Guest Post

Francine LaSala

March 4, 2013 8 Comments

About author, Francine LaSala: Francine LaSala has written nonfiction on every topic imaginable, from circus freaks to sex, and edited bestselling authors of all genres through her company, Francine LaSala Productions. The author of novels Rita Hayworth’s Shoes and The Girl, The Gold Tooth & Everything, she lives with her husband and two daughters in New York. Drop her a line at francine@francinelasala.com.

GUEST INTERVIEW

Tell us about your books, “The Girl, the Gold Tooth & Everything” and “Rita Hayworth’s Shoes”: I’m that annoying kind of writer traditional publishers don’t trust because I can’t seem to write in one genre. Rita Hayworth’s Shoes is a quirky screwball rom-com, centering around a pair of “magical,” life-changing secondhand shoes. The Girl, the Gold Tooth & Everything is more of a kooky psychological drama/light mystery about a woman with amnesia lost in her suburban housewife life who, upon getting a gold dental crown, starts remembering things… So I guess they are alike in that they are both sort of wacky and involve objects that help the protagonists find themselves, and change perspective and destiny, etc., etc. But are completely different in the way they get there. 🙂

What is your favorite word? Starts with an F, ends with a K. (Hint: It’s not flask, though that’s not a bad one either.)

How do you come up with titles of your books? They come to me. Sometimes I need to start writing a while to get the title, which eventually pops out of the material. Sometimes I know the title and start from there. That was the case with both Rita Hayworth’s Shoes and The Girl, the Gold Tooth & Everything. Each started with an experience that sparked a title, and then Blamo! Books! (Well, maybe it took a bit longer than that, but you get it.) If I don’t have a title, it’s impossible for me to know a book. Which I guess is part of the reason I have so many WIPs floating around. (The other reasons being my severe A.D.D. and raising small children…)

Which other authors would you like to meet? Christopher Moore tops the list these days! But in reality, many of the authors I’d like to meet are all right there in your Chicklit Goddess Facebook group. I feel like I know so many of the ladies so well from our daily interactions, but how cool would it be to raise a glass and rage together! (Well, maybe not “rage,” but whatever grown-up goddesses do for fun…)

Who or what inspires you? Life inspires me. There are so many things that happen every day, large and small, that are just magnificent. You have to look for them–you can’t expect them jump in front of you like an old friend at the mall or something. You really have to be scanning for them. Sort of like stalker I guess. But truly, there’s just so much out there that inspires! When you look at the world with a writer’s eye, the question really becomes “What doesn’t inspire you.”

Name three things that must every writer have: 1. A burning desire to tell and share amazing stories. 2. A thick skin to guard and protect you when others don’t believe your stories are quite so amazing. 3. An editor to help show you the distinction between what you think is amazing and how your expression of such amazingness may or may not be working.

What is your favorite part of the writing/editing/publishing process? I love the whole process–when it’s working. When it isn’t, I hate the whole process. In all seriousness though, I love the writing. When it’s flowing, when I feel like I’ve really “hit it,” there’s no greater feeling in the world! (As a side note, I’ve been enjoying the marketing process much more now that it’s become more of a shared, “team” endeavor.)

What are you reading? Right now, I am reading Cindy Roesel’s Viewer Discretion Advised, as well as a horror novella by Douglas Clegg, and the galley for Patti Callahan Henry’s new novel, And Then I Found You, coming out this April. (Did I mention the A.D.D.?)

If you’re not working, what you doing? Drinking. (Ha! Just kidding. But it would be boring to admit I’m pretty much always working. Even when drinking…)

What time of day do you seem to work the best? My most productive time: 4am to 7am. I’m fresh from (maybe not quite enough) sleep, and the mayhem has not yet descended in my house.

Hard/paperbacks or eBooks? I always thought I’d be hardcover / paperback girl forever, until I got a Kindle this past Christmas. I’m almost embarrassed to admit how quickly I was converted… I think I’ll always love to have my most special books in non-digital formats, but the ebook thing really appeals to my “anti-clutter/simplify life” side.

Can you tell us about any of your upcoming projects? Too many projects, too little time!

