Category: Love

Fi's Five Favorite Uninsulting Date Movies #1: True Lies

2/25/2015

(Click the links to read favorite uninsulting date movie #2, #3, #4, and #5)

Before Mr. and Mrs. Smith, there was True Lies.

True Lies is a big, spectacle-happy, explosion-y spy-action movie, a comedy, a subtle self-parody, a love story, and a very nice nod to the damsels of so many movies like it.

If you haven't seen it, here's how it goes:

Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a cool, James Bond-esque, tuxedo-under-a-scuba-suit-wearing super-spy.

Helen Tasker (Jaimie Lee Curtis, I told you she'd be back this month), is Harry's wife of fifteen years.

They love each other, but the emotional distance forced between them by Harry's unpredictable and poorly explained absences and the simple fact that she knows nothing about who he really is has begun to take its toll.

Their daughter is getting into her teens and beginning to pull away, and Helen is bored to death with her office job and lonely home life and desperate to feel anything other than bored, boring, and invisible.

Simon (Bill Paxton) can smell this particular kind of desperate.

Wonder why that is.

Through a set of carefully choreographed cryptic encounters, Simon manages to convince Helen that he’s a spy, and that he needs her help, in the hopes of getting in her pants. Helen doesn't want to cheat on her husband, but she's quickly sucked into the rest of his ploy, tailored as it is to the void in her life.

When Harry finds out, he loses it a little.

But not entirely in the way you'd expect.

He proceeds to divert scary amounts of government resources to investigating Helen and Simon, but when he realizes the full nature of the situation, embarks on a haphazard quest to win back his wife's love and happiness by involving her in his own set of fabricated spy adventures.

The two of them naturally end up sucked together into real international intrigue, which shows Helen her true, adventurous calling and eventually forces both of them to be honest with each other.

With the help of some good old fashioned sodium pentothal.

It's fun, it's over-the-top, and it's got romance to spare.

What image could say date movie better than this?

For a taste of both the heart and adventure and a double dose of what's awesome about Helen, check out my favorite scene. This happens when Harry first finds out about the almost-affair and arranges to question Helen anonymously. The scene is much longer than the best clip I could find, so again I beg you to watch the movie.

(The quote at the beginning of this clip, while cool, is not part of said movie)

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!

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Fi's Five Favorite Uninsulting Date Movies #3: There's Something About Mary

2/15/2015

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(Click the links for favorite date movie #4 and #5)

In the number three spot, we've got a comedy that rides the traditional guy flick/chick flick line with extraordinary closeness. There's Something About Mary predates the aughts wave of guy-oriented rom coms revolving around Seth Rogen by close to a decade, and it struck the balance beautifully out of the gate.

If you haven't seen it, here's how it goes:

Mary's the girl every guy wants. Not the girl we're usually told every guy wants, who's dumb as a brick and above noticing anyone outside her social cast and has nothing whatsover going in her favor other than her enormous boobs and, in some cases, being the supposed protagonist. Mary is beautiful ('90s Cameron Diaz). She's also fun-loving, compassionate, and confident but thoroughly down-to-earth. There's not a mean bone in her body, but she'll stand up for anyone who needs it. What's not to love?

Ted's not in her league, or at least, no one thinks he is, including him.

Mary cares not one solitary whit for such things, however, and asks him to prom because she likes him for being a decent fricken' human being.

They never quite make it to prom, not because of a horrific prank, not because of another guy, but because Ted lands himself in the hospital with... a zipper accident.

I'm not including the picture of this.

Ted and Mary lose touch after high school, but Ted never gets over it, and ten years later he hires a PI to find her, which might sound creepy (and let's face it, it is), but is considerably less creepy when you consider that this movie is pre-social media, when the options for reconnecting with former acquaintances were a lot more limited.

Ted and the PI both get sucked into the orbiting vortex of men of varying levels of creepiness obsessing over Mary, who remains lonely and oblivious to all of this, mainly due to her tendency to believe the best of people.

In case you can't tell from Ted and Mary's prom-zipper origin, it's an unabashedly romantic movie with an equally unabashedly R-rated laugh-out-loud sense of humor.

You get heartfelt monologues about the nature of love. You also get wacky sequences of yappy dogs on speed and adlibbing hitchhikers with suspicious red bags.

