February 3rd, 2012 | 
Author: 
~ By Melina Kantor
Hello Chick Lit Fans.
Happy Friday!
How about a movie to kick off the weekend? Yesterday, thanks to the wonderful Pamela Cayne, I discovered The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.
According to this article in the Huffington Post:
Directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, the 15-minute film draws from Hurricane Katrina, “The Wizard of Oz,” Buster Keaton and, of course, a love for books. The story starts in New Orleans with the Keaton-like Mr. Morris Lessmore writing a book on the balcony of a hotel. A menacing storm swirls into town, blowing away houses and street signs, taking Mr. Lessmore and his unfinished book with it. Lessmore is transported to a land filled with fluttering novels; a land where he can dedicate his life to filling his book with the abundance of words he is now surrounded with.
The film has been nominated for the 2012 Academy Awards’ Best Animated Short category.
So sit back and enjoy. You may want to have a box of tissues at the ready.
Have a great weekend! 
Melina writes contemporary women’s fiction with a pinch of oregano and a dash of chutzpah. She recently returned from a two month trip to Crete and Israel, where she visited family and friends did her best to turn her travels into research and inspiration for her writing. You can visit her at http://melinakantor.com.
~ By Elle Filz
Lately, I’m noticing an exciting trend in women’s fiction: historical tales framed within the context of a second, contemporary story. There’s Juliet by Anne Fortier, of course, and this fantastic novel about a Dutch painter living in England around 1500 that I would love to read again, if only I remembered the title.* Even The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott was originally set in this vein before Kelly O’Connor McNees decided to focus exclusively on Louisa herself.
The Winter Sea is another outstanding example of how great this genre can be in connecting past and present in literary form. In it, historical novelist Carrie McLelland heads to Scotland to research a book she’s writing about the Jacobite Rebellion of 1708. Feeling the urge to narrate the story from a woman’s point of view, Carrie decides to place an multi-greated grandmother in the middle of the action. Soon Carrie learns that this might not be a coincidence, and she begins to fear that she actually possesses her grandmother’s memories of a time, and a love, that’s actually very real. All the while, she’s writing her own, personal, love story with her landlord’s son.
I wasn’t expecting the past sequences, and the first one was a little jarring in its entry. However, as the novel progressed, I kept finding myself hoping that Kearsley would return to the 1700s. I enjoyed Carrie’s present-day story, but she seemed to constantly reiterate the fact that she was dipping into her grandmother’s memories when it was the grandmother’s story that was far more interesting…especially since, like Carrie, we know at the beginning that the man in question wasn’t Carrie’s grandfather.
The book is beautifully researched, right down to the dates that certain sea captains appeared at Slains Castle. Kearsley spins a gorgeous story with edge-of-your-seat suspense and heartfelt romance. The women of the 1700s are strong and confident and know exactly how to deal with certain men who underestimate their intelligence.
The Winter Sea was a RITA-award finalist in 2009, on the shortlist for 2009 Romantic Novel of the year (under its original name, Sophia’s Secret) and named to Barnes and Noble’s 2011 must-read list. All of these accolades are well-deserved.
Susanna Kearsley’s novel, Mariana, will be rereleased on April 1.
*In addition to the fact that the audiobook is narrated by the same person who did Meg Cabot’s Queen of Babble series, the only other detail I remember was a HUGE spoiler that “confirms” a long-held historical rumor about this time period. I don’t want to ruin this for anyone, but if this completely vague explanation sounds familiar, please tweet me the title.
By day, Elle Filz is an IT geek in Baltimore, MD. By night, you can either find her singing karaoke or jotting down notes for her next women’s fiction story. She is also an aspiring Betty Crocker-type who thanks God every day that a fireman lives next door.
Posted in Reviews | 
Tags: chick lit, Elle Filz, Historical Fiction, Romance Writers of America, RWA, Susanna Kearsley, The Winter Sea, writing | 
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~ Interview by Alana Albertson
Our Chick Lit blog has some wonderful news!
Publicists at St. Martin’s Press contacted us because they love our blog and wanted to know if we would like to interview their authors and review their new books.
