Lighthouse

​I can see them getting married in 2013 (by then, same sex marriage was legal in New York State), having shared custody of Cary's child, and today celebrating a big day in civil rights. Or something along those lines would be nice.

And it's why we love them both so much.

​Thanks, Beans! My lucky/educated guess that Gideon had a specific reason for admitting Corrine into his office for privacy stemmed from what Sylvia has said repeatedly: Gideon does everything for a reason. Still, the snippet stunned me that Gideon actually told Corrine he was married.

What I did not see coming, however, was Corrine's too-calm reaction to seeing a wedding photo. As always, Sylvia makes us wonder why and worry about what's coming next. Did Corrine not believe Gideon? After all, Brett thought the whole wedding was bulls*** and not legally binding. Too, when Eva showed up, ending Corrine's meeting with Gideon, Scott introduced her over the intercom as "Ms. Trammell." So maybe Corrine took that as "proof" she's not really Eva Cross.

I hope Corrine doesn't turn vindictive and start publicly discussing those couple of weeks Gideon mislead her about his feelings for her. Those weeks that included the crucial days he used her as a cover while planning and carrying out Nathan's killing. If she raises questions about Gideon's whereabouts any time the night of the Kingsman Vodka event, that could be big trouble.

Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait for the next book!!! But I'll patiently wait as long as it takes. I'm sure that had Sylvia had her way, we'd already have it. And anyone who gives her heat because the publisher hasn't announced the release date yet loses the right to call themselves a fan. Real fans don't trash favorite authors.

​I love Arash too! Love him as much as Cary (because he's a loyal friend) and Victor (because he's a a protective alpha male).

​Oooo, D500, now there's a scary thought: if there is an Anne-Corrine connection, like several posters (me included) think, what happens when Corrine goes crying to the (Not)Good Doctor about Gideon being married? Leaves the Crossfire and calls Dr. Lucas for an emergency appointment. All sorts of frightening possibilities if Anne goes off the deep end. Because in Anne's twisted thinking, Eva has now become the ultimate vulnerability: to destroy her would be to destroy Gideon. I hope Gideon gets Eva out of town and safely to North Carolina the first weekend of the novel.

​This quote is not in either of the snippets, so it's brand new material (squeeeeee!) I wonder if it is part of the same scene of snippet from Eva's point of view, because in it she thinks "This was what we had. What we were fighting for. And we were going to win." 

 

So who's she going to protect Gideon from? As much as I think some of us would love to see her get into a cat fight with Corrine, I think Eva recognizes Corrine's no longer a threat. Her instincts are telling her Anne and Terry Lucas definitely are a threat, and she has already gone after Terry once. I would love to see her go after Anne. Eva wisely thinks the police might still pose a threat.

​Very happy with Gideon telling Corrine he's married. It's interesting that she didn't flip out when Gideon told her he'd married Eva -- considering the fact she took a drug overdose when she heard a mere rumor Gideon and Eva got engaged. I suppose this shows she's more mentally stable now that it's been a couple of weeks since she was hospitalized and presumably taken off whatever medications had been feeding her crazy during the weeks she was chasing Gideon and fooling herself into thinking she had a shot at winning him back.

 

I'm glad we got the mystery of the necklace settled. Eva's gut instinct was right on about the weird throat-touching nervous tic Corrine did the night the two women met. Corrine was unconsciously fingering a necklace she used to wear. Kinda sad for Corrine's soon-to-be-ex-husband that for all those years, she still kept the necklace and all those photos of her and Gideon together. The husband never really had a shot, because she never got over Gideon. She never should have gone through with marrying him. And she still does not get it that she never had a shot with Gideon, because he never would have married her. He let her walk away, and she should have never looked back. I almost feel sorry for her.

 

Almost.

​OK, I think I got the quote another post function to work. Just wanted to add something I know about how fiction writers create their stories. I've learned about the process from two friends who are fiction writers: one's a published author of teen mysteries, and the second is an aspiring author of romantic suspense working on her first novel.

They taught me that fiction writers fall into two categories: "plotters" and "pantsers" (an abbreviation for seat-of-the-pants).

A plotter generally outlines the plot before he or she begins writing the first draft, and this sort of author often writes the novel's first draft in order: chapter one, chapter two, etc. My friend the mystery writer is a plotter. 

A pantser starts with a story idea and lets it take him or her wherever. They have rough ideas of the starting and ending points but don't write their chapters in order, don't use outlines, and they leave themselves open for unexpected surprises. Stephen King is a pantser and proud of it. He made the term popular in author circles (and sparked lots of debate.) My friend the romantic suspense writer is a pantser.

