Chick Lit Goddess

...because every author wants to feel like a goddess!

Guest Interview

Cat Lavoie

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About the author:  Cat Lavoie was born in the small town of Jonquière in Québec, Canada. At the age of nineteen, she packed up her things (mostly books) and moved to the big city of Montreal where she currently lives with her tempestuous cat Abbie—who is both adorable and quite possibly evil.

An incurable Anglophile since her university days where she studied English Literature, she can often be found daydreaming about her next trip to London. Since she’s an expert at the art of procrastination, Cat is easily distracted by cooking and home improvement shows—even though she’s not particularly good at either.

Cat grew up watching soap operas and legal dramas and—had she not decided to be a claims analyst by day and write chick lit by night—she would have probably become a designer suit-wearing lawyer. Or a character on All My Children (which is what she really wanted to be when she was twelve).

Cat is not sure whether she’s a geek or a nerd—and is afraid she might be both. Breaking the Rules is her first novel.

Interview with Cat Lavoie

You’re an author! How does it feel to have your book published?  It feels so awesome! These last few months working on edits and getting everything ready for Breaking the Rules’ release have been really exciting.

Facebook or Twitter?  Both. I left Facebook for a few years and—for the longest time—my only social media outlets were Twitter and my blog. But now I’m back on Facebook and I love how I’ve connected with readers and other writers in such a short time… so now I’m trying to balance both.

Did you always want to be a writer?  As far as I can remember, I’ve loved stories and books. When I was in grade school, I used to beg my teacher to let me stay inside during recess so I could read at my desk. Being a writer was definitely one of my dreams when I was growing up.

What is your snack and/or drink of choice when writing?  Oh no. This is the part of the interview where I reveal my crippling addiction to Lays Salt & Vinegar potato chips and Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate bars! But I also drink a lot of water (with tons of ice cubes) when I’m writing. So it’s not all bad!

Where did you get the idea for “Breaking the Rules?”  I was having a conversation with a male friend about the age-old question: can a man and a woman really be just friends? Then I started asking myself: what if a lifelong platonic relationship got really complicated, really fast? The characters and the rest of the story just grew from there.

How long did it take to write it?  I worked on it on and off for a few years, taking notes, doing research and outlining. But once I decided to focus on completing my first draft (i.e. stop working on the outline and actually write the story) it took me a little under a year.

What was your writing/experience like?  Painfully slow. I tend to edit as I write and I have trouble moving on with the story until I feel the sentence/paragraph/chapter I’m working on is ‘perfect.’ It was definitely a challenge to silence my inner editor long enough to finish writing the first draft.

When your book was published, how did you celebrate?  I seem to recall a horribly uncoordinated happy dance in the middle of my living room that scared Abbie (my cat) and sent her hiding for cover. Then I had a celebratory dinner with my best friend. (Followed by another happy dance when I got back home.)

Paperback or eBook?  Why?  Mostly eBooks. As a tech geek and a shopaholic, I love the fact that I can carry all my books with me everywhere I go and that I can go from wanting a book to owning that book in just a few simple clicks.  But I still love the look and feel of a physical book, though. When I really love a novel, I usually end up buying a copy for my bookshelf.

What authors inspire you?  That’s a tough one because there are so many! I’d have to say my main inspiration is Sophie Kinsella. Reading “Confessions of a Shopaholic” helped me find my voice. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to write chick lit. And I love authors like Marian Keyes who combine humor with more serious issues.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given?  The best writing advice I’ve ever been given is: “write the book you want to read” and “write.” For the longest time, I was talking about writing, thinking about writing and even writing about writing… but I wasn’t really writing. So that advice really hit home.

Are you working on anything now?  If so, would you like to share anything?  I’m currently working on the first draft of my second novel called Zoey & the Moment of Zen. It’s the story of a woman who gets sent to an island resort by her friends and family to help her get over an ex-boyfriend. Hopefully, hilarity will ensue.

**Contact Cat!:  Cat blogs about the writing life and posts adorable pictures of Abbie over at the Catenabi Chronicles.  You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter!

**Click HERE to read my 5 star review of Cat’s debut novel, Breaking the Rules!

Llucia Ramis

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About the author:  Birthday: April 23, 1977.  Place of birth: Palma, Majorca (Balearic Islands).

Academic background:  Col·legi Públic de Pràctiques (Palma), Institut Joan Alcover (Palma), degree in Journalism for the Communication Sciences at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Barcelona).