Please welcome author Kate Rockland to our blog! Her beautiful new book, 150 Pounds, is set to be a new Chick lit classic in the vein of Jennifer Weiner.
Q: Tell us about your book?
150 Pounds
A: Full time bloggers Alexis Allbright, of Skinny Chick fame, and Shoshana Weiner, of Fat and Fabulous stand out in the blogosphere like diamonds. Both have over five million loyal readers. Both are hungry for success. But their similarities end there as they send out directly opposing messages about women, weight and what is healthy.
After being invited as guests on Oprah Winfrey, Shoshana and Alexis are forced into each other’s lives but hope never to see each other again. However the result of two exciting life events means a drastic weight change for both of them, and they are forced to confront the real issue at hand: What is the best message to give women about their weight? Should they try and shed it, or learn to love their own skin?
These two writers living across the Hudson River from one another in Manhattan, NYC and Hoboken, New Jersey must put their differences aside as they realize there is no perfect number on the scale.
Shoshana and Alexis, once enemies, will discover they have much more in common than they ever thought possible: by the end of the novel they will both weigh 150 Pounds.
An entertaining yet poignant look at a difficult and pressing issue that will affect all women at some point in their life or other. The book ends with a positive message and a lesson that we can all learn from.
Q: Tell us about your path to publishing?
A: I started out writing a sex and relationship advice column for The Targum, Rutgers’ daily newspaper. I mainly interviewed my roommates, and injected a lot of humor into the column. I think it was probably very badly written, but I had a blast with it! I then worked at a few different book publishing houses, including Rolling Stone magazine’s book division, and I made enough contacts there to pitch my first novel, “Falling Is Like This.”
Q: Your review from Publisher’s Weekly stated that “Rockland does an excellent job of subverting chick lit tropes”what do you think they meant by that?
A. I actually had no idea what “tropes” meant; I had to look it up in the dictionary! I actually love Chick Lit, and don’t feel bothered by the label at all. I never wanted to write “serious” fiction. How boring! I think the New York Times should review Chick Lit though, they’re such snobs! Maybe people have this conception that Chick Lit is all about purses and shoes, but what it’s really about is women working out their relationship problems by talking about them, writing about them, and calling their girlfriends to talk about them. It was nice of Publisher’s Weekly to consider me a serious writer, but I’d rather be considered a Chick Lit writer. I grew up reading Mariane Keyes’ books over and over again, and then graduated to Emily Giffin and Jane Green. I love Chick Lit.
Q: Do you consider your book chick lit? What is your take on the status of the genre?
A: See the above. I think there should be several categories of novels written by women, some Chick Lit, some serious fiction like Joan Didion, some mysteries, some Dramas, some Romance, etc. I think Harlan Coben is Chick Lit for guys, as is Stephen King. Chick Lit is similar to Pop Music. But I totally sympathize with women who are writers and feel their books are being forced into a pink cover just to sell copies. They should be able to market themselves however they’d like. For my own views, I always wanted a powder blue cover with pretty pink cupcakes on it, and that’s what I got!
Q: Tell us about your writing process?
A: I don’t really have a writing process, I’ve always been all over the place. An idea appeals to me and interests me enough to write down thoughts about it. Sometimes I hear a snippet of a line on TV, or in a movie, and that gives me inspiration. I tear out pictures from magazines. For my character Shoshana in “150 Pounds,” I clipped together many pictures of women from magazines, to get the description of her auburn, wild hair correct. I’ve always worked full time as a teacher while writing, so I’d set my alarm before work and write for an hour. These days, I have an 11 month old and haven’t gotten very much done. I’d like to get a babysitter to come over twice a week, but they cost a lot.
Thank you so much, Kate!
Kate Rockland lives in Hoboken, NJ with her husband, son, and cat, Elizabeth Taylor. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times. She weighs 150 pounds.
Posted in Interview |
Tags: 150 Pounds, Alana Albertson, chick lit, Kate Rockland, Romance Writers of America, RWA, writing |
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~ By Melina Kantor
Happy Friday, chick lit fans.
Hope it’s been a good week!
Here are a few chick lit / book related stories I came across this week:
First, there was this interview with Jennifer Weiner in the New York Times about book reviewers ignoring female authors.