I wonder whether Arash was at the Kingsman Vodka party and met Corrine there. It would make sense for Gideon to include Arash as one of the party guests who saw him there that night in case the cops came asking about his whereabouts. It would be less complicated for Gideon if Arash, not Corrine, was the one talking to police about Gideon's whereabouts that night. Arash is a lawyer and he'd know how to avoid any trick questions by a cop.

In this excerpt are two things that make me suspect Arash met Corrine recently. The first is when he said to Gideon, “If only my wrong women looked like Corinne.” The other is what Gideon thinks as Corrine rounds the corner from reception to Gideon's office. "I watched Scott stand to greet Corinne as she rounded the corner. I noted the way she smiled at him, then Arash as he passed her, before turning her head to catch my gaze."

Here's my theory about what Arash meant when he teased Gideon, “If I remember correctly, you tagged two women when we blew out Cinco de Mayo and a few weeks later, you’re telling me to draft an insane prenup.” It's a wild theory, but it's just one theory, so jump in but don't jump all over me. All in good fun.

Gideon and the guys partied on Cinco de Mayo at the f***pad hotel, and Gideon took two women up to his room for a three-way.

Remember in CBY when Gideon was backstage at Brett's concert and two women tried to tag-team him, both of them pawing him. Gideon thought to himself "In another time, I would've f******* them both, turning the feel of being hunted into one of complete control."

As for parties at the f***pad hotel, the hotel has some sort of function room/rooms and/or a restaurant. Gideon hosted the Kingsman Vodka party at the hotel the night he killed Nathan, including using a kitchen fire at the hotel as part of his alibi.

I can see Gideon engaging in three-ways in the past. It's more impersonal than one-on-one with a woman, he's got the stamina to satisfy two women in one session, and hey, he wouldn't necessarily have to engage in intercourse with one or both. He's got toys stocked.

Most important, afterward there would be less of those pesky emotional expectations from two women who had been with him together. The idea of Gideon getting his kink on in a menage is more palatable than him having a one-night with Deanna that included intercourse, and him carrying on an affair with Anne that included rough s**.

 

 

Love the scene from Gideon's point of view -- not just because its Gideon (swoon) but because it contains more plot twists!!! Thank you Sylvia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, this is doing something weird. Lemme try again. 

She's posted pictures on social media of her laptop open on airline flights. This tells me she makes excellent use of her time on planes and waiting in airports, taking the time to write. I'd guess taking the time to read as well, because all good novelists are bookworms.

I'm not sure whether Amazon has it right, listing the publisher as Cornerstone Digital. On her blog (where she made the official announcement) E. L. James mentions publisher Vintage Anchor. Here's the link to the blog: http://blog.eljamesauthor.com/

In any case, it's causing mass confusion. As much as I am dying for the release of One With You, I'd hate to see any publisher 'wing it' like what's happening with this Fifty Shades book. I'm going to make an educated guess here, too, that the Fifty Shades book will be available only in e-book format at first. How the heck could they print copies this soon?

And to add to the AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH factor for Crossfire fans, there are rumors (RUMORS!) that Henry Cavill might be cast as villain Jack Hyde in Fifty Shades Darker.

I'm heading over to Sylvia's Facebook and Twitter feeds today to see if she has any comments on wassup with all this Fifty Shades news today.

​Sylvia would have little to no control over any decision by Penguin on the release date.

 

This sudden release of a Fifty Shades book on less than three weeks' notice is really strange. I can't recall a best-seller sequel (or maybe prequel in this case) being released with little or no warning. Especially in the summer. A good example of the traditional build-up is Stephen King's newest novel, Finders Keepers, which comes out tomorrow and has been being hyped for months. It is a sequel to Mr. Mecedes, which came out last June. 

 

E.L. James' husband, Niall Leonard, is writing the screenplay for the Fifty Shades Darker film. I wonder whether this new Fifty Shades book came out of that process.

It's unfair, SME, to try to blame Sylvia for things that are beyond her control: her publisher's decisions. She delivered the finished manuscripts of Captivated By You and One With You to her publisher. They're now out of her hands - literally.

I can't see Monica being an option for Victor, even though there is (probably always will be) strong chemistry there. On her watch, young Eva was repeatedly raped, and when the chips are down, Monica has always put money first. Her finest moment was walking away from her first marriage soon as she found out what happened to Eva, but still, she sued the pants off her first husband for millions of dollars Eva hasn't touched.

 

Monica doesn't deserve Victor.

Hey, this website upgrade makes it easy to attach photo files. Excellent! Many thanks to "Gideon's people" for getting right on it.

This site upgrade might be an early sign we're about to get the release date of One With You. The amount of activity by members and views by guests will go through the roof when we find out the date and keep going up to release date. Then the site will go absolutely crazy when we all read the book.