Awards received:  Josep Pla Award for the novel Egosurfing (2010),  Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel, in recognition of work in the field of cultural entertainment (2010),  “Maupassant, mots passants” for a short story in French, awarded by the Alliance Française and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Interview with Llucia Ramis

Describe the book in your own words:  This novel is about thirtysomethings in Barcelona who are freelancers or artists, and have no real responsibilities or relationships. Nothing has changed since their twenties, but they are already starting their midlife crises. All their things are temporary: Mcjobs, apartments, roommates, lovers. They don’t know how to make decisions. They imagined a different future for themselves, but they’re not really worried yet. They go out every night and drink a lot of beer to forget their problems. They’re still having fun.

Describe any of the major figures, personalities, and characters within the book:  The main character is a journalist. She wakes up next to a strange guy on her thirtieth birthday and thinks she’s getting too old for that sort of thing. Her best friends are a coworker who has just gotten fired, a painter, a psychologist addicted to antidepressants, and a lawyer who’s about to get married. The lawyer is planning her bachelorette party and she invites all of her exes. One of them is also an ex of the main character.

How did you come up with the idea for the book? How did it come to be?  When I was thirty, I was engaged to be married. I organized a party with all my ex-boyfriends to say goodbye to my sexy single life. At that time my dream was to make love in the Sagrada Familia. At my bachelorette party, I realized that all of my exes were still lost; their lives hadn’t changed at all: They were the ones left standing in a game of musical chairs. My generation is not very focused. The recession doesn’t particularly affect us because we live in a constant recession. In the end, I didn’t get married and I wrote a novel. But it’s not autobiographical.

How did you come up with the title of the book?  Since I’m a journalist myself, I know that the clearer you are with journalists the better. I wanted to make a headline. The title explains what’s in the book.

What are your top five favorite books? Why?  Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You, by Peter Cameron, is a tender, fun, and intelligent portrait of New York after 9/11. I also like Anne Sexton’s poetry, because it’s very visual and intense, and The Journalist and the Murderer, by Janet Malcolm. And Saul Bellow, J. M. Coetzee, Ann Beattie, Alice Munro, Antonio di Benedetto, Daniel Clowes . . . I’m sorry, I can’t list only five books!

What are your top five favorite films? Why?  The Usual Suspects, Being John Malkovich, and The Third Man, because they blur the line between reality and fiction, and you can see how they construct the story. And I also like Clerks and Diamond Flash, a very strange, disturbing, and shocking film by the Spanish cartoonist Carlos Vermut. I think he chose the actors through a casting by Skype. All of them are amateurs.

What are you favorite blogs or websites? Why?  Núvol (www.nuvol.com/) is a digital newspaper about Catalan culture.  Patrulla de Salvación (http://patrulladesalvacion.com/) and Mongolia (www.revistamongolia.com/) are irreverent websites that satirize the treatment of information and culture by the mass media.  El Estafador (elestafador.com) manipulates you with information just like everybody else, but at least it’s open about it and tells you. It’s an online comic.

Are there any holidays or milestones you are particularly keen on?  April 23 is Saint George’s day, and in Catalonia it’s also the day of the book, because we commemorate the death of Shakespeare and Cervantes. Years ago, women gave books to men, and men gave roses to women. But nowadays everybody buys books and roses. The booksellers are on the street, there are big crowds all day long, and publishers estimate that they make forty percent of their annual earnings! For Catalan people, Saint George is like Valentine’s Day is for the rest of the world, so it’s the best day of the year. I was born on April 23, and so I always imagine that this celebration of love is my own birthday party.

The TV program I cannot live without is:  I can live without TV.

My desert island book is:  The book I’m writing. It would be terrible to not be able to finish it because I’d left it at home.

Writer I’d like to have lunch with:  Roberto Bolaño. Again.

I used to think I would be:  An archaeologist like Indiana Jones.

**Contact Llucia:

Llucia Ramis

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Martha Reynolds

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Bio of Martha Reynolds:  She’s a graduate of Providence College and studied at the Universite de Fribourg in Switzerland. Martha returned to Switzerland numerous times and is always looking forward to her next trip. Recently, she ended an accomplished career as a fraud investigator (many stories to tell!) and now writes full-time. Martha and her husband, and their little dog Bonnie, live in Rhode Island, never far from the ocean.

Q & A with Martha Reynolds

Describe yourself in five sentences:  I’m living proof that it’s never too late to pursue a dream. Even when I was doing something I didn’t like, I always tried to do it well. When I stopped looking for the perfect man, I found the right man. I inherited my mother’s propensity to gain weight, and (fortunately) my father’s sense of humor. I have an older sister and a younger sister; yep, classic middle child.