A women’s fiction, multi-generational “fractured” romance that’s still sort of kooky but runs a little darker than my usual fare.
A trilogy of absurd “fairy tale” novellas, in collaboration with my husband (who’s actually not a bad writer for an architect).
A steamy erotic novel about a trophy wife who takes a break from that life at a reputably raunchy resort.
An as-yet-untitled and therefore in-limbo series about ancient party nymphs living in modern times.
A novel / screenplay / TV treatment (which will it be?) about college roommates who end up living together again in their 40s…

No wonder I can’t get anything done!

GUEST POST

Write What You Know

It’s unlikely that I’m ever going to write a sci-fi novel about time-traveling part-humans living at a space station on Jupiter. Even less likely that I’ll ever set a story in the Wild West. It may be cliché, but I definitely like to write about what I know. And then, of course, turn it on its ear…

Rita Hayworth’s Shoes comes from a point in my life when my heart (and self-esteem) were shattered by not one, but two relationships combusting over a short period of time. One was long-term and stale (like the relationship between David and Amy). The other was more of a flash-burn. In any case, I really did buy a pair of expensive shoes and did sort of make a wish that with that purchase, things might turn around for me…

The Girl, the Gold Tooth & Everything was born out of my own identity struggles with marriage and motherhood; with being a freelance writer, which many mistook for being a “free” writer when the economy tanked; with looking to “self-help” to try to help myself get my feet back on the ground. I also do have gold dental crown I never asked for and don’t want, but that’s besides the point!

So yes, I do build my fiction from life. I do sometimes I put into my stories the pain and confusion, the joy and the bliss I have felt. I steal snippets of friends’ and foes’ best lines and build dialogs around them. I create scenes inspired by my awkward times and my most wonderful moments.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that in any story, elements can be lifted right from the writer’s own experience, and there really isn’t anything wrong with that. Whether these experiences become foundation or flourish really depends on the writer and the story.

As for my recent experiences, I’m certainly not going to write a book about going to the grocery store. But I might write a scene about something unusual happening in a grocery store. Who knows–maybe part-human time travelers from Jupiter will land in the produce aisle and surprise my protagonist du jour, a woman in search of a fresh head of broccoli (and, underneath that banal quest, her life’s purpose), then everything will change for her…

And maybe not. I guess the point is that sometimes to make life bearable and understandable, and maybe a little more interesting, we writers sometimes steal from what we know and then switch the elements around and re-decorate them before we slap them down on a page. For me, the best part is being surprised with how it all gets re-expressed and turns out in the end. Life is definitely not like that. What do you think?

Click the links to buy Francine’s books!

Rita Hayworth’s Shoes

and

The Girl, the Gold Tooth & Everything

**Contact Francine!: Website Blog Facebook Facebook Group: “The Joy Jar Project” Twitter

Cari Kamm

February 25, 2013 Leave a Comment

About author, Cari Kamm: Cari Kamm has worked in the beauty industry for over a decade, building brands, working behind the scenes, and even selling her own skin care line. She has a master’s in clinical nutrition from New York University. Kamm currently works in corporate social media management with clients in the beauty, fashion, and restaurant industries. Living in New York City with her mutt Schmutz, Kamm loves finding inspiration in the most unexpected places, being a novelist, and convincing her fiancé that ordering takeout and making dinner reservations are equal to cooking.

**Contact Cari: Cari Kamm Facebook Twitter

GUEST POST

“Cari’s Writing Life: The Past, Present, and Future”

I connected with writing in my late twenties. I’ve always been a storyteller or that person that loved to entertain and make my friends and family laugh. It’s a characteristic I get from my father. In my early twenties, I started keeping travel journals. I moved to New York City at the age of twenty-two to attend NYU for graduate school with a goal to take advantage of JFK International airport. Growing up in a small town in West Virginia, I was eager to explore the world and wanted to document it all.

I decided to write professionally when I was twenty-eight and craving inspiration at a specific point in my life. Here I was in such an electric city, living and loving everything, even a shadow. However, there was still something missing in my life. There was a void. So… I researched new hobbies from cooking (high burn risk), painting (too messy), volunteer opportunities, and new career paths. I ended up taking a creative writing class with Mediabistro and it changed my life. I quickly learned that the void was passion . . . to write stories. The class challenged me, made me insecure, and sparked my spirit. The workshop assignments got me writing in class and at home. Sometimes, I would come home from a late dinner or having cocktails with friends and find myself writing until 3:00 a.m. Eight months later, I had a manuscript, my first novel–Fake Perfect Me.