Then, there was this episode of the StoryWonk Daily podcast about self publishing through the Apple’s iBookstore. I’ve always been, and will most likely always been a huge fan of Apple, but I found this recent news disturbing.
And just for fun, here’s an article from USA Today in which romance authors share their thoughts on the popularity of vampires.
Lastly, for those of you needing a bit of writing inspiration for the weekend, here’s a video from Lady Jane’s Salon about “What Makes a Hero.”
Enjoy!
Have a great weekend.
Melina writes contemporary women’s fiction with a pinch of oregano and a dash of chutzpah. She recently returned from a two month trip to Crete and Israel, where she visited family and friends did her best to turn her travels into research and inspiration for her writing. You can visit her at http://melinakantor.com.
Posted in Chick Lit News and Links |
Tags: chick lit, Melina Kantor, Romance Writers of America, RWA, writing |
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~ By Kimberly Llewellyn
Ah, yes, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. The time when couples profess their love with tokens of chocolates, flowers, and romantic dinners. It’s also a time when hearts turn hopeful to the promise of love.
The realm of romantic possibility in one’s life can be achingly thrilling. It can fill one with a crushing anxiety over the question of, “will he or won’t he?”
Will he look at me the way I look at him? Will the brush of his skin against mine send him into a sensual tailspin the way it does me? Won’t he just send me a sole devilish look that offers a promise of something more? Because if he did cast that solitary glance my way, my insides would burn and my very soul would collapse. The glint in his eye alone would send me venturing into physically exciting, but emotionally dangerous, territory. But am I really willing to risk losing my very heart and soul to him?
The sexual tension in any novel is both physical and emotional. This heightens the senses. It stimulates the body inside and out. It tortures the heart with emotions in so many glorious ways.
This is the emotion of sex.
The emotion of sex is a powerful one. This combination of both the physical and emotional serves as a muse for artists and writers alike. It is responsible for the winning streaks of sports heroes. At the very least, the emotion of sex compels one to get out of bed every morning…just to see that certain someone. It provides the emotional and physical fuel to fight the good fight. It makes one want to be a better person; do better, perform better, feel better.
Sex as emotion? Yes.
This internal drive is why men build skyscrapers. It’s why the corporate executive comes into the office early just to see the beautiful secretary he’s secretly ga-ga over. It’s why a woman makes sure she looks her best when she knows she is going to run into the man of her dreams that day.
It’s why the heroes of our books find themselves doing the darnest of things that they’d never do for anyone, except for that one crazy, beautiful woman he can’t get out of his mind, the heroine.
This innate drive is in our very nature. We simply can’t help ourselves.
Think of the aggressive bull in a bull pen. His territorial instincts tell him to keep the best female(s) for himself. He’s driven to fight off all the other males. He instinctively works hard to be powerful, strong, and mighty to be the best and keep interested the female he desires most.
Sounds like the male love interest in many books, doesn’t it?
While this emotion might be difficult to grasp at first, just think of what life would be like without the emotion of sex.
Let’s say, that aggressive, randy bull is castrated. What happens then? He becomes disinterested and docile as a lamb. He’s lost his fight. He’s lost the emotion of sex.
For the male love interest in our stories, this internal fight goes beyond hormones, beyond just the physical. It’s profoundly emotional. Our hero needs the love of a good woman to keep him going, or at least, the promise of love, even if it’s a woman he believes he can never have.
In our stories, we writers never make it easy for the hero to have the object of his desire. It’s more delicious when he believes in his heart he can truly never have her. Just think of the lengths he’ll go to claim her. Think of all those skyscrapers! Oh sure, our spunky leading lady may occasionally give him the time of day, and maybe even tumble into bed with our hero from time to time, but can he truly have her heart?
His desire for her heart can be maddening. If she ultimately rejected him, his own heart surely would fracture. The emotion of sex has deepened and the hero makes it his mission to claim this woman as his own. He can’t live without her. He longs to be one with her. He is obsessed with her and is ultimately driven to do whatever it takes to make her happy and have her as his own.
The emotion of sex also reminds women that we are desirable. We are wanted. And we are loved.
