LN Cronan

In that excellent interview Sylvia gave last night, she explained how her characters come into her head fully formed. And she had some interesting things to say about Corrine when the interview got into the fact that there's widespread hate of Corrine among the fandom. Â Corrine isn't the sweet person some of her defenders have claimed she is -- Sylvia herself said that on one hand, Corrine is one of those "catty b***** you always hate" Â and that Sylvia disapproved of Corrine's methods (i.e. to get Gideon back). But Sylvia was sympathetic to the fact that what's driven Corrine to do the things she has is that Corrine is love with Gideon .... and that she had been so close to having him all those years ago, before he slipped through her fingers. Â Sylvia joked she hopes that Corrine can find happiness somewhere else before we fans "kill her off."

Some new things I took away from yesterday's re-read of the last chapter of Bared to You:  Gideon knows full well that Corrine is in love with him, has always been in love with him, and that her holding a torch for him is what wrecked her marriage I'll bet Gideon actually "got it" when Eva explained to him that women do really crazy things over him: Corrine stalking him, Magdalene efforts to try to make herself physically resemble Corrine.  Gideon may have been clueless before, but he does pay close attention to Eva. I'll bet that after she had that frank talk with him, he began paying closer attention to his interactions with Corrine.  So he's got to know Corrine is deluding herself into thinking he's taken her back. Most especially because it's my theory he is NOT telling Corrine she's only a friend to him. Too much is riding on the lie he went back to Corrine. And Gideon has a history of lying by omission.  Thus how is he currently handling the guilt he must be feeling, knowing he is further wrecking Corrine's life? Knowing that sooner or later he's going to have to kick her out of his life forever, and that could come close to destroying her?  Gideon still squirms in guilt over what he did to Anne Lucas. Perhaps some of his guilt over Corrine will be tempered by anger Corrine cruelly treated Eva.  But no matter now mad he might be at Corrine for the stunts she'd pulled that hurt Eva very much, Gideon still must feel awful that his using Corrine is downright cruel too.

In Chapter One of Entwined, he tells Eva that if she's now too afraid of him, because he had killed for her, then Gideon won't chase her anymore. Though it would kill him to face a future without her in it, he'd still set her free rather than have her live her life in fear of him. This showed how deep his love truly is -- and the fact she still wants him in her life showed how much she loves him too.

I think today's countdown picture represents Cary, because the person depicted there is wearing jeans. Â Cary's commitment issues are wrecking his new relationship with Trey - Cary's sabotaging things by acting out sexually. Not just by sleeping with Tatiana; the orgy Cary hosted at his/Eva's apartment was over the top. Even he realized he went too far there, per the post-incident discussions he had with BFF Eva. Â Bonds of Cary's own past? The story strongly suggests Cary may have been sexually abused at some point too, though we readers do not know any details. Â So what will "push a partner too far" entail? Cary losing Trey and going into a tail spin as a result of it, a tail spin triggered by Cary realizing he's far from having gotten his own s*** together? Trey turning bunny-boiler on him? Cary's got a history of crazies in his past, per Chapter 2 of Bared to You, a history that's included partners stalking him -- and a history of one or more partners who threatened suicide over him.

In the interview Sylvia gave yesterday for Booktalk Nation, she spoke in detail about the current status of the plans to bring the Crossfire series to premium cable television. Â It's pretty widely known now that her first choice to play Gideon is actor Henry Cavill. As for Eva, she likes the idea of Scarlett Johansson, but she also mentioned another actress who is popular with the fan base, Amber Heard. Â She does NOT have any direct power, though, in which actors/actresses are granted the roles, however. She explained the process: Â It starts with the producers, who currently are working on the early creative part of the process. She's very excited about the producers, who are fans of the series themselves and have a vision of staying true to the books. Â The producers choose the director, and then the screenwriter gets chosen. The screenwriter creates the script. The process of signing the cast members begins after the script is prepared. Â She will be involved in the process as an executive consultant to the producers.