Writing isn’t a job. It’s a habit. I begin first thing in the morning. Before anything can shift my mood or motivation, I make coffee and hit the keys. Writing is my morning stretch. I write from anywhere, anytime, and on anything. A notebook, a cocktail napkin, or even taking a photo of a person, place or thing that inspired me. I love being surrounded by music, strangers, voices… simply just life. When a theme moves me, I sketch out an outline breaking down Act I, II & III and write up descriptions of the characters I have in mind. Then, I just write. I don’t look back. I don’t reread. I would say it’s a crappy first draft and then I spend months on revising – editing – revising – editing.

My favorite part of the writing process is creating the outline of the story I have in mind. Then several months down the road realizing where the characters actually took me while reading the story they created. For the past two years, I’ve done just that. My second novel, For Internal Use Only, was released on February 14, 2013. Completing the book was the best birthday gift I could have given myself.

In November 2012, I had participated in National Novel Writing month and completed my third book. It’s my first romance novel! My 80-year-old Italian grandma will be thrilled. I always caught her reading books with Fabio decorated covers. I hope to release this novel later this year.

Writing has taught me one of the most important lessons. If I could go back in time and tell my younger self one thing, it would be that . . . ‘You grow more from criticism than you do from compliments.’

**Click HERE to see the trailer of “For Internal Use Only!”

Dolls Behaving Badly

February 21, 2013 4 Comments

“Dolls Behaving Badly” by Cinthia Ritchie

GUEST POST

“A Very Unintended Chick Lit Novel”

I didn’t set out to write a chick lit novel.

What I envisioned was a literary masterpiece, a book so lyrical and true that reviewers would praise it and readers would love it and everyone would talk about it in hushed tones, the way people speak in church.

But that didn’t happen. Dolls Behaving Badly was chick lit from the opening, though I fought against it. I fought my own book’s nature. I struggled and cursed and added clever literary devices and deep, philosophical allegories throughout a book that never asked for or needed such nonsense.

But I needed such nonsense. I was writing for all the wrong reasons, as if to gain approval of those unflinching critics from my graduate workshops. I wanted to impress. I wanted to feed my ego.

My book had other ideas, though (and thank god for that). It wanted to be simple and gritty and real, and I wanted it to be lofty and complex and pretentious.

I wasted months in this struggle, months I can never have back, months where I produced page after page of forced and stilted prose that stuttered and balked and wore my confidence to the edge.

Finally, one night I admitted defeat. I said, out loud (for I was talking to myself by that point), in a weary and wobbling voice, “Okay, you win. Have it your way.”

I spent the next day writing like mad. I wrote through the night, slept a few hours, got back up and wrote some more. I couldn’t stop. It was as if by admitting defeat, by laying myself bare and pushing aside my ego and expectations, I freed myself to write the book that was inside me, not necessarily the book I wanted to write but the book I needed to write. The one waiting for me to find it.

It didn’t take me long to love this book, love it with the messy, doomed, exhilarated love a mother has for her child, a love made even stronger by imperfections and doubt. I knew Dolls Behaving Badly would never be serious literature, but so what? It was filled with characters that were flawed and made bad choices and never quite resolved their issues. It was real. It was written for real women, who live real lives and face real conflicts and who, at the end of the day, want a bit of escape. They want to laugh. They want to feel better about themselves and their lives, they want comfort; they want to feel as if they aren’t alone, and how can I blame them when I want to feel the very same thing?

Dolls Behaving Badly will never win a literary award; it’s not that kind of book. But I’m banking that it will win something more important, something more real: Readers’ hearts.

Excerpt of “Dolls Behaving Badly”

Thursday, Sept. 15

This is my diary, my pathetic little conversation with myself. No doubt I will burn it halfway through. I’ve never been one to finish anything. Mother used to say this was because I was born during a full moon, but like everything she says, it doesn’t make a lick of sense.

It isn’t even the beginning of the year. Or even the month. It’s not even my birthday. I’m starting, typical of me, impulsively, in the middle of September. I’m starting with the facts.

I’m thirty-eight years old. I’ve slept with nineteen and a half men.

I live in Alaska, not the wild parts but smack in the middle of Anchorage, with the Walmart and Home Depot squatting over streets littered with moose poop.