The laughs keep coming throughout, but to fully illustrate the collision of humor and sentiment, we have to turn to a minor spoiler… Or we would, if anyone had captured the final scene of the movie on Youtube.

Sorry.

You might have noticed that in spite of this list being about date movies, the choice clips so far have both been guys only. This hasn’t escaped me, and I had hopes of breaking the trend today. It’s partly because even the best examples of guy flick/chick flick fusion tend to keep women and humor distressingly separate, and partly because even when the ladies do get in on the laughs, those clips aren’t nearly as widely shared and available.

There’s Something About Mary doesn’t do a bad job in this regard in and of itself, one of the reasons it’s on this list, but I’ll admit clip availability surprised me when constructing this article. Seriously, I was going to throw in another guy/guy comedy scene when I couldn’t find the end scene between Ted and Mary, but I couldn’t even find any of those favorites of decent quality.

Guess you’ll just have to check out the full movie.

Please, check out the full movie!

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!

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Fi's Five Favorite Uninsulting Date Movies #4: Shaun of the Dead

2/8/2015

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(Click here for Uninsulting Date Movie #5)

Next up on our Valentine's countdown of movies uniquely suited to entertain both halves of a celebrating couple, we've got a romantic comedy, with zombies.

See, that's the actual tagline.

If you've seen Shaun of the Dead, you've probably been waiting for it to show up on this list. If you haven't, here's how it goes:

Shaun is kind of a loser. He's in a co-enabling spiral of loserdom with his even less responsible roommate, Ed.

After no one knows how much of this, Shuan screws up one time too many and gets dumped by his patient, understanding, but still self-respecting girlfriend, Liz.

Shaun is heartbroken, but luckily for him, this is the kind of movie where zombies show up in time to devour all normal social structure so the main characters can reinvent themselves and start fresh. Shaun, armed with his signature cricket bat, forms a plan to rescue and/or gather together Liz, his mother, and his friends in the most secure place he can think of, the Winchester Tavern.

Admittedly, Liz is far from the most interesting and memorable female lead on this list, which is the main reason Shaun of the Dead doesn't appear closer to the top spot, but she's handled respectfully, comes across as a sane and intelligent human being, and isn't the butt of the joke, which is more than can be said for many a female lead in both male- and female-oriented movies. One of the overarching jokes of Shaun is the parodying of the unqualified everyman action hero taking charge and saving the day, so that translates to the rest of the characters, male and female, being just about as normal and competent as Shaun is.

In true Simon Pegg and Nick Frost style, everything from the romance to the family drama to the zombie apocalypse is wrapped in dry yet laugh-out-loud British comedy, which breaks at just the right moment to let in an unexpected level of feeling.

We’re not at that right moment yet, though, so enjoy Shaun and Ed’s introduction to the existence of zombies:

In short, it’s sweet, hilarious, and full of zombie action. If your date doesn’t already love zombie action (and who doesn’t in this wonderful age we live in?), Shaun of the Dead is the best place to start.

It worked for me.

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!

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Fi's Five Favorite Uninsulting Date Movies #5: A Fish Called Wanda

2/1/2015

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There's an unfortunate assumption that the terms "date movie" and "chick flick" are more or less interchangeable. This goes hand in hand with the much larger, much more unfortunate assumption that women are the only people with any interest in romance and men are the only people with any interest in anything else.

Matt and I are lucky enough to have strange and eclectic tastes that mostly overlap. We can happily watch everything from Diehard to Hairspray together without owing each other any favors, but in honor of Valentine's Day, this February list shall be a tribute to date movies that dare to cross and blur the gender barrier within a single story. All of them offer at least a little good romance, an uninsulting showing for both its female and male characters, and (as if that weren't enough for any viewer with a soul), at least a little stereotypical entertainment for the guys.

So instead of going out to a certain theatrical release softcore porno based on a fanfic which equates sexual adventurousness with wildly emotionally abusive relationships, stay in with...

In the number five spot, a heist comedy starring John Cleese and Jamie Lee Curtis (who refuses to be limited to a single appearance on this list).

A Fish Called Wanda is an awesome collision of English and American comedy, expected tropes and insanity.