 I loved that part of the interview -- how she described she stood there on the sidewalk gawking, as did other women. The God in the Three Piece Suit didn't even notice he'd a bunch of females in their tracks. He fiddled with his Blackberry and then climbed into the backseat of a Town Car waiting at the curb.  Without even knowing it, that real-life guy became the inspiration for a literary character whose name is on the lips of millions of readers today.

Yes -- you can see video reply of the hour-long interview she gave yesterday for Booktalk Nation. Â Here's the link: Â http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lemzB1Z-VZI Â NOTE: at the very start is about ten seconds of "Hangout" screen logo - let the play button keep going; the video will start. Â Approximately the first 20 minutes of the interview focus on Sylvia as a writer; there's some really cool stuff there. Some additional details about her as a writer come up as well during the fan question-and-answer portion later in the interview too. Â She gives us a detailed update about the progress of plans to bring the Crossfire series to premium cable television. Â Of course, she does answer questions about Crossfire as well. Highlights there: In Entwined, we'll find out who Gideon's abuser had been As far as Happily Ever After goes for the five Crossfire novels, well, "Gideon's going to want a ring on it." She says some really interesting things in response to a question about Corrine being hated by the fandom. As things stand right now, the story will continue to be told from Eva's point of view -- no major plans at this time for Gideon point of view stuff. She hinted that long-term, Gideon might reconcile with his family as part of his recovery journey. Â There's lots of stuff from this interview that'll keep us busy for days in the already existing Crossfire threads, but I thought I'd start a special one here for we fans to watch the entire interview and then talk about it together. Â

Favorite quote from Chapter One is the oft-quote of what Gideon swore to Eva: Â I'd kill for you, give up everything I own for you .... but I won't give you up. (Page 16)

A Chapter A Day Re-Read Project - Today is Chapter One of Reflected in You   This chapter opens up Thursday morning (day 18).  Key plot developments Having met the brunette Corrine the night before, Eva now fears what she thinks is the real reason for Gideon's brunette fixation - and she discusses the subject with Gideon.  We readers learn more about how it was Gideon first spotted Eva at the Crossfire. Shifting weekend plans cause an argument: Originally, Gideon planned to take Eva to the Florida keys, but suddenly he'd learned early that morning he needs to go to Arizona on urgent business -- and he demands Eva go with him. She doesn't want to leave town for the weekend, because Cary's in crisis and she wants to spend the weekend being supportive to her best friend. They reach a compromise - Eva can spend the much-needed time with Cary in Las Vegas, at one of the hotels Gideon owns there, and take security with her if she leaves the property. Gideon is worried about her security, given how much press she's received recently as his girlfriend.