Tell us about your books:  My debut novel is “Chocolate for Breakfast.” It tells the tale of a young woman who spends her junior year of college in Switzerland. Yes, I spent my junior year in Switzerland! And I lived in a tiny room. And during that year, my father died unexpectedly. Other than that, my life was pretty boring, so I decided to make up a story about a young woman named Bernadette. Her year in Switzerland was much more riveting! ‘Bernie’ makes adult decisions and the rest of her life is really characterized by those decisions. I always said that even if only my friends and family read my books, I still didn’t want them to suck. From the feedback I’ve received so far, I’m very pleased.

What is the writing/editing process like for you?  I write freely for as long as it takes, not worrying about spelling, grammar, punctuation. I just write everything that’s in my head. Every thought, every idea that relates to the work in progress. I have used an Excel spreadsheet to sketch out my characters. That’s just so I stay consistent on things like birthdays, anniversaries, favorite colors, etc. When I begin to edit, I slow way down.  In the case of “Chocolate for Breakfast,” it took about six months for the editing. I did some of it, then turned it over to my editor, Teresa Kennedy. She didn’t think my original ending worked (she was right), so I completely rewrote it, and I think this ending works very well.

Hardback/Paperback or eBooks? Why?  Chocolate for Breakfast is an e-book only. Because it was my first effort, I’d overspent my budget on editing, formatting, and the gorgeous book cover. I wouldn’t have gone with hardcovers anyway, as I think they’re overpriced and most people I know don’t read them. I have had some people ask for the paperback version of this book, and I feel bad that it isn’t available to them, although there’s a free Kindle app that enables anyone to read a book on their computer, or even their phone.

If you could write anywhere, where would it be?  Easy question – Switzerland. By the lake in the summer, high in the mountains in a cozy chalet in the winter. As long as I have some solitude.

What are you reading right now?  I just finished “Girl Unmoored” by Jennifer Gooch Hummer and am about to start “Where We Belong” by Emily Giffin.

For an author, how important is social media?  For me, it’s everything. I don’t know what I would do to market my book without it. For the past year and a half, I’ve worked on building my platform through Twitter, Facebook, my Facebook writer page, LinkedIn, and my blog. Twitter friends retweeted information about my book, Facebook friends shared the Amazon link – I’m very grateful to all of them. And I’ve learned so much about publishing and marketing from the writer blogs I subscribe to. (sorry, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition, but writing ‘the blogs to which I subscribe’ sounded way too stuffy!)

What authors do you admire?  Oh, there are so many! Flannery O’Connor, Claire Cook, Tonya Kappes, Amy Tan, the late Maeve Binchy. Just so many wonderful writers! And, of course, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner. Harper Lee. Kathryn Stockett. Stop me, I’ll just keep going.

How did you celebrate your first book being published?  Just a quiet dinner out with my husband, then screaming it all over the internet 🙂

Tell us about your daily routine:  I wake up around 7:30 most days. Two cups of coffee and usually a power shake (almond milk, banana, protein powder, and frozen fruit), then it’s upstairs to write. I try to write for at least three hours each day. The afternoon is spent with household chores and reading, catching up on e-mail, blogs, etc. I’m usually up until 11:00 at night, and may do more writing, if I’m inspired. And now I always keep a notebook with me, because there are words, phrases, thoughts that must be written down!

What’s the best advice you’ve been given?  Probably “to live your life without regret.” My husband has helped me to see that more clearly, and it’s really because of him that I’m writing full-time.

Can you tell us about any of your upcoming projects?  I’m writing a novel now about a high-school reunion. There’s a lot of angst that accompanies a reunion, especially after so many years. Ghosts from the past can haunt a person for decades, and I’m tapping into some of that.

**Contact Martha:

Blog: marthareynoldswrites

Email: MarthaCFE@gmail.com

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**GIVEAWAY**

To enter to win a FREE Kindle download by Martha Reynolds, please leave a comment telling us what your favorite kind of chocolate is, along with your email address!  A winner will be picked on Friday, September 7th!

C. Robinson

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Q & A with C. Robinson

Describe yourself in five sentences:  I’m a passionate person and writer who takes life’s experiences and turns them into stories that people can relate to and learn from. I seek out opportunities and create them if I have to. I am not limited by a fear of making mistakes – I see them as material for my books. I’m a go-getter by nature, a positive person by choice and someone who finds humor in every day.