I’m divorced. Last month my ex-husband paid child support in ptarmigan carcasses, those tiny bones snapping like fingers when I tried to eat them.

I have one son, age eight and already in fourth grade. He is gifted, his teachers gush, remarking how unusual it is for such a child to come out of such unique (meaning underprivileged, meaning single parent, meaning they don’t think I’m very smart) circumstances.

I work as a waitress in a Mexican restaurant. This is a step up: two years ago I was at Denny’s.

Yesterday, I was so worried about money I stayed home from work and tried to drown myself in the bathtub. I sank my head under the water and held my breath, but my face popped up in less than a minute. I tried a second time, but by then my heart wasn’t really in it so I got out, brushed the dog hair off the sofa and plopped down to watch Oprah on the cable channel.

What happened next was a miracle, like Gramma used to say. No angels sang, of course, and there was none of that ornery church music. Instead, a very tall woman (who might have been an angel if heaven had high ceilings) waved her arms. There were sweat stains under her sweater, and this impressed me so much that I leaned forward; I knew something important was about to happen.

Most of what she said was New Age mumbo-jumbo, but when she mentioned the diary, I pulled myself up and rewrapped the towel around my waist. I knew she was speaking to me, almost as if this was her purpose in life, to make sure these words got directed my way.

She said you didn’t need a fancy one; it didn’t even need a lock, like those little-girl ones I kept as a teenager. A notebook, she said, would work just fine. Or even a bunch of papers stapled together. The important thing was doing it. Committing yourself to paper every day, regardless of whether anything exciting or thought-provoking actually happens.

“Your thoughts are gold,” the giant woman said. “Hold them up to the light and they shine.”

I was crying by then, sobbing into the dog’s neck. It was like a salvation, like those traveling preachers who used to come to town. Mother would never let us go but I snuck out with Julie, who was a Baptist. Those preachers believed, and while we were there in that tent, we did too.

This is what I’m hoping for, that my words will deliver me something. Not the truth, exactly. But solace.

**Contact Cinthia Ritchie:

Website

Email: cinthiaritchie@aol.com

Lucie Simone

October 12, 2012 5 Comments

Author Biography: Lucie Simone has a passion for travel, yoga, and writing. She has a degree in Journalism, a Master of Fine Arts in Television Production, and is a certified yoga teacher registered with Yoga Alliance. Her love of comedy (and living under the delusion that she might one day be an actress) resulted in a stint studying improvisation, which, ironically enough, taught her to be a better writer.

Her short story, A Taste of Italy, won the New York Book Festival competition for best ebook and is a bestseller at Amazon UK. The release of her debut novel,Hollywood Ending, a romantic comedy about life in Hollywood for the not-so-rich-and-famous, marked the launch of her small press, Simon & Fig, which publishes Chick Lit, Lad Lit and Women’s Fiction exclusively.

Lucie lives, loves and writes in the City of Angels, but considers New York City her second home and visits as often as her bank account will allow.

GUEST POST BY LUCIE

The Evolution of Chick Lit

Ever since Bridget Jones and her infamous diary first stumbled onto the literary scene in 1999, Chick Lit has captivated many a modern gal looking for humorous heroines whose tales reflect our own sometimes glamorous, sometimes gluttonous and often times glorious lives. And just like its readers, Chick Lit has evolved and “grown up” as the years have passed. No longer is the genre overflowing with books centered around dating disasters, shopping sprees and career casualties. Now, we’re seeing heroines who are married, and maybe even with children, as they undergo new life challenges such a coping with divorce, overcoming loss, and managing that delicate work/life balance.

I first noticed this trend with the appearance of Ellen Meister’s Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA in 2006. Centering around three women whose children attend the same elementary school in a Long Island suburb, this story reveals the struggles modern women face in trying to keep their marriages alive, their careers afloat, and their friendships strong. And even though I didn’t have kids, live in a suburb, or even have a husband, I could still relate to the characters and their stories because at its core, it was still about the empowerment of female bonding.

Jennifer Weiner’s long and impressive list of books, starting with Good in Bed and leading up to her current Chick Lit hit, The Next Best Thing, chronicles beautifully the evolution of Chick Lit since her debut in 2002. Her characters have matured and grown up right along with her, and her novels continue to reflect the humor and heart that keeps the genre kicking.