Wanda (a human played by Jamie Lee Curtis, after whom another character named his favorite pet fish), is one of a team of jewel thieves trying to cheat each other out of their take.

Archie (John Cleese) is the lawyer of their arrested accomplice, whom Wanda plans to seduce so she can convince him to get the location of the jewels out of his client.

He's in an unhappy marriage and a generally passionless life and falls for her quickly, but one of Wanda's partners, Otto (Kevin Kline), whom she's also sleeping with, doesn't have quite her level-headed approach to crime and flies off the handle a little.

And by a little, I mean flies off the handle right into a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Archie turns out to be not only nicer but much smarter than Wanda's usual marks, a mental match for her (unlike Otto), and eventually begins to catch on to what's going on, but not before they can form a more real connection than she intended. It's fun and sweet, but we get there through a gauntlet of double-cross drama and Otto-lunacy which devolves into a live action cartoon by the end.

If this scene alone doesn't get a giggle out of both you and your date, I don't know what will.

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!

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Fi's Writing Tips: Writing Romance

11/16/2014

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I’m a relatively new author, freshly coming into my own and long way off from being able to call myself a well-seasoned expert.

It would not have occurred to me to write a list of writing tips, but as an author of a couple of published books that some people seem to like, I’m already often asked by bloggers and friends about my advice on various aspects of writing anyway.

We’ve reached November, that wonderful month when writers try their hands at finishing a novel in a month. No, I’m not participating in NaNoWriMo myself; I’ll be doing is another high speed project, trying to bring my work in progress from first draft to something readable.

But as this is a month when many first time or near first time novelists come out to play, I’ve gathered a selection of the advice I’ve found myself offering, some previously published, some not.

May it be of use.

Click here for tips on writing action.
Click here for tips on writing to scare.

On Writing Romance

(Originally posted on A Love That Can't Be Stopped)

Boy meets girl. He’s handsome, she’s beautiful, they fall in love, they conquer some obstacles and they live happily ever after (or not). We all know the story, right?

Therein lies the difficulty.

I have an odd relationship with fictional romance. I’d have to call myself a romantic, in that I love a good love story following a good couple. Romance is a part of just about everything I write, often my favorite part.

That said, the operative word is part. Most of my favorite romances in fiction would be classified as subplots. The favorites I have that are most central to the stories (Hazel and Augustus of The Fault in Our Stars, R and Julie of Warm Bodies, Lena and Alex of Delirium) still have major plot elements outside of the relationships (terminal cancer, the zombie apocalypse, and a dystopia threatening them with routine lobotomies respectively).

Why is that? Because we know the constants of romance. It’s the variations that allow us to feel it all over again. There are only so many times we (or at least I) can reread two people going through the dating dance, focusing on its moves as if they’re the most important thing in the world. But when those two people’s lives are going through the wringer of another story in its own right, and what they feel for each other can realistically stand up against everything that should eclipse it and keep on mattering just the same, that’s when I believe it. That’s when I care.

So the first ingredient in my personal recipe for romance is a premise that doesn’t start with boy meets girl.

As romance-centric as YA often is, the basic nature of the format actually helps with this, because all teenagers are living a story that’s more than a romance. There’s a coming-of-age element built in. The Prospero Chronicles of course also has the alien invasion that Ben and Mina come together to fight.

Then, with premise in place, our couple does have to meet, and the next two ingredients are the two characters. Sounds obvious, but this is where I see a lot of fictional romances fall short. For a great romance, you need two characters, with their own histories, desires, agendas, strengths and flaws, ways they fit each other and ways they don’t, not one character and a half-character constructed to fit the first one’s romantic needs.

Next, the two characters need something to bind them together. An instant spark between them can be nice, but a situational reason they have to keep seeing each other goes a long way toward giving them time to bond believably in spite of the next ingredient: something the push them apart.

The happy ending can’t be too much of a foregone conclusion, or why bother sticking around to read it? Their personal differences, their circumstances, or both can work for this.

Last but not least, to reach to the heartstrings, I believe a great romance needs at least a sprinkling of anti-romance, like adding a pinch of salt to cookie dough to intensify the sweetness. Love isn’t all poetry and candlelit dinners. The parts we remember aren’t all poetry and candlelit dinners. We remember blistered feet and carrying the uncomfortable shoes that seemed like a good idea for that candlelit dinner. We remember holding each other’s hair while accidentally sharing a stomach flu. We remember laughing at each other’s bad jokes.

