Kane’s Favorite Things Week of 1/26/15

I know, I’m late. So sorry!! Hectic weekend spilled over, and there was definitely a case of The Mondays at Castle Kane.

This week features new boots, an old movie and some special art work.

Music:
Shattered Dreams was inspired by a Rascal Flatts song, so it was really easy to put together a playlist for the book. Shattered Lies on the other hand, wasn’t so easy. During the first draft of SD, I wasn’t even sure Tori would get a book. But the more I dove into her character, the more I realized the girl had layers. Yeah, she’s a selfish narcissist. But she’s also damaged. So, I was scrolling through the ole Facebook feed, and one of my best friends shared a song. Stacy and I are pretty much cut from the same cloth, so I always watch the videos she posts. The title alone was enough to put me in Tori’s mind, but as the song continued, I realized that Stacy had just done what I could not. She found THE song for Shattered Lies. So here it is 🙂 “She Don’t Love You” by Eric Paslay

Movies:
Today’s movie is a throw back. We’ve all read the classic Romeo and Juliet. Most of us have probably seen two or three versions of it. My personal favorite is the 1996 version directed by Baz Luhrmann. First, I LOVE John Leguizamo, and second- Dagger. 

Who’s John Leguizamo? One of the funniest comedians in the history of ever! He’s the star of my personal favorite, The Pest, and his role in Romeo and Juliet was by far the best portrayal of Tybalt I have ever seen.

When the movie first came out, I was a teenager and too young to truly appreciate the genius and artistry of the symbols that were sort of “hidden in plain sight”. While the language and theme of the story remains faithful to the original, it is the symbols integrated into this modern interpretation that make it so powerful. Mercutio’s Dagger is the embodiment of that.

Romeo and Juliet is currently available on Netflix Streaming. I highly recommend you watch it, and keep an eye out for all the different symbols hidden in this modern portrayal of a classic tragedy. 

Books:
Last week I started looking for a new book to read in my free time. Unfortunately, what I was looking for I just couldn’t find. So I decided to reread one of my favorites- Loving Lies by Lora Leigh. On her Facebook page, Lora revealed the cover for Jazz’s book. I cannot tell you how excited I am about this. Loving Lies has been the single most influential book in my writing career, and I am so excited to hear that both Jazz and Zach will be getting their own books!! Click this link to see the cover and read a blurb for Wicked Lies.

Funny:
Easily one of my favorite songs and who doesn’t love watching cat videos?? Besides, I must pay homage to my favorite cat lover Amanda Afterdark 😉

Fashion:
Today’s fashion fave is brought to you by Closet Kane and an Amazon Goddess.
Love, love, LOVE boots, and this week, I added two more pair to my ever growing collection. It’s impossible to pick a favorite, but this is the pair I put on first.

I’m an Instagram addict, and one of my favorite pages belongs to McKinli Hatch. She is a professional fitness competitor and Amazon Goddess, with an amazing eye for fashion. She runs a blog and online store that are quickly becoming my favorite pages to visit. I love her print leggings and can’t seem to get enough of her cardigans and accessories. Check her out!

Epic:
Last Friday, my son brought home a drawing one of his friends made for me. It was such a sweet and thoughtful gift, I HAD to share it. One of my favorite shirts features that little phrase across the front. Thank you so much Pierce! I LOVE it!!!

Honorable Mention: 
A&E for their daily Criminal Minds marathons.

Penned Con 2014 Wrap Up

It was my very first signing as an author, and more fun than I could have imagined!!! So many great things happened during this event, I could fill PAGES and still not be able to tell you everything.

Before I share my wrap up, there are a few people I want to acknowledge.

Dawn Pendleton offered me half of her table before she’d even read a single word of my dusty manuscript. The amount of faith this amazing woman had in me is STILL humbling and inspiring. When she told me she wasn’t going to be able to make it, my heart broke a little bit. The thing I looked forward to most was finally being able to give her a hug (and a copy of the book that FINALLY got published!) I kept the little sign with our names on it. It’s been tacked to my inspiration board, where it will stay forever and always.

Faith Goddard is the cover model for Shattered Dreams. Without her, my book couldn’t have been “mine.” We spent hours out in hot, grass hopper infested fields, twisting, turning, falling and laughing until we finally stumbled on that perfect shot. She has been one of my dearest and most cherished friends. Seeing her there, with the book we worked so hard to finish, will be a memory I carry with me always.

