly rigor and student-oriented presentations appealed both to our undergraduate and graduate students and to the many renowned scholars who graced the pixels of our first Zoom event. The ensuing discussion was positively energizing and stimulating.   On December 1st, the Graziadio Center will celebrate the release of Dr. Clorinda Donato’s latest book, The Life and Legend of Catterina Vizzani: Sexual identity, science and sensationalism in Eighteenth-Century Italy and England. The author will discuss her transnational research together with Drs. Norbert Schürer (CSULB, English) and Pasquale Palmieri (University of Naples, Federico II–– History). For the next semester, at least three more interesting events have been planned. The year 2021 marks the 700th anniversary of the death of Italian poet Dante Alighieri. In addition to a course on Dante’s Divine Comedy offered in collaboration with the department of Comparative World Literature, the Graziadio Center is organizing a round table on the greatest medieval Italian poet. Alessandro Manzoni’s reflection on the interconnectedness between the plague and social justice will be the timely topic that Dr. Massimo Lollini (University of Oregon) will address in his February 2021 lecture. The Center will also celebrate the famous civically engaged Italian writer Leonardo Sciascia’s 100th anniversary of the birth with a guest speaker in the Spring or Fall semester of 2021. These events are open to the public and are meant to demonstrate to our students the deep connection between literature and (civic) life. So far, this strategy has worked well, producing students who have become both young scholars and engaged citizens of the world. Indeed, the spotlight section on our students shows that our graduates thrive after a BA or MA in Italian Studies, be they PhD students in Barcelona, Spain, like Francesca Ricciardelli, or newly appointed instructors of Italian for Spanish speakers at UC Irvine, like recent MA graduate Emily Cota. Not to mention Joanna Tatro, the new Program Assistant to the Graziadio Center, who is a recent RGRLL graduate with one MA in French and one in Italian. Students, however, always need new stimuli. New translation studies faculty joined the Department of Romance, German, and Russian Languages and Literatures: Dr. Giulia Togato (featured in this issue of Il Postino), who started teaching at CSULB in August, and Dr. Adrià Martín-Mor who will be a member of the department starting January 2021 (his profile will be featured in the next issue of Il Postino). Their arrival promises a future of collaboration with all the language programs and opens new exciting paths for our students. The future looks promising, albeit the present is still uncertain and not always easy to deal with, for reasons we all know too well.

To conclude, please allow me to wholeheartedly wish you all good physical and mental health; may we all flourish in a world pervaded by the principles of social justice and equity.

Sincerly,

Enrico Vettore

[tabloidtoc]

Globe, December 28

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Farewell to 93 legends we loved and lost in 2020 

Page 2: Up Front & Personal -- Steve Martin holds a green pepper on the NYC set of Only Murders in the Building, Derek Hough is light on his feet at the MTV Movie & TV Awards 

Page 3: Julia Roberts looks scary skinny during a solo stroll in Hawaii, Chris Pratt hoists a hoverboard during an L.A. workout 

Page 4: Troubled twosome Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are hoping to put their year from hell behind them by renewing their vows over the holidays in a desperate big to keep their love alive -- Ellen wants to prove her long-suffering wife comes first ahead of Ellen’s daytime talk show and her many celebrity friends and is going all out to show it -- penny-pincher Ellen opened her wallet as wide as her heart telling Portia she could spend whatever she wants on clothes, food, drinks, music and invite whoever she wants at the New Year’s vow ceremony on a Santa Barbara beach

Page 5: Obsessive Blake Shelton is so stressed over his upcoming wedding to Gwen Stefani he’s turning into the Groomzilla from hell -- he is sparing no expense and shelling out millions to redo his Oklahoma ranch to impress the couple’s Tinseltown friends but the mountain of stuff still to be done is driving him around the bend even though no one’s putting pressure on him but he’s obsessed with the wedding details and driving his staff crazy with his constant orders and revisions -- he’s building a chapel on the ranch and a lighted boat for a romantic wedding cruise on the lake and picking the style of the canopy for the banquet floor and re-landscaping the grounds and adding a color-themed garden

* Kenya Moore of Real Housewives of Atlanta reveals she went on a date with Kanye West but bolted when she caught him watching inappropriate flicks -- she described the outing with Kanye as a disaster date and they ended up going to his house where he left her alone, wandering around and when she followed the noises he was watching something on TV that he probably shouldn’t have been and that was her exit 

