Life is in constant motion and I am pleased to announce my latest project, Online Boutiques by T Marie. I have personally hand picked the most stunning and fashionable designs to bring forth to you boutique style. Go to www.OnlineBoutiques.US and enjoy an intimate shopping experience and please don’t worry I am working hard pounding my fingers to the key’s finishing up my next novel.

Today as I went for my daily run the air was thick with Jasmine and the Magnolias lay heavy within the branches of the trees. There was no need for the blaring of my I- pod as the various species of birds filled my ears with their own delicate songs.
Spring time in the South is like no other and I feel so blessed to be able to witness all of its splendid glory. Being allowed to wake up slowly, ramble around the serenity of our home and head outside into such a natural spectacle, is one of my biggest joys. I wouldn’t trade it for any other. I am fortunate to walk out my door with coffee in hand and wander peacefully upon our grounds in admiration over the new buds upon my bougainvilleas or follow the deep scent of my roses to the home of their gardens. It is there that I will dwell and allow myself to reflect upon the words that I will write for the day. My children are grown and my days are now mine to do with what I wish. I have slowed down. Nature has nurtured me into a woman who is at peace with herself and her surroundings. There is no longer the need to fly through the day at a frantic pace. I remember those days with a smile, as I sit with my laptop upon my lap. My romantic southern days are long-lasting. I am in no hurry for life to pass me by. So for those of you who have asked me why I chose this path, it is simply to have the ability to occasionally look up from the stories that I write and admire the flutter of the butterflies outside my window.

It appears that my gears have temporarily shift from writing Novels to entering the world of the Movie Making Industries. Of course I was at first a little apprehensive but I must say that I have whole heartedly dove head first into the dark waters and there was no turning back. Luckily for me, I am finding this whole process to be quite refreshing, exhillerating and extremily stimulating. There is something magical when you are able to bring your characters to life upon the silver screen and I am not only in love with writing the script but the buisness end of producing. Without a doubt they have hooked me. I know that this is an oddity for an author to actually love that type of industry, but once again I am not the norm. I was able to keep a good portion of control with the script and of course I am flexible, easygoing, and I think an extremly fun person to work with. (Excuse me while I toot my own horn.)

Now to my readers I have had to put my next novel on hold as It is difficult for me to keep switching between the ; I would like you to know that I have changed the script up and I think you will find the movie as good or hopefully even better then the book. The basic story is there and it will hold your attention from beganing to end with some added surprises. Oh how I wish I could give you all the details and belive me it’s difficult to keep my mouth shut but it will be well worth the wait. So please be patient and hold on to your hats because i know this one will blow you away!

One of the biggest  perils of being an Author is sitting daily upon a chair for hours upon hours.  Those of you who work in a office or sit behind a computer, I am sure you can relate and would have to agree with me, but for those of you who are young and lucky enough to have active jobs;  I would like to reveal to you our concerns. It’s the dilemma of the increasing span of our rump. A lot of junk in my trunk  is not something that I personally care for and as each year passes, I have to be very careful that my lady humps do not expand into lumpy bumps. That is why I grudgingly wake up every morning and force myself to walk/run ( Honestly I walk more then I run)  three to five miles  and then hit the weights and finish up with laps in our pool. Besides being intent at keeping the gravity gods at bay, it clears the cobwebs from my head, so I am able to have a perfectly lovely day being scantly mischievous and filling  my pages with  murder, and mayhem. 

Now, as I had written in my last blog, I was very curious over the benefits of the fairly new Skecher Shape up Shoes and ran out to snatch up my own pair. I wore them with great enthusiasm, expecting my forty year old cheeks to perk up like those of a twenty year old, but after only one week of walking in those evil little devils, my left hip hurt so much that I was hobbling around the house like a ninety year old woman. If I sat for any length of time I was hardly able to get out of my chair. The constant pain from my hip joint and lower back was so excruciating that I could hardly sleep and Advil became my best friend, leaving my poor husband out in the cold. No snuggling for him or scratching his back until he fell asleep, as I was unable to lay upon my left side. For over thirty years I have either walked or ran and never once had  any of the physical problems like I did from wearing those nasty little buggers for only that one week.