Susan Garwood. My Momma Bear. Shattered Dreams COULD NOT have happened without this amazing woman. She took a BIG CHANCE on me. She read my book when it was just scraps of paper. She suffered through my hissy fits and temper tantrums, hours of writes and rewrites, and she held my hand when I finally took the leap. She has been my biggest fan from the very start and there will never be a word I pen that she hasn’t guided.

The Man and The Hooligans ❤ None of anything would have been possible without their love and support. Penned Con was the very first time in 13 years I went ANYWHERE without them. It was hard at first. I wanted them there. But coming home in the middle of the night, seeing them all standing outside waiting for me… I will keep that memory in my heart forever.

And finally, Jennifer. A dear and true friend who cheered me on from the very start! Her’s were the first pair of eyes to see the actual, PRINTED novel in live and living color! She may never know how much her support means to me.

And now, for the Wrap Up! I made a video with as many pictures as I could manage. I was such a nervous wreck, most times I forgot how to spell my own name! I didn’t get a whole lot of pictures because I was just too shy to ask. Tara Sivec PEOPLE!! I was an author at signing WITH Tara Sivec!! And Jasinda Wilder. And Abby Glines. AND AMALIE SILVER!!! OMG! The list goes on! I was in a room full of amazingly talented authors, and I could barely manage to make eye contact I was so nervous!

So, here is my video 🙂 I hope you enjoy! Thank you Rick and Amy Miles, Red Coat PR, and all the amazing people that put this event together! You guys ROCK!!!

Happy Birthday to Me…The other Me

Four years ago today, D.L. Kane was born. Sort of.

I use my real name for my professional career. Newspapers, magazines, web articles… All of that is written under the name on my driver’s license. But all of those pieces are news reports or fact based opinion articles. They adhere to strict formatting and reference guidelines. A novel is in a world all it’s own, and when I decided to write mine a hundred million years ago (ok, its more like five, it just feels longer) I realized that my creativity and the flow of my story was being stunted. I was trying to apply the standards drilled into my head by editors at the paper, Demand and Yahoo to a fiction romance. That doesn’t really work. You can’t exactly “reference” a moment the Hero became a total douche canoe. In fact, you can’t even use the words “douche canoe” in a sentence. So I decided I needed to have an alter ego. A classy, carefree chick with a spirit as wild as the wind. Someone who didn’t have rules or boundaries. Someone who could do whatever the hell she wanted without having to answer for it. Oh, and she had to be Bettie Page hot with perfect boobs and great butt 😉

Once I had a mental image of my alter ego, she needed a name. I thought at first to use a play on the German variation of my real name, but then I looked down into my living room. The four people that matter most to me in the world were curled up on the couch watching Napoleon Dynamite. And that’s when it hit. So I started an online search, just to make sure the name I chose was available. I hit a road block when I tried to set up an email account with it, and ended up adding an extra I. Which was fine at the time, but it would change again later.

On July 7, 2010, I hit “Send” on my first completed manuscript. An hour later, Danie Kaine walked out of the print shop with a bound manuscript. I officially became a romance fiction author!! The pride I was feeling that day is hard to describe. I had already accomplished so much with my writing career that this was like frosting on the cake. Really yummy, homemade cream cheese frosting with just a touch of Malibu (…for flavor…) I mean, I wrote a book!!! A whole book!!! For me!!! That last part sounds kind of silly right? But here’s the thing- I spend 90% of my time writing stuff for other people. We call them “assignments” and they do pay the bills, but there are days I really don’t feel like explaining Kansas Family Code to laymen, or describing in full, referenced detail how to install a double barrel carburetor to somebody who is probably going to hire a mechanic anyway. And as much as I love the whales, there are only so many articles one can write encouraging you to save them.

So yeah! Writing a book that was all mine was AWESOME!!

And some day, I’ll have a really good explanation for why said book STILL isn’t published. Someday… 😉

So anyhow, I know it’s not Thursday, but here’s my throw back 🙂 The Copyright page from the original manuscript of The Broken Road.

I’ve had the good fortune to make many friends in the author community who have been excellent mentors and support. Through their advice and guidance, I decided to not only change my pen name to D.L. Kane (the name I originally chose) but the title of my book and the series. Shattered Dreams replaces The Broken Road as the title for my first book and I am happy to say it will be out this month 🙂

And because I love music…. The song that inspired the book 🙂