When we were 13 or so, my friend Cindi and I were both enamored with Richard Lester’s Three and Four Musketeers (movies he made in order to get the backing to make Superman, btw). Cindi had a crush on Michael York’s D’artagnan, later transferring her affections to Richard Chamberlain’s suave Aramis (Richard was still in the closet as far as we were concerned), while I had the hots for Rochefort, Cardinal Richelieu’s wicked one-eyed henchman (played by a 50-something Christopher Lee, better known for his portrayal of Dracula in several Hammer horror films and as Bond villain Scaramanga, the Man with the Golden Gun). We started our own musketeer fan fiction, creating our own characters and inserting them into the world of 17th Century France. My character was Constance Du Vallon (bet you didn’t know Porthos had a sister, did you?) and Cindi’s was Roxanne Du Bois, wealthy young heiress and the object of desire amongst most of the young men of her acquaintance. Of course Constance knew how to swordfight and Roxanne was happy-go-lucky and flirtatious. As we grew older and matured, so did the little vignettes we would write for our own and each other’s characters. Let’s just say that reading many bodice ripper romances influenced the direction our writing would take, although sans explicit descriptions.
I spent New Year’s Eve at Cindi’s house one year. Her parents were out at their own party (or having one at the house; I can’t remember which) so we commandeered their mobile home parked in front of their house in Point Loma. We had alcohol. I don’t remember how we got it, although I do believe we snuck it out of the house. We had fudge and other food not meant to mix with booze. When the new year rolled around, Cindi was in the bathroom throwing up and I was happily stuffing my face with fudge. I remember yelling “Happy New Year!” and Cindi responding with something along the lines of “Bleargh.” I don’t think I even had a hangover. Ah, for the metabolism of my youth…
Cindi reminded me of this incident recently when we got together for a book meeting. Cindi is the author of several books, including Red Hot Tantra, What Men Really Want in Bed and The Bedside Orgasm Book. We are co-writing the sequel to What Men Really Want in Bed, not surprisingly named ‘What Women Really Want in Bed.” Somehow it seems fitting that our little bodice ripperlettes have led us to this point.
We’re on the same page with Richard Lester’s Musketeers. Great film from an even greater book.
I envy your metabolism. Two drinks was always my limit. Number three generally put me to sleep. I Don’t think I ever mixed booze and fudge–which was always perfect by itself.
Best of luck on the books.
I don’t recommend booze and fudge together as a general rule. I’d probably die if I did that these days…
And people say youth is wasted on the young. Look where it led you!
Haven’t od’ed on booze and fudge, but I do like chocolate martinis!
There was a movie called What Women Want. It was kind of cute.
Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com
Chocolate martinis just take out a step – the procuring of the fudge!
I saw that movie. Mel Gibson can read women’s minds. Still didn’t learn anything!
MMMmmmmmmmmm chocolate martinis. Yum. Oh, and the interview is posted, domo arigato.
Well. I see you’ve finally allowed us fans the deep privilege of being allowed to comment! (snort) – tee hee. I like this Cindi! Sounds like a devilishly fun and daring writer what with these sexy “hush hush” topics flaunted in bold print on the covers of her books. You go, girl! but I think EYE should have been consulted with on the “what men want” book. I could tell ya a thing or thirty two thousand. (smile)
Hey Zeez – did you see I borrowed your Perception Test thingie today at Free Spirit? we’re havin some fun with it over there.
TTYL!
Well, as one of the subjects of this blog posting, I must set the record straight. We did not have “booze.” No. We had Rob Roys–my parent’s finest Cluny Scotch and sweet vermouth, smuggled out of the house in a thermos. Now if I could only find some of those ripperettes (now there’s a genre).
Thanks for the link love–and for letting me relive a fine evening from my youth. 🙂
P.S. And a small self-promotion-masked-in-the-guise-of-a-small-correction: my Web site is actually http://www.cwgentry.com.
BTW, we were a little older than 13 when this happened. I’m sure of that, because I didn’t have my first drink until I was 14, which was late compared to my friends. (Yeah, this was Southern California in the 1970s.) So we must have been about 15 or so. I just felt the need to clarify that in case my mom happens upon this blog post. Ha.
Boy, too busy to even visit my OWN blog yesterday! That’s just kind of sad…
Anyway, I have never had a chocolate martini. Not sure about mixing chocolate and vodka, but I’ll try anything once! Thanks for the interview, Adele! I need to post a link to it…
Marvin, I thought it was time to see what the ‘little people’ had to say . BWAHAHAHAAHAH!!!! I am going to go visit your blog and see what you edned up with on the perception test.
Cindi, sorry about the incorrect lnk! I’ll change that. I know we were over 13 when we did the New Year’s Eve thingee; I was referring to the age we started writing our vignettes. We were a LITTLE older when we boozed it up. See? I remember weird things, but you remember exactly what kind of alcohol we snagged from your parents! Heh.