After great discussion with my husband, I was curious to see if anyone else had this problem, so I began my own inquisition. I  Asked several of my friends and family who I knew had owned their own pair, if they had any concerns. To my surprise, as well as theirs, all off us were having the exact same back and  hip problems. A couple of them were so bad, that they were receiving medical treatment. Becoming even more curious, I expanded my inquiry on the computer and was astounded to find that there was a class action law suit against the skecher shape up company. There were several women who actually had hip fractures and even one young woman in her twenty’s who had to have pins put into her hips. Needless to say; from what I read on the computer Skechers had never done a test study upon the shoes before making their revolutionary claim.

I was one of the lucky ones; even though I still have pain, I was smart enough to discontinue the use of my shoes early enough for no permanent damage.  I am happily back to wearing my Nike running shoes in the morning and my  strappy heels at night. I am sorry to say, that my own vanity made me fall into a marketing trap. Take my advice, if you are out shopping and you see the cutest pair of shape ups and think to yourself; I wonder if these things really work?  Just run….. run far away… leave them behind.  Your hip and back with thank you for it.

T. Marie Benchley,

Author of  “Once Wicked Always Dead”

Since the September release of my Hard Cover “Once Wicked Always Dead” I have been on tour signing every Friday-Sunday at all the various book establishments across the country. Meeting and talking with the readers is one of my favorite parts of being an author. I am also on a deadline to finish my next Novel, so the rest of the week you will find me  hidden away in my writing room where I am working diligently to finish. 

Ok, that last statement is a lie… Yes, I should be working on finishing this and of course I will eventually finish it and it will be fabulous, but with all of the modern day Internet distractions I  continually become preoccupied… Man I really could use a coffee…. I need to make a Starbucks run, I’ll be right back…..

I’m back,  sorry about that.,  but right next door to Starbucks was a Stein Mart and I thought; Well why I am here, I might as well run over and get a pair of those tennis shoes that I have heard so much about. They are suppose to work my butt off  just by wearing them. (I’ll let you know how that is working out at a later date.) Sorry, I  got a little distracted. Anyways where was I? Oh yes, distractions. 

This is exactly the type of thing which I am talking about. There are so many distractions in the world that sometimes it’s hard to focus upon the topic at hand; which for me just  happens to be finishing this book! So to all of you out there  who wish to be Authors and  approach me saying;

“I have this great Idea for this book.”

 I respond to you; “Have you finished it?”

Your response being;  “Well no, but it’s really good.”

My Advice to you is; “Don’t do as I do, do as I say and finish it already!”

Just think  what a world this would be if we all finished what we started.

Where does the time fly? Is it possible that we have traded in the candy that filled our pails  for turkey on our plates? Life for me is a whirlwind as I have been on tour and signing copies of my hard cover Once Wicked Always Dead. I really need to give a shout out to all the wonderful book stores who have so graciously allowed me to come in and spend time with them and all my readers. For me there is nothing better then surrounding myself around books, people and cafe’ moca’s! Thank you all from the bottom of my heart! I would now like to touch on a more serious nature.

After watching the news last night (Anyone who knows me understands that I am a huge news junkie!) I saw something very disturbing, and yes, I feel the need to touch on this subject! Apparently there is an Author  (I don’t even want to put Author as a title to this mentally, problematic person) but he wrote  a how to for Pedophiles. He was able to e-pub the trash and Amazon offered it for sale on their site. After much protest Amazon removed it  and the Author was interviewed by reporters. I watched those interviews and believe me when I tell you,  the man is definitely out to lunch  and a danger not only to children but to society!

The big debate has been freedom of speech. As an Author, I am all for freedom of speech but as human beings we also need to be held responsible for our actions. The actions taken by this man are harmful,  not only for what he has written, but also in his belief that it’s ok to take the innocence from our youth and put so many children in serious jepordy but also help in furthering breaking down the moral fibers in our country. He is telling very troubled, individuals that their own perverse desires, should be act upon without any consequences or concern for the detrimental damage it would cause to our children! 

In this particular case, freedom of speech should be thrown out the window! If the government wishes to control and make decisions over what we feed our children or eliminate toys in Happy Meals, why don’t they do something about this! Come on people, have we have gone so far over the spectrum that we have lost all common sense?  So I would like to say to Mr so called Author, don’t be surprise if you receive your free copy of Once Wicked Always Dead, I think Leeza would like to meet you.  You seem to be just what she is ridding the world of!