Chapter Twenty Two of Bared to You - The Readers Guide  This chapter continues Wednesday evening (day 17) and is the final day of the Bared to You portion of the story. Reflected in You opens the following morning (day 18)  Key plot developments: In the prior chapter, Gideon discussed his past history with Corrine. In this chapter, he and Eva discussed his current connection to Corrine. Eva realized she needs to deal with her out-of-control best friend, Cary, but Gideon convinced her it would be better to wait until the next day to start talking sense into Cary. The novel ended with Eva learning she and Gideon literally have a key to one another.   New characters None in this chapter  Gideon's point of view regarding Corrine Gideon feels guilty about the fact Corrine is still in love with him.  He senses she never got over him after their engagement ended years ago. He blames himself for being the cause of Corrine's marriage falling apart - her husband finally figured out Corrine didn't love him (the husband) back. Contrary to what Corrine claimed to Eva, Gideon does not, in fact, talk to Corrine on the phone every day. He's too busy -- especially now that so much of his time is spent with Eva. Gideon refused, however, to agree to Eva's demand that he start weaning Corrine off. "She's a friend, Eva, and she's in a rough spot. It's a cruel time to cut her off." (page 332)  Eva's point of view regarding Corrine Despite everything Gideon told Eva about the true nature of his long-finished romantic relationship with Corrine, Eva admitted she's still going to have a problem with Corrine (i.e. Corrine is still in love with him, and Eva is insecure/jealous about the situation period.) The fact Corrine has been calling Gideon daily especially bothers Eva -- Eva thinks Corrine is stalking him, and she told Gideon as much, that the situation is nuts. Because Gideon still refused to agree to cut off Corrine, Eva threatened him about setting a precedent for dealing with exes -- because Eva has exes of her own.  That made the possessive Gideon bristle.  What to do about Cary Eva's been dismayed by Cary's sex life spiraling out of control over the past two-plus weeks. He'd gone from starting a stable new relationship with a nice guy (Trey) to cheating on Trey by sleeping with a friends-with-benefits woman (and Trey caught the two of them in bed together.) Now Cary had an orgy in his/Eva's living room, him drunk, another guy high on drugs, and two women .... well, who knows about them. In the prior chapter, both Eva and Gideon had gotten angry at Cary -- Eva angry because Cary is continuing to screw up his new relationship and Gideon angry because Cary had some drugged-up guy in the apartment. Things ended with Cary storming off to his room. In this final chapter, Eva explained she's been down this road before with Cary (i.e. life in crisis) and Cary needs her. Eva doesn't want to simply go to Gideon's until Cary snaps out of it - Cary needs her. Surprisingly, Gideon agrees. But he convinced Eva to wait until the next day to confront Cary. Meanwhile, for safety reasons, Gideon insists they sleep at his place instead of Eva's that night.  How things wrap up Downstairs, Gideon and Eva climbed into his car and are ready to leave when Gideon realizes he left something upstairs (Sylvia later told us it was Gideon's bottle of newly-prescribed sleep medication). Gideon being able to run back upstairs himself, instead of Eva needing to let him in, revealed that he'd made himself a copy of her apartment key the first time she lent it to him -- and he held onto that copy even during the four days they were apart. Equally as significant, even when he'd done the knee-jerk reaction of breaking up with her (over the nightmares) and had returned her keys with the Dear Jane note he'd sent, he'd left on her keychain a copy of his own apartment key he'd made for her. So she realized they each literally have the key to one another and did so even when they were apart.  Fade to black ....  The group re-read project starts in on Reflected in You today.

I'll post a lot more tomorrow -- I need to leave my computer shortly.  It was a great interview, lasting an hour long and more than half it with Sylvia talking about being an author -- and giving advice on would-be authors.  She did go into some detail about the plans for bringing Crossfire to cable TV - that especially is stuff I'll write about tomorrow when I'm able to get back online.  KiMa already has hit the high points of much of the Crossfire related things Sylvia said, so only adding two things:  Best quote ever! "Gideon's going to want a ring on it." YES!  And she admitted that on one hand, Corrine is one of those "catty b**** you always hate." But while Sylvia doesn't agree with Corrine's methods, she does recognize Corrine is in love with Gideon -- had him in the past, and he slipped through her fingers. So Sylvia does sympathize with her.

 Or ..... Deanna Johnson, our newest brunette addition to the cast of characters.

 Dual citizenship is an option too -- good point. Different countries have different policies about allowing people to keep their United States citizenship while also becoming legal citizens of their own country. It varies.  In my own case, some of my family members have dual U.S.-Irish citizenship. These family members were all born Americans, as were their parents. However, one or more of their grandparents were Irish born, and Ireland does extend the privilege of dual-citizenship to the children and grandchildren of Irish nationals born in other countries.  In fact, I myself am eligible to get dual citizenship, because one of my grandmothers was born Irish and later emigrated to the United States, where she married and had children here. But it's not something I just simply add to my U.S. passport. I'd have to go through a bunch of hoops including gathering birth records from both nations proving where I was born, where my parents were born, and where my grandparents were born. Then I'd need to go through an Irish consulate or embassy here in the U.S. in order to be granted the Irish portion of the citizenship.  Do any of you ladies from other parts of the globe know about dual-citizenship policies in your own nations? In some cases, do your countries automatically extend dual citizenship via marriage? Via birth?