Page 6: Matthew Perry was such a slave to his addiction his former galpal Kayti Edwards says he’d send her to score drugs while she was pregnant and Matthew insisted she was the perfect drug mule because he believed cops wouldn’t stop a gal in her condition Kayti claims in a shocking tell-all about her 2011 romance with Matthew -- she says his ravenous cravings for cocaine and heroin were so out of control that he once superglued his hands to his legs and he took up to 80 Vicodin pills daily -- Kayti claims she was trying to protect Matthew because she feared he’d end up wandering around the streets and being nabbed by cops or snapped by photogs but she was also getting paid big bucks like $3000 to $4000 a day 

Page 7: Duchess Camilla’s taste for an early morning tipple has rubbed off on husband Prince Charles who is now so hooked on the sauce he starts the day guzzling a powerful gin martini with breakfast and now Charles’ alarmed staffers and pals are talking about an intervention to remind him not to go down the path that put his second wife in rehab -- Charles’ booze consumption has been off the charts for years but drinking first thing in the morning with his breakfast is a new low -- Charles laughs off suggestions he has a booze issue but one look at his bloodshot face tells the story 

* Now that a COVID-19 vaccine’s been approved in Britain Queen Elizabeth says she’s going to get the shot but wait her turn instead of pulling royal rank but she and husband Prince Philip won’t wait long because at their ages they’re in the second group to get the vaccine which is health care workers and people over 80 

Page 8: Helena Bonham Carter has a world-shakin’ suggestion for gals frustrated by the COVID-19 lockdown: get a vibrator -- she says women shouldn’t worry about snaring a beau during the pandemic but that’s easy for her to say because she’s currently cuddling with toyboy writer Rye Dag Holmboe 

* George Clooney confesses wife Amal Clooney had him shaking in his boots when he popped the question and she didn’t answer -- he asked her out of the blue but instead of squealing yes immediately the brainy lawyer just stood there -- George says he was on his knee for like 20 minutes and finally said he was going to throw his hip out -- Amal finally agreed and the couple have three-year-old twins 

* The nip/tuck freak daughter of Olivia Newton-John is being blasted as a hypocrite for coming out against the new COVID-19 vaccines -- Chloe Lattanzi claims she doesn’t trust doctors or the vaccine but critics note she had no problem shelling out an estimated $550,000 to plastic surgeons for nose jobs, super-sized boobs and ballooned lips 

Page 9: Since his life-threatening health scare game show icon Pat Sajak’s been testy and snapping at contestants and crew members leaving insiders fearing he’s heading for a breakdown -- the once-cheery Wheel of Fortune host is a different man since recovering from emergency surgery for a blocked intestine and is having difficulty coping with the workload -- he just can’t keep up with the pace and he’s pushed to the very limit and can’t seem to function doing this job and it’s all spilling over and manifesting into these ugly outbursts which are shocking viewers -- he even glares at long-time help-mate Vanna White when he gets frustrated or forgetful and she is really too nice to complain about it but she’s definitely been taken aback by his behavior 

Page 10: Proof UFOs are real -- new photos taken by Navy jets reveal we are not alone 

Page 12: Celebrity Buzz -- WWE legend Ric Flair (picture), Real Housewives of Orange County’s Braunwyn Windham-Burke maintains she’s not attracted to men despite renewing her wedding vows with her husband of over two decades -- she says she is gay but she loves husband Sean Burke and they plan on staying married although they don’t sleep in the same bedroom and they are raising their kids together but he knows the girl she’s dating and he’s been given the thumbs-up to date too, Liam Payne believes he’s being haunted by spooks -- convinced spooky spirits were inhabiting his West London digs Liam moved but spooks popped up at the new pad and he thinks the new house is even more haunted than the old one, George Clooney handpicked an even better looking doppelganger to play his younger self in his new flick The Midnight Sky who is screen legend Gregory Peck’s grandson Ethan Peck -- George said it was tricky because people know what he looked like when he was 35 years old but he rejected the high-tech gizmos used to weirdly reverse Robert De Niro’s age in The Irishman but he did mix his voice with Ethan’s since his voice is pretty recognizable, Matthew McConaughey’s kids Levi and Vida used their phones to photograph him for his latest magazine covers because of quarantine they couldn’t do normal photoshoots so the kids became the photographers 