When your characters start to love each other at their worst as well as their best, when they love each other for who they are and how hard they try, not how well they succeed at the superficial details of the repetitive romance game we play, that’s when we feel for them. That’s when we love them too.

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!

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Fi's Five Favorite Fictional Parents #2: Daniel (Love, Actually)

6/25/2014

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(Click the links to read Favorite Fictional Parent #3, #4, and #5)

I've already talked about Love, Actually on my lists of favorite fictional love triangles and favorite fictional romantic gestures. It's a movie made up of loosely tied together stories about love of different kinds and a strong contender for my favorite romantic movie.

In this storyline, Daniel (Liam Neeson) is trying to cope with the recent death of his wife and adjust to raising his eleven-year-old stepson, Sam (Thomas Sangster), alone.

Sam is becoming isolated and distant, and after a while, Daniel begins to wonder if there's something wrong beyond grief for his mother and asks if there's anything he can do to help.

Sam confesses, feeling guilty that all his angst is not for his mother, that he's in love with a girl at school, Joanna, who he doubts even knows his name.

Daniel naturally reacts with some amused relief at the news that Sam's problems are normal, healthy growing pains, but when Sam makes it clear how serious he is, Daniel shifts gears right away to trying to help.

Now, this is where a normal fictional parent tells the young character that what he's feeling isn't real, that it doesn't matter, that it'll pass and he'll outgrow it by focusing on more important things.

Not Daniel. After Sam vehemently rejects his requisite first suggestions that he's a little young to be in love, or that there are other girls out there for him, Daniel answers simply,

"Fair enough."

Sam begins plotting to get Joanna's attention, and Daniel supports him even when those plots involve practicing the drums at all hours of the day and night.

I'll be the first to note a certain level of irresponsibility in Daniel's parenting. There's a lot to be said for emphasizing to first-timers in love that the world won't end if that first love doesn't work out, and Sam's romantic gesture at the end of the movie, chasing Joanna through post-9/11 airport security at Daniel's encouragement, ends a lot more romantically for all parties involved than it could ever be expected to in real life.

There's something wonderfully refreshing, though, about a fictional parent who doesn't dismiss the love of anyone younger than himself as frivolous. Daniel's a diehard romantic who dares to try to help Sam with love beyond trying to help him not be hurt by it, and Sam welcomes the support. When suggesting the ill-advised airport stunt, Daniel offers the generally far more sage romantic advice that,

"You've got nothing to lose, and you'll always regret it if you don't."

Add to that to the rarity of positive fictional stepparent/stepchild relationships, and these two and their brief plotline is a standout favorite.

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!

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Fi's Five Favorite Uses of Silence in Fiction #3: "Say Something"

3/18/2014

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(Click the links to read Favorite Use of Silence in Fiction #4 and #5)

I almost didn't write this entry.

I scrambled at the last minute to find a different silence, but everything that came to mind felt too similar to other entries, or to a better moment just out of reach of my brain.

I seriously considered saying, "Sorry, this list will only have four spots.

See, this song and I have had our ups and downs. Every geek of any category knows how this goes.

I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it, when it was newly released. I'm talking about before the Christina Aguilera re-release. It swept me off my feet and helped inspire the topic I'd then assign to this month.

Then, suddenly, it was everywhere. Every radio station, every other song almost, every stranger's pair of earbuds turned up too loud.

I generally try really hard not to be petty toward works of art that "I liked first, damnit!" and be happy for the artists' success, but hey, I'm imperfect, and that instinct sometimes gets the better of me.

Shaking it off now. Re-embracing my love for this song. No matter how many people are talking about how great it is, I will too.

I don't often write about music, because it's fairly far removed from my area of expertise as a novelist, and when I do, it's usually about songs out of musicals and operas, where the surrounding stories are apparent, or songs that tell a complete story themselves, like last month's entry on "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree," but A Great Big World's "Say Something" is one of those songs that paints just enough of a picture to get the exact feelings of the situation across while leaving the details up to the imagination.

The accompaniment is simple piano that swells at the appropriate moments in a very stage-like style, and the most often repeated lyrics, found both in the verses and the refrain, are "Say something, I'm giving up on you," always the entire phrase said at once.