 As long as she retained her U.S. citizenship, she'd continue to hold a U.S. passport. She'd have to update her passport to reflect her new legal name. But her marrying a Frenchman did not mean that she automatically renounced her U.S. citizenship and had to become a citizen of France. Nor did living overseas mean she'd automatically lose her U.S. citizenship.  In fact, Giroux had the option, because he'd married an American, to go through the process of obtaining U.S. citizenship (A pretty lengthy process at that. It's not easy for foreign nationals to get U.S. citizenship, however, one of the least complicated ways to do so is by marrying an American.)  Corrine would have needed to consciously decide, upon marrying a citizen of France, whether she wanted to keep her U.S. citizenship or renounce it in favor of becoming a French citizen. And she would have had to go through a legal process to change her citizenship.

Against All Odds, by Phil Collins. Mariah Carey does a nice cover of this song, too.  For the day Eva dumped Gideon and he was powerless to do anything about it. Two verses in particular:  How can you just walk away from me when all I can do is watch you leave? 'cause we've shared the laughter and the pain, and even shared the tears You're the only one who really knew me at all  I wish I could just make you turn around - turn around and see me cry There's so much I need to say to you - so many reasons why You're the only one who really knew me at all

 If Gideon were charged, he most certainly would have to surrender his own passport as a condition of bail -- IF he even got bail. Big IF. It's very common for people charged with first degree murder to be held without bail. And Gideon would be considered the ultimate flight risk -- and not just because he owns jets. The kind of money he has would make it possible for him to hire expert criminals to sneak him out of the country and hide him somewhere for the rest of his life. So I seriously doubt any judge would take the risk of granting Gideon Cross bail, only to face the public blow back of having made a huge mistake by trusting the defense in the case.Â

 That's a man's hand holding the French passport, and we know Corrine's husband's nationality is French (it was among the things Magdalene told Eva when she was telling Eva all about how Corrine broke off the engagement to Gideon, married a rich Frenchman, and moved to Europe.)  As for Corrine's current legal nationality, who knows? She could have kept her original U.S. citizenship (in which case, her passport would continue to be a U.S. one.) Or she could have gone through the process of becoming a French citizen, something she'd be eligible to do as the spouse of a French citizen.  If I had to make a guess though, I'd bet Corrine kept her U.S. citizenship as part of continuing to hold her torch for Gideon. It'd be a lot easier to run back to New York if she remained a U.S. citizen. On the other hand, renouncing her U.S. citizenship would be yet another gesture of renouncing hopes she and Gideon would be together some day.  How's this for a theory ..... her husband finally figured out Corrine wasn't in love with him, not the way she should have been, because all along she continued to hold a torch for Gideon. There had to have been various signs that made him figure this out. What if one of those signs was her insistence on keeping her U.S. citizenship? That he took that as a sign in her heart, she had no intention of making a permanent home in Europe? All along, she had a "plan B" of moving back to New York?

Here's a link to an Internet site where all of you ladies around the world can figure out what U.S. Eastern Standard Time translates into your local time.  http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html  On the first row, use the drop-down box to put in U.S.A - New York, New York (which is in the Eastern time zone) On the second row, use the drop-down box to find the name of your country and name of a major city there that you know is in your time zone.  BE SURE TO PUT THE TIME (19/ 7 P.M.) in the time box too. Otherwise, the site simply will calculate what the time is right now, not what it will be later tonight.  The site will then convert New York time to your own time.  P.S. Bookworm, I used this to figure out 7 p.m. New York time is 1 a.m. in Johannesburg

I don't hate Monica either. Eva's reaction to what was going on was to withdraw, especially because Nathan was terrorizing her into silence. Â That said, Monica obviously was devoting too much time to being a high society wife and not enough time mothering her daughter and stepson. She's guilty of neglect.

