Allie Pleiter with BIG news!

Hold on to your hats, readers, I have BIG news! 

Daniel Craig has been cast in the movie version of HOMEFRONT HERO!!!

The famed new James Bond announced Thursday that a landslide of Twitter requests convinced him to take a brake from his duties as Agent 007 to play dashing WWI Captain John Gallows.  “The character goes through such depth of emotion, such a grand scale of change, that I was drawn to the role immediately,” Craig said in a release through his publicist.

Who will grace the silver screen as Gallows’ nurse lady love Leanne Sample?  The producers are keeping silent, saying only that readers will be “thrilled with the choice.”

“It’s every writer’s dream,” author Pleiter comments with a wide grin, “to have your characters come alive in the hands of an actor you respect and admire.  I couldn’t be happier to see him bring Gallows to life.  While I thought I might be sorry to see Mr. Craig lose his suave British accent in favor of John Gallows’ South Carolina drawl, a single minute of screen test convinced me.  He’ll be absolutely wonderful.  Fans of the book will be more than satisfied, believe me.”

April fools. None of the above is true. Come on, you didn’t expect a smart aleck like me to let 4/1 roll by without at least one good joke, did you?

Allie Pleiter on birthdays

Last weekend, I turned 50.  Sort of.

Actually, I turned 49 1/2, but we had a party anyway.  Here’s why:  my husband turned 50 last November, and I’ll turn 50 this coming November.  Rather that roust up two parties, we held one party exactly halfway between our two 50ths.  We called it our “50-50%-50 Party.”  Actually, if you want to get technical, we celebrated our 100th--and someone gave us a 100th birthday card.  I hope I get to use it for real one day.

I love to celebrate.  If celebrating were a spiritual gift, it’d be my primary one.  Actually, I think it is...rather like encouragement in a party dress.  

I’ve told people before I think of myself as God’s disco ball; reflecting His light to jazz up any occasion and make everyone feel like it’s okay to get just a little bit silly.  I have a little mirrored mobile handing in my kitchen to remind me of that personal metaphor.

It was comfortable to mark this milestone because it wasn’t really there, and I have to admit I’m okay with turning 50 this year.  

Well, talk to me again in November and we’ll see if my positive attitude sticks....

What about you?  Have you had a milestone birthday recently?  How did you feel about it?

By the way, if you’re in the Raleigh North Carolina area, come see me at the Carolina Fiber Fest this weekend!  I’ll be giving away 100 copies of HOMEFRONT HERO!

Allie Pleiter on loving books

Book fairs are among my favorite places. So many wonderful, temping volumes in one room!

Sitting in a book fair, I see faces pass by that hold the "I want them all!" expression.   I feel it, too--the happy yearning for all the time in the world to read every book I want (and, I suppose, an unlimited book budget!).

Of course, I don't have all the time in the world, and neither do you. So I have to find lots of creative ways to feed my book appetite. The neat thing about today's world is that there a lots of ways to devour books.

I listen to audio books in the car. I have one book loaded on my iPhone, another on my iPad, two paper books in my house, and there's almost always one stashed somewhere in my car. And then there are the stacks of reference books scattered around the floor by my desk for research. For example, my current in-progress collection includes one contemporary romance, one historical novel, a nutrition book in audio form, a collection of essays on my iPhone, a spiritual book on my iPad, and a literary novel in my car. 

Such a buffet of words! While there are days I can manage a long, luxurious read, most days I am "snacking" anywhere I can.

What about you? What's in your "daily diet" of reading and how do you get to it?