Yes, it’s primal.
Yes, it’s passionate.
Yes, it’s the emotion of sex.
The emotion of sex is played out in the pages of Kimberly Llewellyn’s recent indie Amazon Best Seller, Almost a Bride. Known as, “the Wedding Writer,” she is the award-winning author of two chick lit novels by Berkley Books and several published romance novels (Avalon and Kensington). In March, she will be teaching an online course, Cracking the Romance the Code, Unlocking Storytelling Secrets for Writing the Quintessential Romance Novel at SavvyAuthors.com.
Author website
http://www.kimberlyllewellyn.com
http://www.facebook.com/kimberlyllewellynbooks
http://www.twitter.com/kimllewellyn
Savvy Authors Course
http://www.savvyauthors.com/vb/showevent.php?eventid=940
Posted in Craft |
Tags: Almost a Bride, chick lit, Kimberly Llewellyn, Romance Writers of America, RWA, Sexual Tension, writing |
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~ By Lois Winston
Having recently judged the Louboutin Award for the Stiletto contest, I was asked by Chris Bailey if I’d blog about “voice.” Chris posed the following three questions.
1. What constitutes a chick lit voice?
For me, a chick lit voice is about attitude. The chick lit voice is when an author imbues her characters with a certain way of looking at life, responding to situations, and interacting with the other characters who populate the book. The main character usually has an edge about her. She’s often snarky and has a habit of speaking her mind, which can even make her somewhat politically incorrect.
This is why you generally see the chick lit voice in books that take place in cosmopolitan settings. Unless the author is writing a “fish out of water” plot, a chick lit voice generally doesn’t work all that well in a small town setting. Let’s face it, unless we’re talking Stephen King type small towns, reader expectation is that the people who populate small towns are generally of a decidedly un-chick lit disposition.
2. I thought it was interesting that you chose a YA finalist. Would you say that a chick lit voice drifts toward YA? Or cozy?
The plot of the book I chose as the winner was such that it lent itself to a chick lit voice. There are YA books where a chick lit voice wouldn’t work at all. The voice an author chooses to write in should correspond to the story she wants to tell. The story and the voice go hand in hand, or they should. It’s kind of the square peg/round hole conundrum. You can’t force a writer’s voice into a story not suited for that voice. It doesn’t work.
The thing about the chick lit voice, though, is that it transcends the stereotypical chick lit plot. A chick lit voice isn’t relegated to stories about a twenty-something in a dead-end job, with a shoe addiction and a string of loser boyfriends. Those plots won’t be coming back to publishing any time soon. So if you have a chick lit voice, you need to find other plots that work with your voice.
Voice is something an author either has or doesn’t have. If you’re lucky, you can developed voice over time, but voice can’t be taught. It’s like me and the violin. I took lessons for years. I could play all the right notes. But no matter how many hours I practiced, I was never going to get to Carnegie Hall other than to sit in the audience.
I can’t give you a list of rules to follow that will develop a voice if you don’t yet have one. No one can. Some authors are lucky enough to be able to write in several different voices, but most only have one voice. To be successful, the author has to tell the type of stories that work for her voice.
Getting back to the Louboutin winner, my choice was not only based on her voice but on the originality of her plot and her skill as a writer.
As for cozies, I don’t think a chick lit voice would ever work well in the traditional cozy mystery. A true cozy takes place in a small town or village and never uses foul language. Think Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher. Would readers want either of them to have a chick lit voice? No. Readers have certain expectations when they pick up a cozy mystery, and a chick lit voice isn’t one of those expectations.
Where the chick lit voice does work, though, is in the amateur sleuth mystery, and that’s what I write. Even though my publisher categorizes the books as cozies (explaining to me that cozy is becoming more of an umbrella term,) my books really aren’t cozies. For one thing, my characters use language appropriate to who they are. The loan shark in Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun isn’t going to say, “Oh gosh darn!” He’s Mafia; he’s going to drop the occasional F-bomb.