 I think they can go as far as telling him most of the truth -- that Gideon started avoiding Eva because he'd come under investigation as a possible suspect. Things were messy enough, and if the cops think he did it, they might think she'd been involved (i.e. he did it at her request.) This actually is part of the truth. And remember, Monica is Dr. Petersen's patient too, so he would have heard from her all about the fact the cops also were investigating her and Stanton -- both of whom also had good reasons for wanting Nathan dead.

 Good point. From the day he learned about Nathan, he was super careful about avoiding triggering Eva sexually, given her past history of sexual trauma. In fact, in hindsight, he immediately recognized his crudely aggressive way of pursuing Eva could have ruined things forever before they ever got started.  Now he knows he's got to be super careful about avoiding triggering Eva emotionally, given her recent history of emotional trauma, nearly all of that trauma caused by he himself. Hopefully he now recognizes in hindsight that his attempts to totally control her, inside and outside the bedroom, were wrong -- and if he starts in on that behavior again, things will end forever.

I think the night Corrine called Gideon in a great deal of pain, having already booked a flight to New York and was calling ahead to make sure he'd be there to help with she arrived, was probably the crisis point where she'd moved out on her husband.  She called Gideon on his cell phone, and she happened to catch him at the advocacy center fundraiser. Once he ditched Eva and left the event, he had time to call Corrine back in order to be able to really talk to her. It was then that Corrine found out Gideon had met someone new (i.e. Eva).  Corrine ended up cancelling her flight, too chicken to have to see with her own eyes Gideon with a new girlfriend.  I think what happened though was that in the days that followed, on the Internet she would have seen all those pictures of Gideon with his new girlfriend - him kissing her on the sidewalk, the two of them arguing and passionately making up in Bryant Park -- and of course, shots of him and Eva on the red carpet going into the fundraiser.  Those pictures probably made Corrine desperate -- which is why the following week, she did leave France for New York and pull the first of her stunts by figuratively crashing a high society event Gideon and Eva were certain to be attending, hoping to catch the both of them off-guard.

 I do think it's co-incidence, just the way the timing fell.  Sylvia set up the snapshot schedule to give us 11 weeks of clues leading up to Entwined's release (22 chapters total - two snapshots per week equals 11 weeks)  Meanwhile, the idea to re-read one chapter per day gave us 44 days total (22 chapters per book) to even further amp up our excitement -- as if we needed any encouragement! -- and so that we would have fresh in our minds all the past story threads as we learned where some of those led even further in Entwined.

So maybe Gideon was at least mindful enough that resuming dating Corrine again would damage more than just his own relationship with Eva -- it would further damage Corrine's on-the-rocks marriage. If Corrine's husband really thought Gideon took Corrine back, he'd likely abandon any idea of trying to salvage the marriage and instead would definitely divorce her.

In fact, the night before (Tuesday) Eva had argued with Gideon about invading her privacy in another way, her cell phone, by helping himself to the Christopher/Magdalene sex tape that Cary had emailed Eva as a warning to Eva to steer clear of Christopher Jr. Â Cary shot that video on Sunday at the garden party, and he emailed it to Eva. Eva opened that email Monday morning in the back of Gideon's car while the pair of them were being driven to the Crossfire, and that's how Gideon saw the video too. Eva's cell phone ran out of power. Gideon helped himself to it to recharge the thing for her -- and while he was at it, he went into her email to get a copy of the video itself so that he could show it to Magdalene. Â He had Magdalene up to his office for lunch on Tuesday, so that he could privately break the news to her, obviously to protect her for further being used by Christopher. Tuesday night, he told Eva about the lunch. That's when she found out he'd helped himself to her cell phone -- and she got really mad, viewing it as a serious boundary violation.