Did you watch the recent episodes of “Desperate Housewives” where Lynette (Felicity Huffman) is surprised when Rick Coletti (Jason Gedrick) shows up at the Scavo pizzeria? While he worked as a chef at their restaurant, Lynette enjoyed his attention. Now he’s back to give competition with his own restaurant except Lynette’s twin sons burned it down. They were afraid their parents would get divorced since Rick’s back.

Or did you catch “Wisegal” recently on Lifetime? I didn’t watch it because it was about the Mafia. I’ve never been interested in any movies about the mob. Jason Gedrick played the mob boss, Frank Russon.

More about Jason as an actor:

Jason Gedrick was just a teen when he broke into showbiz as a movie extra. His first acting break happened in his native Chicago in the film “Bad Boys,” starring Sean Penn. Leading roles followed in feature films including “Iron Eagle,” “Stacking” and “The Heavenly Kid.” Boyishly appealing and extremely determined, he quickly graduated to speaking roles, beginning with the soppy 1985 comedy Heavenly Kid.

In the ’90s he turned to the small screen, where his ruggedly handsome, working-class looks usually got him typecast as a cop or a criminal. He also co-starred with Meg Ryan and Kiefer Sutherland in “Promised Land,” Ron Howard’s “Backdraft” and “Crossing the Bridge.” Gedrick also starred in Stephen Bochco’s “Murder One” and then went on to star in the critically acclaimed CBS series “EZ Streets,” opposite Ken Olin and Joe Pantoliano. Gedrick’s television credits also include the highly rated miniseries “The Last Don,” with Danny Aiello and Joe Mantegna, “The Last Don II,” “Boomtown,” “LAX” and “Windfall.” In 2003, he starred in the Lifetime Original Movie, “A Date With Darkness: The Trial and Capture of Andrew Luster.”

More interesting facts:

Birth Name: Jason Michael Gedroic
Birth Place: Chicago, IL
Date of Birth: 02/07/1965

Parents divorced when he was young. Gedrick was raised by his mother in Chicago, while his older brother and sister lived with their father.

He auditioned six times for the role of a young pilot in 1986’s Iron Eagle before landing the part. He made his Broadway debut in 1989 opposite Helen Hunt, replacing Eric Stoltz in a revival of Our Town. He suffers from dyslexia. Gedrick has 3 sons.

CONGRATULATIONS TO JASON GEDRICK FOR BEING DIANE’S HOTTIE OF THE WEEK!

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I’ll post a recipe tomorrow for Mother’s Day! It’s a delicious blondie dessert.

I haven’t started Chapter Five. I’ve had too much going on this week but definitely want to write on my new wip today.

Taken from our balcony

Sorry I haven’t written anything for a few days for my blog. My computer froze on me yesterday when I tried to post pictures. I had a wonderful weekend. The weather was perfect. I think it went up to around 88 degrees. Christina and I enjoyed the beach and the water was a pretty blue. We stayed at The TradeWinds Island Resort on the island of St. Pete Beach. We were just steps away from the white sandy beach of Florida’s Gulf Coast. We did have to evacuate at 3:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. When we got outside, there was a fire truck, but it must have been a false alarm or probably someone burned something in their microwave. Our room had a microwave and a refrigerator. We had trouble going back to sleep and got up early to walk to church.

Before I left for the airport on Friday I ate a bowl of cereal and had peanuts on the flight. After we took our bags to our room, we walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner. By this time it was 8:00 and we were starved. I ordered a seafood platter and it was HUGE. I couldn’t eat all of it so told Christina to eat whatever she wanted. She thought the shrimp was so delicious, too, but we just couldn’t finish it.
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Remember Colin Firth was my hottie in March - Megan shared this great link for him!

Speaking about my hottie of the week reminds me - I have a good one to post later this week.
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Contest here for Mother’s Day! Lots of book prizes are being given away on this blog!!!

Amanda was singing a song from High School Musical last night when I interrupted her to draw a name for my monthly blog contest. And believe me I was happy to do this - unfortunately, she takes after me and can’t carry a tune. Her nightly ritual now is to watch YouTube of different songs performed by the stars of High School Musical. She has the DVDs but instead of playing the movies, she pops on the computer and actually drowns out the voices of the stars. Amanda drew Jennifer Shirk’s name so she gets a $5 Gift Certificate to Samhain, Barnes & Noble or Amazon. Congratulations Jennifer! By the way, Jennifer has a new release this month! The title is “The Role of a Lifetime” and will be available at Samhain on May 27th!

I’m almost done packing. I went swimsuit shopping and finally found a suit that I liked at JC Penneys. The good thing is they had 50% off and noticed a lot of clothes on sale for Mother’s Day. Okay, I bought more than a suit. I couldn’t resist buying new jean capris and tops. But really they charge too much for suits. I hate trying on swimsuits so glad that ordeal is over! I’m so blessed to be able to get away for the weekend. I appreciate Christina making all the arrangements for me to go and of course, paying for this trip to Florida. I’ll take some pictures and post them when I get back on Monday. Patty told me that I have such wonderful kids and she’s absolutely right. I also am thankful my husband’s getting Emily from college so I can get to the airport in time.

Here is some great writer advice from Dean Koontz:

Stay true to the philosophy behind your work and what you believe
about life. Don’t jump to those ideas that might make it more
commercial or a project for the movies. The temptation is always
there, so you always have to be on guard for it.

I believe Koontz is accurate about staying true to your own philosophy and what you believe. I’m doing this with my new wip, but also my universal theme is something many individuals will be able to relate to. At least I hope so. I finished chapter four this week and I’ve started chapter five.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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.