And recently, I found and fell in love with a fat, over-forty, fabulous Chick Lit heroine with a passion for cake and a knack for making mistakes. I absolutely loved Sue Watson’s Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes about Stella Weston, a mom, TV producer and soon-to-be-divorcee who chucks her crumby job and launches a baking business from her kitchen. It’s about reinventing yourself and learning to love who you are despite your so-called flaws. But above all, it celebrates the friendships that carry us through the tough times and see us for the fabulous women we truly are no matter what catastrophes befall us.

I love how resilient Chick Lit is. And despite the fact that the publishing industry long ago declared the genre dead and buried, it lives on with that same youthful spirit and the notion that laughter is the best medicine. Whereas Prada and Jimmy Choo used to occupy the minds and empty the wallets of Chick Lit heroines like Carrie Bradshaw and Becky Bloomwood, today’s Chick Lit chicks are concerned with deeper pursuits such as career satisfaction, meaningful relationships and how to have it all while still having fun.

And, of course, it just wouldn’t be Chick Lit without a fabulous set of friends for nattering and nurturing while our heroines keep on keeping on even in the face of dirty diapers, divorce, and the daily grind. For me, Chick Lit will always be about strong female voices, fabulous friendships, and a great sense of humor. No matter how old we get, we will always need these three things to keep us company.

Long live Chick Lit!

**Contact Lucie at the links below:

Blog: Lucie Simone

Websites: Lucie Simone Lucie Simone (small press): Simon & Fig

Facebook

Twitter

**Click HERE to read my review of Lucie’s book, “Picture Perfect!”

Melanie Toye

September 28, 2012 2 Comments

About author & freelance writer, Melanie Toye: Melanie Toye aims to inspire people through writing and help motivate readers to chase their own dreams. The love for writing has always co-existed in Melanie’s life through writing letters, creating play scripts to her found dream career as a story-teller. With an inspirational blog, frequent freelance writing gigs and Melanie’s first novel release, Entice Me, she is on her way to achieving her dream career as a writer. As well as spurring on all those around her to chase their own dreams.

Interview with Melanie

People would describe you as…? Positive, go getter, gentle

Describe what the writing/editing/publishing was like for you: Lengthy. Entice Me was first demolished when my computer crashed. Starting from scratch I rewrote Entice Me better than the original. Then I spent one and half years applying to publishers. Discovered self-publishing and all fell into place once I decided to travel down this path.

Where did you get the idea for your book, Entice Me? Mainly I want to convey how easy it is for people to get stuck in their daily unfulfilling lives without taking the time to follow their true hearts desires. I have spoken to many people who don’t like their jobs, yet they have been working there for decades. I wondered why they just didn’t change paths. I wanted to provide a message through Entice Me to chase your dreams and follow your own path.

Take us through your typical day: Three days a week, I am at home looking after my young son and spending any free time writing. A typical day looks like this, my young son wakes me up. I cook breakfast for us, then clean the kitchen, put a load of washing on. Go outside with my son to play with our gorgeous German Shepherd dogs. We then might go to the park or go out somewhere. Morning tea time arrives and we sit outside and eat in the shade. I love the outdoors it refreshes me and my spirit. We play games, maybe paint or draw. Then around midday my son has a two hour nap. This is when I strap myself to the computer and write, type and social network and promote my work. When my son wakes up, we play or go to the park in the afternoon then I cook dinner for when my husband returns home. We spend the evening together. My son goes to sleep at a time I would call late. I spend a little more time with my hubby. Then back to the computer for my writing, typing and promoting as well as brainstorming. This usually lasts till about midnight when I decide to go to bed. It seems uncanny that now I have less time to write, yet before I had a child I would spend about the same time or even less time than I do now writing. For me, working within a time frame each day motivates me to get what I need done.

Have you always wanted to be a writer? Good question. I have always loved to write and write stories but I never thought of it as my dream career or any type of career for me really. One day I started writing down characters and their personalities and then the locations. How they were connected with each other and words they spoke. Then scene’s built from that and I couldn’t stop writing. After a few years of writing Entice Me and now with a blog and freelance writing for businesses I have realised this is my dream career.

Do you have any guilty pleasures? If so, what are they? Wow, absolutely. Do you want to know all of them? Hmm … my guilty pleasures would include secretly divulging in chocolate while no one is looking, ice cream while watching a romantic chick flick, reading in bed while everyone is asleep, getting dressed up all girly when going out and eating peanut butter from the jar by the spoonful.