Page 13: Tom Arnold dines out in Rome (picture), Aubrey O’Day (picture), Brooke Burke in Mexico (picture), pregnant Meghan Trainor was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and she’s healthy and her baby boy is healthy but she has to really pay attention to everything she eats 

Page 14: Luke Evans denies hiding in the closet to advance his Hollywood career saying it was the last thing he had because everything else he’d given to the world and adding that he left home at 16 because he was gay and went into the world as a kid because he had to, Mindy Kaling managed to keep two pregnancies under cover and kept the kids’ middle names under wraps until now -- a fan wondered why Mindy who is of a Indian heritage gave her kids Caucasian names but their names are Katherine Swati and Spencer Avu 

* Fashion Verdict -- Blanca Suarez 3/10, Olivia Palermo 1/10, Nicky Hilton 9/10, Bella Heathcote 2/10, Catt Sadler 8/10 

Page 16: True Crime 

Page 17: Martha Stewart confesses her painful divorce in 1990 was a terrible thing and she hasn’t talked to ex-husband Andrew Stewart since but she bounced back from the pain and her infamous prison stint because she’s very strong and motivated to get on with life -- still Martha admits being dumped by her husband for another woman after 29 years of marriage nearly did her in -- Martha also reveals serving five months in West Virginia in 2004 on a federal insider stock trading rap was a struggle but she got through it by working on her arts and crafts 

Page 19: 10 Things You Don’t Know About Don Lemon 

* Dolly Parton pulled no punches when discussing her longtime romance with Carl Dean dishing she and her husband have been together for 57 years and married for 54 and she’s sick of him and she’s sure he’s sick of her -- the couple have rarely been seen in public together and she says their marriage succeeds because she stays gone and they’re not in each other’s faces all the time 

* Miley Cyrus says she’s mastered the art of staying safe during lockdown love and it’s by having online sex -- she said the safest sex in these COVID-crazy times is the virtual kind and that’s where Miley has been hooking up

Page 21: Cover Story -- Thanks for the Memories -- tribute to the stars we loved and lost in 2020 

Page 22: Alex Trebek 

Page 23: Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna, Kelly Preston 

Page 24: Kirk Douglas, Sean Connery 

Page 25: Olivia de Havilland, Chadwick Boseman 

Page 26: Robert Conrad, Naya Rivera 

Page 27: Regis Philbin 

Page 28: Kenny Rogers, Roy Horn 

Page 29: Eddie Van Halen, Little Richard 

Page 36: Health Report -- eating bread can toast your brain 

Page 38: Ghostbusters icon Dan Aykroyd has turned into a ghoulish recluse who rarely leaves his $25 million Martha’s Vineyard estate where he’s now eerily planning his own funeral -- the bizarre 68-year-old appears perfectly healthy yet he spooks around in his bed clothes muttering about who he wants to officiate at his memorial service and the goodies the chef should serve at the wake -- the curious thing is he appears to be in no danger of dropping dead anytime soon and he’s sturdy as a horse which is surprising given the cigars and the vodka and the big meals he enjoys -- Dan’s wife of 37 years Donna Dixon has gotten used to her husband’s ghoulish monologues

* Bob Dylan sold his extensive back catalog of more than 600 songs including Blowin’ in the Wind and Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door to Universal Music in a blockbuster deal topping $300 million 

Page 40: Patrick Stewart confesses he’s been furious all his life and he’s still seeing a shrink to control his rage -- he reveals he’s burned with rage inside since childhood when he witnessed his dad’s violence against his mom and he had to suppress all that anger -- at age 14 he feared he’d explode and kill his headmaster when he caned him and later he worried he’d hurt his two children with first wife Sheila Falconer in a fit of fury and now at age 80 it’s still there so he sees a therapist every week 

Page 44: Straight Talk -- The Weeknd has his nose out of joint because he wasn’t nominated for any Grammys this year and he claims he’s being snubbed because he’ll be starring on the February 7 Super Bowl halftime show a week after the Grammys 

Page 45: Jeffrey Epstein’s accused madam Ghislaine Maxwell is a paranoid mess losing her hair and wasting away in federal prison where she’s terrified shadowy forces have marked her for death -- the shrinking British socialite who denies recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein’s twisted lust is charged with sex trafficking minors as she rots in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center awaiting trial next year 

Page 47: Bizarre But True 

[alexa-santi-author]

It was not just a dream. Here’s the final list of nominees.