How did you come up with the title of your book, “Me and D*ck?”  Once I had the concept of the book, a character who’s moonlighting as a partial escort (oral sex escort), I figured that Me & D*ck  could serve as a double meaning: the main character deals with dicks on a daily basis and the main male character is Dick. It worked out perfectly.

Where is your dream place to write?  The beaches of Malibu with a martini in one hand and a computer on my lap watching the waves crash against shoreline.

Hard/paperback or eBook?  Both

What is your favorite word?  Why?  AWESOME – There’s so much positivity behind the meaning; it emphasizes greatness.

Explain your best setting for writing and editing?  Laying on my bed with the music playing in the background listening to the rain hit the window. I seem to be most motivated to write during a thunderstorm.

What other authors do you admire?  Tim O’Brien – The Things They Carried. He is able to connect to his readers in a unique way.  Although the material is difficult and gut-wrenching, his style of writing still leaves the reader inspired as well as informed.

Have you always want to be writer?  Yes. Writing was my strongest subject in school. As funny as it is, Mighty Ducks the movie, inspired me to want to write books that would be turned into movies.

What is your guilty pleasure?  Nail polish (I have a habit of changing the color of my nails every other night) and watching Master Chef.

What is your favorite scene from “Me and D*ck?”  Towards the end of the book when my main character, Sunshyne Mercy, realizes her self-worth, is empowered, takes a risk and is comfortable with who she really is.

What must a writer have with them at all times?  An open mind and no limits on their imagination.

Do you have any upcoming projects?  If so, can you tell us anything?  The second book of the Me & D*ck trilogy is almost complete.

Additional comments from C. Robinson:  Keep writing your life; you never know where the next great story will emerge from.

**Click HERE to read a guest post by C. Robinson!

**Visit C. Robinson at any of the below links:

Email: robinson@authorcrobinson.com

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**Buy “Me & D*ck” HERE!

Anita Hughes

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Q & A with Anita Hughes

Who is Anita Hughes?  I was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. I live with my family in a villa on the grounds of the St. Regis, Monarch Beach. I am a mother, writer, taxi service for my children, cook, laundress and dog washer.

What are your days/nights like?  I take my children to school and then sit down and write. At noon I take a break and walk my dog to the beach. I love to think while I walk. By the time I get home I usually have the next section of my manuscript worked out. Then I pick the kids up, help with homework, make dinner and hang out with them in the evening. After they have gone to bed I revise what I wrote that day and plan the next day’s writing.

How did you come up the title of “Monarch Beach?”  Actually an editor at St. Martin’s Press came up with the title! I am so grateful because it fits perfectly. I love my cover and my title: they make me feel like I’m at the beach even when I’m not.

If “Monarch Beach” were turned into a movie, who would you choose for actors?  I could see Natalie Portman or Ann Hathaway as Amanda. Adrian Grenier would make a perfect Andre and Alec Baldwin would be terrific as Edward. I see Stephanie as someone really fun – maybe Kate Hudson.

What inspired “Monarch Beach?”  I live on the grounds of the St. Regis and I am surrounded by beauty. I thought – if you were really unhappy would living in a gorgeous place make you feel better – or do you take your grief wherever you go?

How did you celebrate your first book being published?  My children and I went out for frozen yoghurt. I did browse online for pretty shoes and dresses but I decided I would save that for my first author event.

What are your favorite must-haves for writers?  I need my laptop, coffee and a good book. When I’m not writing, I’m reading, so I always have to have a great book on my bedside table.

Explain what would be your perfect day?  Sleep in and then go to the spa and sit in the Tranquility Room. Then go for a swim or walk along the beach. At night, I love to watch a great movie or a show on HBO.

What’s your favorite snack to eat during the editing or writing process?  I like a cup of coffee when I’m revising. It gives me a burst of energy to do my best work.

Do you have any advice for new writers?  My advice is to completely immerse yourself in your manuscript. When I am working on a novel, I think about it all the time. Make your characters your friends, live in their world, and it will come alive.

What is the best advice you’ve been given?  To write the books I want to read. I look forward to sitting down and writing – it is like reading but better. It is exciting to see what appears on the page.

Do you have any upcoming projects?  If so, tells us:  My second novel, MARKET STREET, will be released on March 26th,  2013. I love the cover and I’m really excited about it. A third novel, LAKE COMO, will come out some time next year.

Additional comments from Anita:  Thank you so much for hosting me on your wonderful blog, Isabella!

**Visit Anita at any of the below links:

Anita Hughes Books

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**Click HERE to read my review of “Monarch Beach”