The picture we get is of a person in an increasingly one-sided relationship, still in love, but realizing that he can't go on with the way things are. He needs some kind of assurance that he's not the only one who still cares at all, to get a rise of any kind, really, even an argument, or he's done.

This isn't the angry kind of breakup song, the kind thrown in someone's face or celebrating their absence. It's sung with sadness, and the lyrics keep coming back to flickering hope-against-hope that he'll be asked to stay.

It's a tearjerker right from the start, but the moment that made me realize just how much I love it is also the moment that made (and spawned) this list.

After we've become used to that whole line, "Say something, I'm giving up on you," the last line is simply, "Say something," followed by a silence that waits for an answer and goes unfilled.

And yes, I give due credit to the re-release for recognizing the power of that moment and drawing out that silence before the final piano chord.

Either way, ouch.

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!

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Fi's Five Favorite Fictional (Mostly Insane) Romantic Gestures #1: "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree"

2/26/2014

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(Click the links to read Favorite Fictional Romantic Gesture #2, #3, #4, and #5)

In the top spot, rounding out this February celebration of crazy-sweet acts of love, is a '70s hit song, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree," which you can listen to here:

If you've never heard it, here are the basics:

The poetic speaker has just been released after three years in prison for stealing something. We never find out what or why.

The important thing is that he had a girlfriend when he was arrested, and he's on his way back home, not knowing whether she's moved on without him while he's been gone.

He wants her back, but he acknowledges that three years is a long time and that it's his own fault he was gone, and he doesn't want to force her into an uncomfortable confrontation or walk in on something he doesn't want to see, so he's sent ahead a letter.

"I'll stay on the bus, / forget about us, / put the blame on me, / If I don't see a yellow ribbon 'round the ole oak tree."

This invites plenty of awful potential scenarios involving postal service failures and tragic misunderstandings, so as sweetly as he means it, this isn't the gesture that takes this spot.

But luckily for him, this isn't a tragic story, his girlfriend hasn't moved, and the letter arrives safely, giving her the chance for the gesture that tops this list.

"Now the whole damn bus is cheering / and I can't believe I see / a hundred yellow ribbons 'round the old, the old oak tree."

I realize it's a figure of speech, but can you imagine tying a hundred ribbons to a tree? I always picture this tree covered with every bit of yellow cloth she could get her hands on, around every space she could reach, wrapped around the whole trunk, blowing in the wind from the branches like streamers.

This is admittedly the least crazy gesture on this list. Ribbons aren't particularly difficult or risky to come by, but I'd call it one of the sweetest.

The singer poses a question, effectively "Do you still love me?", the ultimate request for reassurance. He's desperate and apologetic. It would only take one ribbon for her to say yes and have him back, grateful and eager to make the last three years up to her, but she doesn't play that game.

Instead of saying yes, she shouts it from the rooftops, emphatically, unreservedly, and beyond his wildest expectations, and it gives me the warm-and-fuzzies every time I hear it.

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!

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Fi's Five Favorite Fictional (Mostly Insane) Romantic Gestures #2: Tangled (Haircut Scene)

2/20/2014

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(Click the links to read Romantic Gesture #3, #4, and #5)

If you haven't seen it, Tangled is Disney's recent retelling of Rapunzel. I won't call it the most perfect of Disney movies; plenty of the humor feels like it was written by a committee with a few of its members under the impression that Dreamworks is a viable role model,

Guess which of these famous Fionas I get compared to the most. Go on, guess.

…And it seems to forget about halfway through that it's supposed to be a musical, but I love it anyway for what songs it has, and for its princess, prince, and the relationship between them.

Rapunzel has been trapped all her life in a tower with no one but the woman she believes is her mother. Unlike in the fairytale, this Rapunzel's hair has magical healing and youth-restoring properties, and her imposter mother, Gothel, only cares about her as a way of living forever, but her imitation of love is all Rapunzel has ever known.

This Rapunzel also runs away from her tower voluntarily when she realizes Gothel will never let her go, a change I'm going to call a fair exchange for cutting the eye-gouging scene from the original.

No, I'm not joking.

