Raine Balkera - Romance Author

Let me begin this one at the very beginning. My introduction to the 007 Adventure began back in the 80's, and it was Roger Moore who captivated my heart as well as my soul with his version of the shaken, not stirred secret agent in   For Your Eyes Only . There was no prior-to-that for me because I grew up in a Catholic home and both parents were convinced (even having never seen nor read an Ian Fleming novel) that we would all be damned to hell as a family collective if any one of us dared read or watch a 007 flick. It was all of that wanton, indiscriminate sex, you see. I became hooked anyway and made it a practice to view as many of the Bond films as I could, and after marriage, it became more easy a task to accomplish with cable television and late nights spent in a rocking chair with an infant/baby in my arms. Until then, I had adored Roger Moore and honestly still do, but after watching so many of the franchises films, I came to the conclusion that no one h...

Today is National Comic Book day , and in most parts of the United States, if you visit a bookstore or outlet that sells them, you're liable to take home some freebies! It's been awhile since I last read a comic book, but that doesn't mean I don't want to anymore. Like most kids of my generation, we grew up on comics -- whether they be in the form of Sunday Funnies that we eagerly slipped out of our father's newspaper after church, or the store-bought kind we always had spare allowance change to buy. For me, it wasn't about superheros or the standard favorites and all about love. I'd be hard-pressed to give you the exact date and time of my first glimpse into one of these charming, old relics, so let's just say I was still in elementary school and leave it at that. What I can say with definite certainty is that, for me, it became the equivalent of an old Lay's potato chips slogan: you can't read just one. I poured ove...

Project Runway Season 14, Ep. 5 | Aired Sep 03 I'll be the first to admit that, at my age, even watching this show and being a dedicated fan STILL makes me ill-equipped to form an opinion -- since Fashion has always been relegated to the select few, ages 16-25, who are dead gorgeous and can afford a majority of the haute couture being created from Paris to Tokyo. As a dedicated fan of the show, however, it sometimes behooves me to form an opinion anyhow. As artists go, I am a writer and not a fashion designer, much less a fashionista, nor the creator of anything that can be hung on a wall, set on a pedestal for all to admire, or worn with flair in any major city around the world. I watch Project Runway not simply for the entertainment value  surprise outcomes, but more for its constant, if not sometimes subtle, hints into the human psyche. This show is a terrific way for a writer to shamelessly voyeur the anticipated nuances of human nature with all of its gilded fo...