What author(s) would you like to meet? Janet Evanovich, Stephen King, Marian Keyes, Esther Hicks, Robert Kiyosaki and Stephenie Meyer. Can you imagine the mix of these authors all attending a dinner event together? Interesting conversations would be said I can assure you.

Who inspires you? There is an endless list … but really it comes down to people going out there and making their dreams come true. It pushes me to keep going and inspires me to never give up.

What’s your favorite word? Right now … Entice Why? Every sentence I use I want to use entice as a word. For example, ‘for an enticing read, read Entice Me.’ A bit much perhaps? But I just cannot get the word out of my head.

Facebook or Twitter? Facebook, I feel it’s more personable. Though my husband recently told me, ‘Facebook is old.’ Sigh.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given? To not worry about what others may think.

Can you tell us about any of your upcoming projects? Sure, I have a couple of non-fiction eBooks that I am working on to help other writers in non-costly ways to promote their novels as well as other topics. I am also in the midst of writing my second novel, which is fantasy themed, about a woman who lives two lives. The hardest part is choosing which book to work on first.

Additional comments by Melanie: For anyone wanting to chase their dreams, an important point is to find what will motivate you to really dedicate your time and energy to go for it.

Guest Post, “How to Daydream”

Thank you Chick Lit Goddess for the invitation to guest post here. My name is Melanie Toye, author of chick lit fiction novel, Entice Me. I am a dream chaser and I will not give up until I achieve my destination and then I will create even bigger goals. So what about me? I hear you ask. You know dreaming is pretty easy, but for some it can be a daunting process. Let’s make it real simple.

Go outside, wait, print or write down the next steps first then go outside with your instructions. I love the outdoors, because it makes you focus in the moment, rather than taking in all the technology inside.

Once outside, lay down on a towel. Look up. See the beautiful sky and the trees close by. Breathe. Close your eyes holding the image of the glorious sky. Give thanks to yourself for taking the time out of your day to experience this moment. Feel the excitement of this new venture. Breathe.

Take a moment and think about what you really love to do in your spare time. Do you enjoying releasing your stress with a paintbrush and paint to your heart’s content? Do you find your passion is by creating new ideas when cooking meals for the family? Hold what you love to do in your mind. Then think about if you spent your whole day doing what you loved, how would that make you feel? What would your day look like? Who would you meet? Would this be a direction you would like to head towards?

Now open your eyes. Are you smiling? Life doesn’t have to be stressful or dramatic. Life can be enjoyed at every turn, if you let it. The more you listen to your inner voice the more your body and mind will be attuned your true heart’s desires. When opportunities arise you will sway automatically to what will get you closer to your destiny.

If I can give you a little magic to spur on your imagination then imagine what you can do when you give yourself the power to recreate your life to live how you want to live.

“Entice Me” by Melanie Toye

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**Contact Melanie Toye:

Nikki Jefford

September 13, 2012 4 Comments

Author Bio:

Nikki Jefford is a third generation Alaskan who loves fictional bad boys and heroines who kick butt. She is the author of the Spellbound Trilogy and upcoming Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter series.

Nikki married the love of her life, Sebastien, while working as a teaching assistant in France. They now reside in the not-so-tropical San Juan Islands, 70 miles northeast of Forks, Washington.

GUEST POST

Taking Risks in Young Adult Romance

I don’t know about you, but when I was in high school I was super interested in boys and curious about kissing and sex. I gathered what information I could from magazines like YM, Seventeen, and Cosmopolitan; and TV series like Beverly Hills 90210.

I’ve always loved reading, but by the time I was a teen, teen novels didn’t have enough heat in them so I switched to reading historical romance.

One of my favorite things about being an indie YA author, is having the freedom to write and release the kind of book I would have loved reading when I was growing up.

There’s a prank scene in the first book of my Spellbound Trilogy, Entangled, where the main character wakes up in a boy’s bed instead of her sister’s after “The Switch” (they’re sharing a body every 24 hours). This disturbed a couple of readers who sent me emails, but the majority loved being surprised throughout the book and appreciated an author who took risks.

If this went through New York, I know they would have made me take it out because they don’t want to offend readers or, more likely, parents. In my opinion, if you’re not offending anyone, you’re being boring.

