Did you see “Enchanted” with Patrick Dempsey and Amy Adams? Amy was awesome as the princess and made an imaginary story seem believable. And Dempsey was charming as usual.

Dempsey had a part in the acclaimed “Freedom Writers” which released in 2007. In this one, he played Hilary Swank’s husband. There’s a 2003 movie titled “Lucky Seven” and if you haven’t seen it, you should. Kimberly Williams and Patrick Dempsey are both in it and it’s a cute romantic movie. In “Sweet Home Alabama” Dempsey plays New York’s most eligible bachelor until he proposes to fashion designer Melanie Carmichael. I’m hoping to see Dempsey’s new movie “Made of Honor” which releases this week.

Dempsey plays Dr. Derek Shepherd on “Grey’s Anatomy” and was married to Addison, another physician. Derek Shepherd is a renowned brain surgeon who moved to Seattle from New York because his wife was having an affair with his best friend Dr. Mark Sloan. Addison and Mark followed Sheperd to Seattle. Addison and McDreamy got divorced. Dr. Shepherd was nicknamed “McDreamy” by the female interns at Seattle Grace. The man has some amazing hair. Another new episode will be on tomorrow.

BIO

Dempsey, an Irish American, was born in Lewiston, Maine and grew up in Turner, Maine, the youngest of three children. He was an adept juggler, tying for second in a national juggling competition.

Although the teen comedy and romance roles led to Dempsey being somewhat typecast for a time, he was able to avoid playing the same character as his career progressed.

Dempsey was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama at the 2007 Golden Globes for the role. In 2006 Dempsey signed a contract with ABC raising his salary to $225,000 per episode. His success on the show has led to him becoming a spokesman for Mazda and the new model for Versace. He is currently working with Avon to launch a fragrance, due out in November 2008.

He’s married and they are parents of a daughter and twin sons. In response to his mother’s bouts with ovarian cancer, Dempsey helped start the Patrick Dempsey Center in his home town of Lewiston, Maine.

If you’d like to see clips of a young and older Dempsey, watch YouTube.

CONGRATULATIONS TO PATRICK DEMPSEY FOR BEING DIANE’S HOTTIE OF THE WEEK!

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I received my May issue of RWR (Romance Writers Report) yesterday.

Have you read any mysteries by Phyllis Whitney? I read in the RWR that she died in February at the age of 104. I used to read her mysteries and liked most of them. Also Dawn Thompson died in February. Dawn was primarily a Regency Romance novelist, writing both traditional Regencies, and Regency-set historicals.

I also read this in RWR about e-publishers under “The Best in Small Press”:

Not all e-publishers are created equal. There are many small presses
and e-publishers in operation right now. Who are the leaders?
Kensington Editorial Asst. Megan Records cites “Samhain, Ellora’s
Cave, and Red Sage.” Literary Agent Laura Bradford (of the Bradford
Literary Agency) agrees. She notes, “Ellora’s Cave and Samhan are two
of the industry leaders for the e-pubs.”

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A lovely Amish lady, Lovina Eicher, writes a column for our Cincinnati paper. Click here to go to the Amish website for recipes. I noticed she has one for buttermilk brownies I want to try and a chocolate chip cake. I saw rhubarb recipes and wish we had rhubarb. We tried to grow it here but with no success. I love rhubarb pie and rhubarb/strawberry pie is also delicious. I need to buy rhubarb in the store sometime.

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Last Friday night I watched a movie, NORTH AND SOUTH suggested by Kate Davies.

I have to warn you that once you start it, you won’t want to stop watching it. It is a 4 hr. movie. Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe star in it. The story is about a daughter of a middle-class parson living a privileged life in rural southern England. But when her father uproots the family, she’s forced to adapt to a completely different life in Milton which is an industrial town. She dislikes the owner of the factory. She changes her attitude toward the mill workers.

My dad worked in a factory when he was only twelve years old, so I thought of him while watching the terrible conditions in the factory. He worked around 1916 in a factory in Michigan and hated it. By the way, I was born very late in life to my parents. LOL

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I need to get busy and write. I’ll be leaving on Friday for Florida. My daughter Christina is flying me there to join her for a weekend on the beach. This is my early Mother’s Day gift I mentioned last week.

I live in Clermont County, Ohio. Four years ago the war in Iraq hit all of us hard in our county because a young man by the name of Matt Maupin serving our country was captured. He graduated from a high school in Clermont County and the picture above is his yearbook picture. The community and throughout the region rallied behind Maupin and his family. Yellow ribbons were displayed all over the county in stores, on fences, in yards, and Matt’s school. Prayer vigils and building makeshift tributes went up at Matt’s alma mater, Glen Este High School, and other public places.

His parents, Carolyn and Keith, were amazing during this time. They kept busy by thinking of others as they remembered their son with so much love in their hearts. Their Yellow Ribbon organization was started to aid the sons and daughters of others serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have been responsible for scholarships, care packages shipped to soldiers, and computer connections to those in the field.

Matt was never forgotten and we kept him close to our hearts. His parents’ pain became ours as we struggled to make sense of a wonderful young man lost to us.

Matt returned home on Saturday but not the way we wanted.