...Anyway, Flynn, our prince, is a petty thief who stumbles across Rapunzel's tower right when she’s in the mood to blackmail someone into giving her a tour of the outside kingdom.

He's an orphan, born Eugene Fitzherbert, who's created his Flynn Ryder rogue persona in an effort to redefine and take care of himself alone.

On their adventure through the kingdom, they both develop feelings for each other beyond what they originally wanted out of their deal, but through a combination of Gothel's interference and Flynn's criminal past, they end up separated, with Rapunzel back in her tower and Flynn awaiting execution.

With some help from their new friends, Flynn breaks out of prison and goes back to find Rapunzel.

This is where we finally get the obligatory hair-climbing scene that there are mysteriously few screen captures of.

When he gets into the tower, Gothel stabs him in the side and tries to drag Rapunzel off to a new secret location, but Rapunzel convinces her to let her save Flynn with her hair first, promising in return to continue keeping her young without a fight.

That's a serious gesture. Flynn's response to it is even better.

When Rapunzel gets close enough, he cuts her hair,

...Making her useless to Gothel and setting her free.

This is a one-two character moment for him. He's spent his life only taking care of himself, she's spent hers being appreciated for her hair's power and nothing else. In one moment, he changes both those things.

So what happens? Gothel crumbles into dust, Flynn passes out from blood loss, and Rapunzel discovers that her healing power is in her tears too.

To anyone who thinks this comes out of nowhere, try reading the eye-gouging fairytale version in which Rapunzel has shown no magic powers whatsoever up to this point.

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!

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Fifteen Reasons Why I Have the Best Husband in the World

2/13/2014

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I was originally going to do something more general interest today, maybe a runner up to the romantic gesture countdown, or a romantic reading list, but screw it. It's Valentine's Day and I'm in love, damnit, and I’m going to write about what I'm really thinking about.

This is by no means a comprehensive list.

1: He can always make me laugh. Yeah it's become a cliché, but it's true. My life without his sense of humor would be a bland and somber place.

2: He can appreciate things like musicals and YA lit with me and hope for the same depth in them that I do. He's a romantic in all the important and best ways.

3: He also taught me to appreciate things like, oh, horror, comic books, things that are part of me now that I could have missed out without him.

4: He proposed to me like this. If you don't know the story, yes, we're dressed as Ghostface and Carrie. It was Halloween.

5: He thinks my YA drama style is worthy of imitation

6: I do my creepiest work by imitating him.

7: He cares about what's important to me. Sure, we've both got our competitive streaks that help us spur each other to be better, but the support is always, always there.

8: After eight years of friendship, dating, and marriage so far, he's always happy to see me, and I can't wait to see him.

9: He’s not afraid to sing.

10: He’s not afraid to dance

11: He’s a picky eater who trusts me to cook for him, the quick and the complex, the healthy and the decadent, and everywhere in between.

12: He’s happy to snuggle under a blanket with grilled cheese sandwiches and the same movie we’ve seen a hundred times when money’s tight.

13: When there is money to splurge with, he knows it will buy a hell of a lot more fun in the form of books, games, DVDs and day trips than in diamonds.

14: He's my critique partner, brainstorm partner, and, when all else fails, my designated driver.

15: He understands and forgives all my artistic neuroses. He gets the ups, downs, and compulsions the way no non-author could. All without either of us being the drugged out, ear-removing sort of artistically neurotic. That's part’s nice too.

I love you, Matt. Happy Valentine’s Day.

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<<Previous

Fi's Five Favorite Uninsulting Date Movies #1: True Lies

Fi's Five Favorite Uninsulting Date Movies #3: There's Something About Mary

Fi's Five Favorite Uninsulting Date Movies #4: Shaun of the Dead

Fi's Five Favorite Uninsulting Date Movies #5: A Fish Called Wanda

Fi's Writing Tips: Writing Romance

On Writing Romance

Fi's Five Favorite Fictional Parents #2: Daniel (Love, Actually)

Fi's Five Favorite Uses of Silence in Fiction #3: "Say Something"

Fi's Five Favorite Fictional (Mostly Insane) Romantic Gestures #1: "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree"

Fi's Five Favorite Fictional (Mostly Insane) Romantic Gestures #2: Tangled (Haircut Scene)

Fifteen Reasons Why I Have the Best Husband in the World

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