Unusual Historicals and Cocktails with SEP

Two completely unrelated topics, of course. I’m over at Unusual Historicals discussing the movie adaptation of John Woo’s Red Cliff in light of the historical events of the Three Kingdoms Period.

Unusual Historicals: Movie Adaptations – Red Cliff

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On a more exciting note, I actually went out yesterday! I got dressed in something besides my workout clothes. I even wore heels. There were cocktails and those little hors d’oeuvres on little platters.

Oh, and I got to meet Susan Elizabeth Phillips and a roomful of her wonderful SEPPIES. Here’s me and Amanda Berry mugging it up with SEP and her new book Call Me Irresistable (of which I have an autographed copy!!)

Group pic where of course I decided to make a weird face. Keep your day job Jeannie. Keep your day job.

Turns out we had a full on dinner and not just cocktails. I learned that apparently it’s tacky to post food pics. Wha..wha…what?!? Those are my favorite pics on the Internet!

Of course, I learned this from Susan as we both pulled our cameras to take a picture of the dessert:

Ten minutes later, this dessert no longer existed in this world. It was “fight-off-the-wait-staff-so-I-could-scrape-the-plate” good. “How’s the diet going this week?” my trainer asked this morning. “Oh, awful,” I said proudly, as my thoughts strayed to this lovely little plate.

Here’s my tip: If you’re ever going to a Susan Elizabeth Phillips signing or event, bring the cute shoes because there’s a traditional “Shoe Shot”. My little gray Anne Kleins are nice, but didn’t photograph very well. I should have busted out the candy red Jessica Simpson Ruby Slippers, eh? (It is absolutely fair game to whip out the shoe just for the shoe shot.)

A really lovely night with a wonderful author and warm, friendly people. I laughed a lot, talked all sorts of books, and ate everything in sight.

Excited about "Red Cliff"

Set in the Han dynasty, this movie centers around the high drama of the Battle of Red Cliff, the definitive showdown between three warlords that ushered in the Three Kingdoms period. The battle and characters were romanticized in Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the scope of this movie is breathtaking.

This movie has already been released in China, Australia and international markets to mega-blockbuster returns. It’s been compared to The Lord of the Rings. The U.S. release is scheduled for later this year, but I haven’t been able to hunt down an exact date.

I can’t wait to see it in the theatres here. Other than being a fan of Tony Leung and a sucker for the epic, sweeping historical, I’m also hoping this is another sign that mainstream audiences are ready for Asian historical romances. *fingers crossed*

Larger than life characters, intrigue, and lines like “The thought of going to battle against you is unbearable.” This is the sort of passion that inspired my stories. 🙂

Red Cliff trailer from YouTube – English subtitles