Welcome to week two of The Big Love Letter Event! For those of you who missed the introductory post a couple weeks ago, this event will run every Friday through March 13th and will consist of love letters written by some truly amazing authors. Danny from Bewitched Bookworms and I will each be hosting different letters every week (Danny's post will be up on Saturday this week – hop over there tomorrow for a little something special from Nikki Kelly!), so be sure and check out both blogs for a bigger and better celebration of all things swoon-worthy. We'll also be hosting a fantastic giveaway, so don't forget to check the bottom of the post for all the details, as well as links to all the previous love letters in case you missed them!
Today I'm immensely pleased to welcome author Liza Palmer to the blog with a fun and different kind of love letter. We left the guidelines for these letters wide open, wanting the authors to write whatever made them happy, so it's always an absolute blast to see what they come up with. Below is Liza's letter to the movie Ladyhawke (mentioned in her latest release, Girl Before A Mirror), a film I'm clearly going to have to track down to watch this weekend. Movies from the 1980's for the win, always!
Dearest Ladyhawke The Movie:
You are the story of the Captain of the Guard and “the face of love.” You are the story of how sometimes even epic love is about making sure your partner has clothes after a day spent being a hawk. You are the story about a man and a woman who had everything taken from them and even though it was revenge and sorrow that may have fueled them in the beginning, it was love and hope they chose in the end.
“Impossible. Impossible. Nothing is impossible.”
These are your opening lines. And these opening lines are at the very heart of the tale you tell. That while we’d think the impossible is the fantastical idea that by day she is a hawk and by night he is a wolf, what is truly impossible for the lovers to believe in is the hope that one day they could free themselves from the curse. You are the story of how Navarre and Isabeau, two lovers who are “always together, eternally apart,” learn to trust and forgive. That the Bishops’s dark curse was as burdensome as the grudges they held.
You taught me what love is, Ladyhawke. You gave me a discerning heroine who never let her sorrow get the best of her and an alpha male who knew that true strength was found in tenderness.
This isn’t a story of young love. This is a love that has been through the ringer and survived not on drama and adrenaline, but on the daily grind. For two years, Isabeau and Navarre waited for a sign. For two years, they existed out of sight with just the other’s company. For two years they just showed up.
You taught me that love is not about possession. It is a marriage of equals. You also taught me that true love is more about what one does, and less about what one says. Actions, not words. You protect me during the day and I’ve got your back at night. Theirs is a love beyond words.
A 1980s time capsule that had its talons in me from the first second of those opening credits. Rocking music playing behind mall glamour shots of a hawk flying past sunsets and sunrises and as a kid I remember being instantly enamored. You were something else.
You were the first DVD I ever bought, Ladyhawke. Did you know that? That was back before you could just stream movies into your house from space. No, I had to work for you, Ladyhawke. But, you wouldn’t have it any other way. That’s the only kind of love that you understand.
Hawks and wolves forever,
Liza Palmer
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GIRL BEFORE A MIRROR
The author of Conversations with a Fat Girl—optioned for HBO—returns with the hilarious and heartfelt story of a woman who must learn how to be the heroine of her own life-a journey that will teach her priceless lessons about love, friendship, family, work, and her own heart.
An account executive in a Mad Men world, Anna Wyatt is at a crossroads. Recently divorced, she’s done a lot of emotional housecleaning, including a self-imposed dating sabbatical. But now that she’s turned forty, she’s struggling to figure out what her life needs. Brainstorming to win over an important new client, she discovers a self-help book—Be the Heroine, Find Your Hero—that offers her unexpected insights and leads her to a most unlikely place: a romance writers’ conference. If she can sign the Romance Cover Model of the Year Pageant winner for her campaign—and meet the author who has inspired her to take control of her life—she’ll win the account.
For Anna, taking control means taking chances, including getting to know Sasha, her pretty young colleague on the project, and indulging in a steamy elevator ride with Lincoln Mallory, a dashing financial consultant she meets in the hotel. When the conference ends, Anna and Lincoln must decide if their intense connection is strong enough to survive outside the romantic fantasy they’ve created. Yet Lincoln is only one of Anna’s dilemmas. Now that her campaign is off the ground, others in the office want to steal her success, and her alcoholic brother, Ferdie, is spiraling out of control.
To have the life she wants-to be happy without guilt, to be accepted for herself, to love and to be loved, to just be—she has to put herself first, accept her imperfections, embrace her passions, and finally be the heroine of her own story.
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
LIZA PALMER
After earning two Emmy nominations writing for the first season of VH1’s Pop Up Video, she now knows far too much about Fergie.
Palmer’s sixth novel, Girl Before a Mirror, is the story of Anna Wyatt, a driven ad exec who must attend the annual RomanceCon to land the Romance Novel Cover of Model of the year for Luxe Shower Gel’s spokesman.
• • • • • • • • • • •
GIVEAWAY
Danny
and I have (what we think) is a pretty fabulous giveaway that will run
for the entirety of this event with 5 winners in total when all is said
and done:
- Winners 1-4: Each will get a book of your choice from one of the participating authors. (Open internationally as long as Book Depository ships to you! )
- Winner 5 : Hardcover copy of LAILAH by Nikki Kelley plus
some awesomely cute swag (international ). Prize is provided by author -
thank you so much!
Don't forget to check back both here and at Bewitched Bookworms every Friday in February for more letters and a whole lot more love from these fantastic authors:
- Kristen Simmons (The Glass Arrow)
- Mindee Arnett (Polaris, The Nightmare Dilemma)
- Melissa Landers (Invaded)
- Sara Raasch (Snow Like Ashes)
- Emery Lord (The Start of Me and You)
- Liza Palmer (Girl Before a Mirror)
- Laura Lee Guhrke (Catch a Falling Heiress)
- Anna Banks (Joyride)
- Heather Demetrios (I'll Meet You There)
- Nikki Kelly (The Styclar Saga)
- Paula Stokes (Liars, Inc.)
- & More!