When I’m bad, I’m so bad and when I am good, what can I say? I guess I’m still a little wicked. I do realize that I have left you  wandering  out in the mist of blogger land and I greatly appreciate you staying with me. After my extreme stunt of jumping out of a plane at 13,000 feet to fall roughly 120 mph with a giant of a man strapped to my back, I can only begin to tell you that i was beyond grateful that my parachute opened without a single glitch. The very next day, my husband and I loaded up our car and headed to our cabin. It was there, nestled  amongst the mountains ,where I spent the entire summer cooperating and swearing to never let my children talk me into anything like that again. So after such a huge response and unbecoming begging from all of you, I am back and do solomnly swear, I will whole hartly strive to keep up on all my blogs! 

Now that is enough on that subject and lets get down to the good stuff, shall we? I would like to give a huge shout out to the Southern Independant Book Association. This years event  was held in Daytona Beach, Florida and was down right fun! There is nothing like Southern Hospitality, believe me I know because I live in the south and yes, my daughters name is Scarlett. ( You can’t get more Southern then that) With the new release of my Hard Cover I was asked to come and sign and meet all of the  wonderful Independent book store owners. With the help of my assistant,  I autographed and quickly gave out 150 books. I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun these people are! I happily accepted several invitations to visit their stores and sign for their customers. One owner had even sweeten the pot, by offering to teach me  belly dancing . ( Seriously how could I pass that up, I am so there!) Tomorrow I fly out and head to Michigan where I will be signing and meeting with the Great Lakes Independent Association. I can only hope that I have as much fun with these small store owners as I did with the Southern. I am sure I will have some stories to tell after this trip. So until next time remember, “The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed”

Well once again summer has fallen upon us and the sweet southern air has been bogged down with moisture, while the sun’s  unmerciful rays sizzle down  baking us all.

“One can only stay in their pool for so long.”  My husband yells at me.

Learning well from our children, I choose to  ignore his statement.  I close my eyes, lay my head back and let the coolness of the water do it’s duty. I have only a few days left to contend with the heat, as we will be loading up our mountain dog and our hemingway cat. The car will be packed full and we will be happily heading for the Mountains,  where the air is cool, elevating our senses and thus providing us with a renewed sense of energy. I call this little piece of heaven our spa and believe me when I say It’s well needed. Life has been in overdrive and we have been rearing up the engines for my release of “Once Wicked Always Dead” The response has been overwhelming and the huge demand for my Galleys have left me with only empty boxes at the warehouse.   On a good note; due to the positive respond that we have had with all of the book sellers, we will be increasing the first printing by thousands. So with that being said I will be on my way, but before I go I must tell you about the little promise that I made to our children when I was at a weak moment. ( I swear they have a sixth sense in knowing the perfect time when to hit me up for what they desire.) This has been something that they have always wanted to do with me for a long time and with their constant begging, I had no choice but to give in. What might this request be? Well all I can say for now, is that it has something to do with me jumping out………..Well maybe it will be better if I just wait and tell you after I do it.

Paul from Simon & Shuster

I would like to tell you all a little story about an Author (who would happen to be me ) and was invited to sign her Galley’s ( Which happened to be of Once Wicked Always Dead) at one of the largest book shows in the world and had the worst misshap or should I say nightmare imaginable. 

 First I would like to take you back to the very beginning. It all started last Wedesday  when my  husband ( who by the way travels everywhere with me, because not only is he such good company, but also incredibly good looking and is one of my best accessories.) happily checked in at the Roosevelt in Mid Town, Manhattan. My Daughter who is a high Fashion Model just happened to be looking for a Condo and asked us to check out an area that she liked, which was aproximatly 15 min. walking distance from where we were staying. So being the loving, caring and fabulous parents that we are, we dropped off our luggage and happily started off on our journey in 95 degree temp hand in hand. ( The hand and hand thing lasted about a half a block, due to the sweaty palm thing. We couldn’t keep our grasp.) Anyway, we were in great moods and I was really doing a good job not allowing myself to complain to Kirk about how the city and it’s sidewalks smelled like a mixture of urine and spit due to the basking sun. ( I know we live in Florida where it is ungodly hot, but at least the humid air smells like Jasmine, Orange Blossoms, and Magnolias.) As we were walking I happened to spy a woman of ethnic descent walking towards us and thought to myself how odd, she has her shirt raised over her bra and her bra is pulled down exposing her breast. Now mind you I know it’s extremely hot out but she is just happy as can be walking along, fully exposed and the streets are filled with people who are just trucking along like they don’t even see her. She happily passes us by without a care in the world and I can’t help but crack up as I look at my husbands face. It was classic, one of those times in your life that you will never forget. I nudged him  and with a laugh I said

“In New York you don’t even have to throw beads at them” ( I also made a mental note  to use this incedient in one of my books, and you guys wonder how I come up with these Characters.)

