Author: Becky

I’m enjoying tonight’s moon. I’ve always had a fondness for crescent moons. Who am I kidding? I have a fondness for all moons. Must have something to do with one of the names I was given at birth.

Tonight was Murder By the Book’s and Brazos Bookstore’s Moonlight Madness sale, meaning the stores stayed open L-A-T-E. Just my schedule. So I swung by and purchased a few books, took the above photo, and came home to write in LJ.

Oddly, I was writing about an actor and as I was putting it all together, Tom came in to tell me he’d just seen him on a new TV show (Rizzoli & Isles, based on novels by Tess Gerritsen) at the same time that I was reading the actor’s Tweet about the show’s highly-rated launch. ACK! The synchronicity!

But let me get on with it.

If you read here, you know that I like the Twilight books and the movies, and I’ve decided to stop feeling sheepish about it. Somewhere there’s a woman happily reading a paperback with a whimsical little cover, maybe pink, maybe blue, and someone sees her, raises an eyebrow, and says, “You don’t actually like that romance crap, do you?” And for a minute, she probably feels bad, maybe defensive, and then she rests the book on the table while she reads so no one else can see the title and MY AUTHOR NAME on it. So I say, “Honey, lift up that book. Like what you want to like. And I’ll do the same.” If I want to shelve Stephenie Meyer between Herman Melville and Marcel Proust in my living room, so be it. Kidding. Proust is French–he’s nowhere near my American novelists’ shelves.

Now when it comes to the Twilight movies, I can enjoy them on the campy level, on the story level, on the how-do-they-compare-to-the-book level, on the dramatic level, on the special effects level, and for the degree of commitment that the screenwriter, actors, director, and crew have put into their work. I can also enjoy the fun-phenomena aspect of the movie releases, from the Twihards to the Twimoms to the ‘tweens.

But in truth, I don’t get all worked up over Robert Pattinson/Edward or Taylor Lautner/Jacob. I can appreciate their work and their pretty faces and bodies, but if you want to know who I have a crush on, it’s Charlie, Bella’s dad. Not a swooning-OMG-crush. I like the way actor Billy Burke portrays Charlie. He reminds me of someone special from my long-ago past: laconic, reserved, protective, kind–a sports-loving, hunting, hardworking, decent guy. The awkwardness that exists between Charlie and Bella makes for scenes that entertain and touch me. Kudos to Billy Burke for pulling that off so that I like Charlie better in the movies than in the books.

Because I liked his work, I looked up Billy Burke some time ago and followed his Twitter account, which led me to his web site, which led me to his music. I’m a complete sucker for a singer/songwriter with a whiskey voice. So when his new album Removed became available, I downloaded it on iTunes (it’s also been the number one seller on CDBaby) and I’ve been enjoying it. Sort of has a low-key Mellencamp/Tom Waits/John Prine vibe–though I’m not big on comparing artists because that’s the whole thing about being authentically creative–every artist is unique. In addition, a portion of Removed’s sales will go to VH-1’s Save The Music, an organization that helps keep music education in our schools–I’m totally on board with that.

So this is my shout-out/thank you to the multi-talented Billy Burke. Nothing like being an “overnight” success after working your butt off since you were nine years old!