At the same time, if you self-publish, you have to watch that you don’t get too carried away. My copy editors make minimal comments as to things that could cause problems, but ultimately I make the final call.

I’m releasing the first in a new vampire slayer series, Aurora Sky, this winter and have struggled with the sexual content for over a year and whether it’s appropriate or not. I ended up removing a sex scene before sending it off to my copy editor. I feel much better about that. It took place in an already heated situation and overall I think it detracted from the scene and relationship.

There is another sex scene I’m leaving in and I am very curious (and nervous!) to see how it will be received. It’s awkward and comical. The safer bet would be to remove it, but I can’t bring myself to cut it. It reminds me of a scene in the 1992 comedy This Is My Life, starring Julie Kavner and Dan Aykroyd, when one of the daughters has sex with her boyfriend and it’s the ultimate letdown. I was cracking up during the scene. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since.

But it was great! I saw that as a teen and was like, “Oh my God, that’s probably what the first time is truly like.”

One of my top priorities when writing is to surprise people as much as possible and give them a truly enjoyable reading experience. I’m not out to write an award-winning novel or brilliant prose. The best compliment I can receive is a reader telling me they couldn’t put my book down until they knew how it ended.

That’s how I know it’s worth taking risks.

**Contact Nikki at the below link:

Nikki Jefford

C. Robinson

August 21, 2012 1 Comment

Please welcome back the author of “Me & D*ck!”

Guest Post by C. Robinson

Before 50 Shades of Grey, before Carrie Bradshaw, the world we know was changed forever by a true pioneer and goddess of the Chic Lit world. Ms. Helen Gurley Brown, who passed away two days ago at the age of 90, will forever be a hero to those of us who want to rattle society at the knees. She demolished the preconceived notions that good girls are pure and sexy girls are simply crazy and wild. She risked being labeled “scandalous” by having the audacity to talk openly, frankly and honestly about sex. Society is still evolving to accept what used to be taboo as natural and stimulating.

As I write my own Chic Lit series, Me & D*ck, I realize that although my heroine, Sunshyne Mercy, is still facing many of the same struggles and challenges as women did fifty years ago, she has more options. She is experiencing a quarter-life crisis and turns to partial escorting to help her grow financially and emotionally. I can’t help but wonder how Ms. Brown’s mother felt when her daughter’s published book “Sex and the Single Girl” hit book shelves across the country becoming an instant success. Not only because it was different and people were curious, but because she was expressing and giving a voice to something that many women secretly felt. My mother, still from the generation where women were supposed to act properly and sex was never openly discussed, supports my writing but still finds it difficult to tell her friends what my books are about. It is those mothers, who encourage their children to follow their passion, who empower them to turn their passion into success and change the world.

“Good girls go to heaven; bad girls go everywhere.” I couldn’t have stated it better myself. I prefer badass over proper any day of the week. It is the trail blazers, the women and girls that say “I want a juicy past, a legendary tale, to share with my children and grandchildren” that make the world more exciting and accepting.

I feel as though each of us is living our own version of a Chic Lit story, and we determine how it’s going to end. Will we take the risks that will propel us forward? Will we take a stand on what we believe? Will we not settle for a guy just to have one but rather hope that our “perfect” guy is out there?

Remain steadfast to what you believe, let your ambitions drive you and in time you’re dreams will be reality. Ms. Brown so perfectly expressed, “What you have to do is work with the raw material you have, namely you, and never let up.”

Be your own success story!

**Click HERE to read my Q & A with C. Robinson

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Email: robinson@authorcrobinson.com

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Paula Tiberius

July 12, 2012 2 Comments

Author Bio: Paula Tiberius is an author, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and mom living in North Hollywood, California with her musician husband Richard, their daughter Violet, and their German Shepherd, Jackson. Paula wrote and directed the award-winning feature film Goldirocks in Toronto, which came out theatrically in 2004, played on Pay TV and Cable in Canada and is currently available on Netflix, distributed by R Squared Films. To learn more about Goldirocks, visit www.goldirocks.com You can read more from Paula Tiberius at her website www.paulatiberius.com/blog, where you’ll find lots of thought-provoking blogs, vegetarian recipes and more. The Cowboy Singer is her first novel.