https://ocromancewriters.org/contests/orange-rose-contest/

[galadrieljones]

Eleven

Tagged by @thevikingwoman for this one. Thanks, you! ^^

1. Post the rules 2. Answer the questions given to you by the tagger 3. Write 11 questions of your own 4. And tag 11 people

1. First fandom you read fanfics for?

Nineties boybands! *NSync, Backstreet Boys, and Hanson specifically. I wrote some, too. o.O

2. Favorite way to relax?

Wine, a TV show I’ve already seen a million times (currently that’s Party of Five), and doing stuff like this questionnaire on tumblr. Also, when husband and I want to relax together, we’ll make popcorn and watch documentaries on Netflix.

3. Something you disliked as a kid/teen but like now?

...myself? Eep, sorry if that’s too heavy. It took me forever to figure out that I was a person. I feel like I was always striving to be some other person--some other girl. I was like an identity chameleon. Part of this was that the things I was good at and really loved doing, I kept a secret, because my parents didn’t understand them and would therefore kind of approach with suspicion: writing, art, music. I played sports in high school and masqueraded as a jock for a long time. I was popular, and I dated jocks, hung out with jocks, mostly till I was in college. In college, finally out from under household suspicion, I kind of got rid of all that. I dated different kinds of boys and sang a cappella and majored in creative writing. The creative writing success got me into graduate school, where I specialized further and finally eventually figured out what the fuck I was doing, and I found the parts of me I liked, and I used those, and the other parts, the worse parts, most of which were bad habits, I took note of, so I could fix them over time. I learned to be like, “I’m not perfect, but that doesn’t mean I’m a shitty person.” It honestly took me until about I was 30.

Oddly, I did end up marrying a jock. But he was like the boy version of me in high school--he was good at sports, and it was easy to masquerade as someone who loved them and to participate in the culture they inspired. I still love sports, but tbh I’m much happier in my quiet writer lady existence and very glad I found my intellectual jock husband. 

4. How far away do you live from the place you were born?

About 2,000 miles.

5. One thing there HAS to be in Dragon Age 4, which does NOT involve Solas

My facking Inquisitor. I have several. They do not all romance Solas.

6. Favorite fanfic trope

When characters dress up and go to a fancy party!! 

7. How many first cousins do you have?

I don’t actually know? Part of my family is estranged. I know for sure there are ten.

8. (I’m stealing this one!) You’re stranded on a desert island. What three fictional characters are there to help you survive or escape?

John Locke (Lost), Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), Clarke Griffon (The 100)

(I have no survival skills and am a major mouse so I need the best of the best.)

9. What do you eat for breakfast?

Uh, a donut. Lol.

10. If you lived in Thedas, would be prefer to be a mage or not? Why? Which race would you want to be?

No. Magic is an unwieldy construct to me. In Thedas, I don’t know which race I’d prefer, but I think I WOULD be a merchant class human, like a blacksmith’s daughter, living in a mid-sized, sort of backwater city in the Free Marches or Ferelden.

11. Most beautiful nature you have seen?

The views from Big Sur. The sublime weirdness of Wyoming. I love the canyons of Orange County. The night sky from my brother-in-law’s cabin in Carmel Valley, CA. I haven’t travelled much. I’ve been all over France and England, and we’re going to Greece and Italy next year, and I am very excited. Of everything I’ve seen, I feel like I still always love the desolate, feral natural world of California best. Probably it’s because it’s just right in my aesthetic.

My Questions:

What is your favorite plant?

Did you dress up as anything for Halloween this year? If so, what? If not, what would you like to dress up as in the future, given the opportunity?

(Stealing) What is something you disliked as a teenager, but like now?

How do you feel about your hometown?

Your favorite Dragon Age related headcanon?

What is the first fandom you wrote fan fiction for? How old were you?

What is your dream career?

(Also stealing this one) If you had to be stranded on a desert island, which three fictional characters would you bring with to help you escape/survive?

What is your FAVORITE breakfast?

Do you have any tattoos? If not, would you ever consider getting one?

What is one of the most important things you have learned (about anything) in the past year?

tags for @buttsonthebeach @wrenbee @amburururu @littleblue-eyedbird @ladylike-foxes @whosafraidofthebigbaddreadwolf @tel-abelas-mofo @thatoneelfwitch @iawv @hansaera (Only if you want!!) <3