Archive for the ‘Chick Lit’ Category

Today I will be blogging at Chick Lit Writers about being the runner up in their annual Stiletto Contest. Come by and say hi!

Today I will be guest blogging on Chick Lit Writers about obtaining my high heel license in Carmel, California. Stop by and say hi!

A member in my RWA chapter, started a discussion on what are the top five chick lit books. Great topic – I chose  my top five based on level of writing, diversity of characters and originality.

#1. Dirty Girls Social Club by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

 

Loved this book – still re-read it yearly. I discovered it when I was in grad school at Harvard. It was the first non- academic book I’d read since I started college. Up until that point, I believed that the only good fiction was literary and I had no desire to become a writer because I figured I couldn’t compete with my favorites – Wilde, Fitzgerald, Wright, Zeta-Acosta, Baldwin and Chesnutt. This book opened up my eyes to a whole new world of well written but fun (can reading be fun?) fiction. I wrote Alisa, flew to New Mexico to meet her, and she became a mentor to me. This book has a diverse cast, is sassy, well written, and just fabulous.

#2. The Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport

I first read this book in 1998 when I was assigned it in a literature class at Stanford. Davenport’s writing is brilliant. It’s the story of four women and their families in Hawaii. She blends history, romance, folklore, and politics effortlessly. I couldn’t put it down and everytime I pick it up, I’m amazed at how I lose myself in her stories.

3. Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin

 

 What can I say? Emily created a true Chick Lit classic. I can’t wait for the movie next year. Everything was perfect, Darcy and Rachel’s complicated friendship, the love square, a summer escape to the Hamptons. The perfect light beach read – where is the 2010 book of the summer? Oh right – editors think Chick Lit is dead so we are being force fed Giffin’s latest book – Heart of the Matter – well written, but not light and so not fun. Oh well – we will always have summer 2004.

4. Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner

 

What’s not to love about Cannie Shapiro? Larger than life – Cannie struggles to accept herself in this hilarious book. Weiner’s wit is infectious and I remember laughing hysterically page after page. I believe Drop Dead Diva’s star Brooke Elliot would be a perfect Cannie if Hollywood ever decided to make a movie about this plus sized heroine.Wake up Hollywood – it would be a hit!

5. Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan

 

Long before it was a movie(1992), this book was the first of its kind to focus on the struggles of four women trying to find suitable mates. When I first read it, I was enthralled by her vivid descriptions and shocked by her use of profanity and graphic sex scenes. Many later Chick Lit writers stole McMillan’s classic  formula of a group of single friends looking for love. Terry McMillan is the godmother of modern day chick lit.

So that’s it. What are your top five?

 

First – I would like to apologize for completely abandoning my blog for 6 months! I’m 7 months pregnant and had an awful first trimester where I was unable to keep any food or drink down. I promise to start blogging several times a week.

I’m president of RWA Chick Lit Writers chapter. There has been talk in the publishing industry that the term ”Chick Lit” is the kiss of death. The market had been over-saturated with crappy writing and too many tomes published with candy-colored covers. But I miss Chick Lit – and though I love Emily Giffin and Jen Weiner – the books that these former chick lit divas are publishing are  not Chick Lit – merely women’s fiction. For example: Giffin’s Something Borrowed – which is now being made into a movie starring Kate Hudson – is a Chick Lit Classic – featuring . Her latest novel, The Heart of the Matter, is a more depressing book centering around a husband’s infidelity. Where’s my summer fun novel? Why do all the characters in these supposed Chick Lit books now have husbands and children? I read Chick Lit to escape – not to be reminded about life’s struggles. It’s like when 80′s Hair Metal turned into 90′s Grunge. If I want to be depressed, I’ll read a Jodi Picoult novel. What do you all think?

 

Happy New Year! One of the best ways to keep your New Year’s Resolutions is to share them with others. So here are mine.
Writing Resolutions:
Blog daily or at least 5 times a week.
Finish my YA manuscript – The Coven
Rewrite my Chick Lit manuscript as a contemporary romance.
Write and enter a red hot fairytale for the Samhain Anthology.
Personal Resolutions:
Make a new veggie dish once a week.
Make a new soup once a week.
Start dancing again.
Work Resolutions:
Take on a few more GMAT clients.
Finish GMAT manual.
Finish proposal on non fiction GMAT book.

So what are your new year’s resolutions?

I have been a deliquent blogger for awhile. But that is all going to change. I have some exciting news. 1st. I have been announced as a finalist in RWA’s Chick Lit Writers of The World Get Your Stiletto in the Door Contest in their Classic Chick Lit division for my novel Dancing Under the Stars. Yeah. I find out if I win on Nov 5. Fittingly, the day after the presidential election.Wish me luck.