After that things just went downhill, that night we scooted away to have a nice dinner at Angelo’s in little Italy. I had my usual Martini, up, dry, with olives ( which by the way was extremely yummy.) We finished our dinner and I had a glass of Chianti which was still half full. A lovely couple had sat down beside us who we started chatting with. I soon found out that they were there for the Book Expo and was with Simon & Shuster. We were happily conversing when it happened, understand that I am part Italian, from my mothers side and I can not help but talk with my hands. ( you know where this is going) I guess I must have really been into what I was saying because the next thing I know I’m  knocking over my glass of deep red wine spilling it all over the white linen tablecloth and splashing it upon the wall. Since I was completely sober (ok maybe 90% sober) I simply flashed a smile, shruged my shoulders and moped it up. ( This is one of the benefits of being a woman, we can use our womanly ways when needed.)

Let’s now jump ahead to the next morning, shall we? I awoke fresh and egar to head off to greet my fans. ( Well that is a little bit of a white lie, as I had been up pretty much of the night worried that no one would even show up at my booth to get an autographed copy. I mean what if I was to sit there for a full hour and not one person came by.) By this time my husband was a little nervous for me, but I was maintaining my composure and appeared cool as a cucumber. I told him don’t worry talking to people, signing books, lectures anything to do with people is my cup of tea. Wanting to look like an appropriate author ( whatever the heck that means) I took my time dressing and extra care applying my makeup and doing my hair. With my saintly husband anxiously awaiting, I was finally ready to make my great debut. We head downstairs to our awaiting car which was to take us to our great event. When it happened, we got the call, or should I say Kirk got the call. I could tell by his face, and his words, it wasn’t good. He hung up the phone and he turns to me while trying to keep his composure and says ” You’re Galleys never arrived, you have nothing to sign.”

“What do you mean, I have nothing to sign?” I guess I had to repeat his words hoping I misunderstood, or he was going to tell me he was joking. Not a chance, I had nothing to sign. I came all the way from Florida and all I had to sign was the eight Galley’s that my savior, who is my husband brought with us just in case. Let me tell you we walked into that place and I was not happy, but I didn’t have much time to think about being angry as I had to go into damage control, and this we did.  We placed the eight books that we brought on the table. My posters where hung of my Novel, and we placed one of the Galleys on the rack along with the other books. A half an hour before I was actually scheduled to start people began flooding in. I whole heartedly spewed out my apologies, while promising to take their name and address and send them their autograph copy as soon as I hit my home. In one hour I had well over one hundred names and address of people actually wanting my Galley. I had never met such wonderful people from all over the world as I did that day!  The next day I flew home, my son had signed for the several cases of Galleys which Atlas Books had Fed Ex over night from their warehouse.  I happily spent my Memorial weekend signing each galley while thinking of each person that would receive it. ( Of course Atlas paid for all the shipping cost, which came to well over five hundred dollars. I had to charge them, just so they would remember this for next time and not make that mistake again.)

So all in all, what could have been the worst tragedy for any author turned out to be a huge success. Lesson in life, like the old wise man said, ” When life throws you lemons, make lemonade” and after sending out all those books I think a nice cold glass of Lemonade, smelling the Jasmine and sitting out by our pool is exactly what I am going to do.

     Well It’s a new week and a busy one at that. I would like to announce that my new book galley’s are flying out the door in response to those who are wishing to review my new novel  “Once Wicked Always Dead.” I must say I am very happy and surprised by how many request that I am getting and  hope that all of you will be pleased with the galley. I personally want to thank each of you for taking your time and showing such an intrest. Please keep in mind that these galleys are unedited and I am well aware of some of the mistakes that are scattered within the  pages and I can assure you that all will be corrected before my actual release date. On another note, I would also like to thank David and Mary Trumbell for inviting me to attend The Robert Benchley Society  Annual event in July. I am so looking foward to attending and I’m sure the day and night will be filled with much fun and laughter. Now that I have shown all of you a little of my serious side, I will resume next week in touching  upon a more humorous nature  but unfortunately you will have to wait until we meet again.