It's nearly May now. June is a popular month to release novels: in time for the summer vacation reading season. Well, summer reading in the northern hemisphere I should say. Lots of Aussie fans Down Under and in South America too.  South Africa as well. If the book is coming in June, some of us can sit on a summer beach with Gideon and others curl up by a winter fire.

Fortunately, Sylvia gets a lot more love than hassling on Facebook, and devoted fans always jump to her defense if complainers cross the line from whining to full-on b i t c h i n g.

 

She's really good to us fans. She gives us snippets and teasers, and she travels the world to meet fans in person at book signings, events and conferences.

Some time back Sylvia received this comment on Good Reads and her answer more or less implies it is the publisher holding things up (this was about Captivated by You).

"I've seen a lot of negative comments about the release date of Captivated by You on your Facebook page. Honestly it's horrifying. How do you stay positive? I'd really like to know, because sometimes I've felt like taking a bat at them! I love your books, and I would wait another year for this book to come out (really, I'm serious). So how do you do it?

Sylvia Day I focus on the only thing I have any control over: the quality of the book."

A lot of fans thought the fact there were to be 5 books was a money making exercise, but I do believe that the story grew and as we definitely need Gideon's side and his healing, further books became necessary. But also, if it were purely a money making exercise the books would surely have been rushed out faster than this so as not to lose readers. Of all the series I have read it's this one and Fifty Shades where I clearly remember the characters and most events but a lot of readers will have forgotten (as I have with other series I have read since but probably because I read Crossfire and Fifty first before getting into this genre of writing).

 

THIS!

 

I think that when book 3 came out, some fans who expected their Happily Ever After to be wrapped up in three books, were unhappy that they needed to wait for two more books for the HEA to come. But when book 4 gave us something entirely new, Gideon's point of view, I think that some fans were delighted and changed their mind about not wanting five books.

 

I know I was delighted. When Sylvia had announced the series would go to five books, she said this was because Gideon still needed work. Personally, I think she more than delivered on that as an author by taking us inside our hero's mind as he works on his issues.

 

I wish people would quit bugging Sylvia on social media about the release date for the final book. That power rests solely in Penguin Books' hands. She did her part when she gave the publisher her manuscript.

Cute post yesterday on Sylvia's Facebook page, a #bookconfession where she admits "I never win arguments with my characters."

 

Anyone up for having some fun with this. Some fill in the blanks fun?

Question: Gideon, what were you thinking?! Seriously, what were you thinking when you (fill in the blank here)

Gideon: (fill in his answer here)

 

For example:

Me: Seriously, what were you thinking when you let Corrine into your office yet again?!

Gideon: Trust me, I know what I'm doing.

Me: Time to remind you what Eva warned you about on the night she first met that nut job. You don't understand that you drive women off the deep end and they think of crazy ways to try to get you. Corrine is stalking you. "Stow the guilt, Gideon, and start weaning her off."

Gideon's always been terrified about his nightmares from the get-go. Before Eva, he feared anyone finding out about them: thus his refusal to spend entire nights with Corrine, much less share a home with her. Things got even more frightening for Gideon because he attacked Eva in a nightmare. After that, he was never again comfortable falling asleep beside her and quit doing so willingly (he has accidentally fallen asleep beside her.) And he pulled an alll-nighter rather than go to bed the night Ireland stayed over. His larger fears could be he won't make a good parent, because let's admit it, Elizabeth is a poor excuse for a mother. Before Eva, Gideon didn't even know how to be a good boyfriend. The day they first started going out, he reminded Eva he was on a learning curve and was bound to mess up. Parenthood is an even bigger learning curve.

 

This has got me wondering about Christopher Jr. When he and Gideon had a knock-down-drag-out fight in CBY, Christopher said something about Gideon has always wanted him dead. Has Gideon gotten violent with Christopher in the past, either consciously because of anger issues or unconsciously because Christopher went near him during a nightmare and Gideon lashed out? For example, tried to throttle Christopher? Was this one of the many reasons Gideon moved out of the house as soon as he was able to as a young man and why he kept up a wall between him and his much-younger sister: he's scared he has a violent nature? Being woken up at home during nightmares is how he learned of their existence? And where did he live during college? The more I think about it, it probably was not a dormitory. My guess is he's always lived alone since leaving the Vidal mansion. Also, is he studying mixed martial arts as a way to channel/contain/control his fears, giving them a safe outlet?

 

There are a number of studies in the medical journals and criminology fields indicating that some (emphasis some) childhood sexual assault victims become abusers as adults and for reasons researchers don't fully understand, the percentages are higher for males. And there are huge amounts of studies on other forms of childhood abuse and neglect contributing to some (some) adults going on to perpetuate the cycle of abuse and neglect. But good people come out of some of the worst families and monsters are sometimes born into loving families, so there are no simple explanations.