This is Matt’s story

From his capture in a roadside attack four years ago to his return home this past weekend as a fallen hero, Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin was the face of the war in Iraq for thousands in the Tristate and beyond. He became a symbol and gave us something tangible to hold on to which was hope. Hope that he and others would return alive.

The tall youth from Clermont County’s Union Township was a student at the University of Cincinnati. Matt was working a part-time job at the Sam’s Club in Eastgate when he joined the U.S. Army Reserve as a way to help pay for college. Matt was not a professional soldier.

A year and a half later, in April 2004, he found himself in Iraq as a private first class in the 724th Transportation Co., an Illinois-based reserve unit, where he and his fellow soldiers provided security for private contractors’ convoys on the dangerous roads of Iraq.

On April 9, 2004, the convoy he and 10 others soldiers from his unit were guarding was hit by rocket-propelled grenades and machine gun fire. In a moving battle that covered five miles of road near the Baghdad airport, two soldiers and four civilian contractors were killed.

When the battle was over, Maupin had vanished.

A week later, the Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired a chilling video of Maupin surrounded by five hooded men holding automatic rifles.

His parents heard nothing more until June of that year when an even more frightening video surfaced – a grainy image of a man in what appeared to be a U.S. military uniform being shot in the head. The voice on the video said it was Maupin, but U.S. military officials examined the video closely and said it was “inconclusive.”

Matt’s remains were found in March.

Thousands paid tribute to Matt as they filed past his coffin at a 20-hour public visitation.
Approximately 4,000 people attended the “Celebration Service” for Matt yesterday which was held in Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. His family wanted it to be a celebration instead of calling it a funeral service. They wanted this tribute to recognize all the service men and women who went away to war and did not come back as we hoped.

Matt’s family issued this statement, “Although this is not what we had hoped for, at least we know,” It continues, “As parents, we are deeply saddened and still letting it sink in. As Americans, we are proud of the continued efforts made by our military, and in particular the Army, to return to Matt home to us.”

I hope and pray the Maupin family are now able to move on and to heal as well as so many families who have lost loved ones.

Did you see GREY’S ANATOMY last night?

I’m glad it’s back on with new episodes, but not happy with Derek dating Rose. Six weeks after Derek and Meredith ended their relationship, Derek began dating Rose. I think he might be doing this to make Meredith jealous and force her to commit to him. I could be wrong but I think he’s still in love with Meredith. They belong together. Before they broke up, he wanted to go to the next step and get married. Meredith wasn’t ready. On last night’s show she started therapy because she realizes something is not right with her. The therapist gets frustrated when Meredith sits there and is unable to open up and talk about her problems.

Meredith and her fellow residents, Alex, Izzie and Cristina, compete in a surgical contest, with Bailey serving as judge. Meredith wins when she realizes a patient’s strange behavior might be due to a brain tumor. She requests a MRI and it does show a tumor. Meanwhile interns George and Lexie adjust to their new apartment. It is such a dump and I can’t believe two interns can’t afford something better. They have to get paid something. Callie and Erica Hahn become great friends. Cristina still idolizes Erica and wants to work with her in surgery. When Cristina tries to get included in their friendship, she’s ignored.

Mark is jealous of Derek. He thought with Meredith out of the picture, they could be two bachelors on the prowl, but Derek moved on without him when he started dating Rose.

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Woohoo - I started Chapter Four. I didn’t get very much writing done yesterday. I went and got Emily from college. She started bringing a lot of her things home. She’ll be finished with this semester in May. The weather is gorgeous again today. I’m happy to say that April is feeling better after her surgery. I promise I’ll post about my April blog contest on Monday - I can’t believe it will be May soon. I have an early special Mother’s Day gift from one of my children to tell you about next week.

Happy Weekend!

Yesterday Kate Davies emailed me to go to Angela James, our executive editor’s blog. She was my final line editor for my inspirational romance, NO GREATER LOSS. I learned so much from Angie and really appreciated her editing to make my book stronger and tighter. Kate wanted me to know how readers listed my books, A Fiery Secret and No Greater Loss, as their choices if they should win Angie’s contest. That made my day. Some days I need a nudge like this to keep me motivated enough to write.

She’s giving away a $25 Amazon gc, ebook of winner’s choice from Samhain Publisher and the following list of Angie’s favorite books.

1) Naked in Death by JD Robb
2) Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh
3) Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
4) Lord of the Fading Lands by CL Wilson
5) Surviving Demon Island by Jaci Burton

All you have to do is go to the Samhain Publishing website, tell Angie what book from there you would want to try in ebook form. Any book! Choose one you think you’ll enjoy because it will be part of your prize package. Contest ends Saturday the 26th around noon and Angie will announce the winner on Sunday the 27th. Click here to go to Angie’s blog to tell her which book you’d like to read.

Another Contest is on the Samhain blog. As part of the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival, Samhain is offering the winner’s choice of two of our print books and a $25 gift card to Starbucks.

If you’re new to the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival, make sure you visit the main page where last I looked there were over 300 giveaways posted!

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I have started Chapter Three of my new book. Still no title. I’d like to get this chapter done and start Chapter Four by the end of the week. I really like the first two chapters. I struggled a bit with the second one but pleased with the dialogue.