Go Where The Love Is

I moved to Los Angeles to become a famous screenwriter. Ha! What a cliché, I know. But hey – I had a feature film under my belt, a few connections, a few scripts, and a lot of time on my hands. I was sure I would have an agent within a year, at the outside.

Five years later, still no agent. But, I had a few more scripts, a new short film in post-production, a new distribution deal for my feature, and a new job editing a lifestyle website that had me working with over thirty writers and creating original content. I couldn’t really complain.

One day the phone rang and a writing partner of mine had great news. A screenplay that we had co-written was getting optioned. Hooray! Who needs an agent if someone wants to make your film directly? It felt great to be wanted, and we got to work polishing the script with the production company’s story editor.

Two years later, the company dropped the project. Dream dashed. But, we had a polished script that we were free to shop around, and in the meantime I’d met the man of my dreams, had a baby daughter and written a romance novel for fun. I couldn’t really complain.

Yet this time I was complaining an awful lot. So much so that I thought I better get some help. So I went to work on myself to improve my attitude, and I began meditating, focusing on the positive and all that hippie stuff, and lo and behold, I felt a lot better.

So much better that I thought maybe I was ready to get back out there in the find-an-agent-in-a-haystack game. Yes, I was ready! But something kept stopping me. I polished my query letter over and over, but didn’t send it out.

Then it was suggested to me that I send out a query for my romance novel too. My romance novel? You mean the thing I wrote for fun without any expectations at all? The 220 pages that were largely pure joy to type? The hunk of paper that’s been sitting in my office for well over a year? Well, okay – why not? So I did.

And I got a book agent in a week.

I’m not saying this energy / non-attachment stuff is always so fruitful, but I will say that I think it pays to go where the love is. Now, I’m happily working on my next book, and who knows? Maybe one day someone will make it into a movie.

**Buy “The Cowboy Singer!”

Tracie Banister

February 2, 2012 6 Comments

I met Tracie Banister on Twitter and got to know her through our shared love for Chick Lit. Her debut novel, Blame It on the Fame, has just been released! When she said that she wanted to do a Guest Post on Chick Lit Goddess I was beyond excited! I am thrilled to share this awesome post and topic!

I won’t keep you in suspense anymore, so here you go…

THE MALE PERSPECTIVE IN CHICK LIT

In preparing to write this guest blog, I asked several Chick Lit-loving friends to give me some examples of male characters in the genre who were particularly well-written and developed. They all came back to me with the same answer, “I can’t think of any.” I suppose this is the nature of the beast as Chick Lit is geared towards a female audience and most of it is written in first-person, which means we don’t get to see inside the heads of male characters in these stories and they remain a bit of a mystery. All we know is how these men are perceived by our heroine, how she interprets their words and actions, how she feels about them.

When I started writing my Chick Lit novel, Blame It on the Fame, my intent was to focus almost exclusively on the five heroines (all Oscar nominees in contention for the Best Actress trophy.) The male characters would be adjuncts, there to support the stories of the heroines in varying capacities (husbands, lovers, business associates, caretakers, and children.) However, as I worked my way through the first several chapters, I noticed that there was another character who was on a parallel path with the five actresses, someone who not only had an interesting story to tell, but had the potential to be every bit as multi-dimensional and entertaining as the ladies were. That someone was Best Actor nominee Miles McCrea, whom I began to jokingly refer to as “the sixth heroine in Blame It on the Fame.”

As there’s a third-person narrative in Blame It on the Fame, I had the freedom to dig deep with Miles. Okay, maybe not that deep since Miles is a bit shallow and id-driven. But there were still motivations and emotions and a backstory to explore, and I got to flesh out the character and show readers how his mind worked, which made the relationship between Miles and his co-star/on again-off again girlfriend, Philippa Sutcliffe, richer and more complex because it could be seen from both sides.

Is writing for a male character more difficult or intimidating? In my experience, no. As a matter of fact, it was kind of refreshing to switch gears and think like someone with a Y chromosome for a while. The character of Miles wasn’t based on any particular male of my acquaintance, but I did piece him together, much like Frankenstein’s monster, using personality traits and quirks gleaned from men I’d observed (people-watching – it’s the best research any writer can do, be it at your local restaurant, on You Tube, or in your own living room.) What I ended up with was a fun, distinctive character I hope readers will connect to and find just as memorable as his female counterparts in Blame It on the Fame.

**Visit Tracie Banister on her blog!

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