3. How did you know when you’d found your voice?
I started out writing angst-ridden romantic suspense. When I discovered chick lit, I decided to try writing one. The voice that emerged was completely different from the voice I’d been writing in for my romantic suspense books. It felt more natural to me, much more comfortable. I also discovered that I enjoyed writing in first person, something I never would have tried in a romantic suspense.
When, at my agent’s urging, I tried my hand at writing a mystery, this new voice I’d discovered I had meshed perfectly with the amateur sleuth mystery I chose to write. In this case, though, my protagonist is forty-two years old, so the book contains more of a mom lit/hen lit voice than a chick lit voice. But you know what they say: forty is the new twenty, and fifty is the new thirty. Besides, chick lit is all about attitude, not age.
Lois Winston is both an agent with the Ashley Grayson Literary Agency and the author of the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and was recently nominated for a Readers Choice Award by the Salt Lake City Library System. The new year brings with it the release of Death By Killer Mop Doll, the second book in the series. Visit Lois at her website: http://www.loiswinston.com and Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: http://www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. You can also follow Lois and Anastasia on Twitter @anasleuth.
Lois is currently on a month-long blog tour where she’s giving away five signed copies of Death By Killer Mop Doll. To enter the drawing, post a comment to this blog or any of the others on the tour. You can find the complete schedule at her website and Anastasia’s blog. In addition, she’s giving away 3 copies of Death By Killer Mop Doll on Goodreads, http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/15173-death-by-killer-mop-doll
Posted in Craft |
Tags: chick lit, Chris Bailey, Lois Winston, Romance Writers of America, RWA, writing |
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~ By Melina Kantor
Happy Friday, chick lit fans!
Hope you’re all staying warm.
Looking for something to read this weekend? Here are some wonderful blog posts I came across this week.
Enjoy!
- Romance at Random had this post on reading goals for 2012. What are your reading goals?
- Heroes and Heartbreakers had this post on imperfect heroes and this post on deciding when not to finish reading a book.
- Lucy March, Anne Stuart, and Jenny Crusie have been talking about writing and posting their chats here.
I also came across this video about the history of romance novels:
Next week we’ll be back with Kimberly Llewllyn and chapter member Lois Winston.
Have a great weekend!
Melina writes contemporary women’s fiction with a pinch of oregano and a dash of chutzpah. She recently returned from a two month trip to Crete and Israel, where she visited family and friends did her best to turn her travels into research and inspiration for her writing. You can visit her at http://melinakantor.com.
Posted in Chick Lit News and Links |
Tags: chick lit, Harlequin, Melina Kantor, Romance Novels, Romance Writers of America, RWA, TED Talks, writing |
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~ By Elle Filz
The year: 1855. The place: Walpole, New Hampshire. The woman: Louisa May Alcott, the author of the classic, Little Women.
When Louisa’s father, Bronson, experiences yet another epic business failure, the family is compelled to accept the charity of a generous relative and relocates to Walpole. Almost immediately, Louisa starts plotting ways to get back to Boston to begin her writing career. She doesn’t, however, count on the attentions of a certain Joseph Singer. While they first share a passion for the newly-published (and completely not female-friendly) Leaves of Grass, they eventually begin to share a passion for each other. This opens up a world of conflict for Louisa, who must decide between pursuing her dreams in Boston or staying in Walpole with Joseph, who may or may not actually be available himself.
Full disclosure here, if I ever got my hands on a time machine, making Louisa May Alcott change the ending of Little Women would be pretty high on my to-do list. Even though Jo does eventually find love with her professor, the true love of her life was obviously Teddy. The fact that Jo refuses his proposal is bad enough, but then he makes Amy his rebound chick! And she goes along with it! No, no thank you. Most people think that the tragic moment of Little Women was Beth’s death; for me, it was when Teddy shows up and tells Jo that he’s married. They both say all the right things, but then there’s this:
[Teddy, about Amy]: So I just settled the difficulty by saying, `Let’s be married, and then we can do as we like’.
Of course you did. You always have things to suit you.
Not always. And something in Laurie’s voice made Jo say hastily . . .
How did you ever get Aunt to agree?
Let’s fact it, that wasn’t the romantic proposal — especially when you consider the spirited, passionate way in which he proposed to Jo earlier in the novel. Then, he nearly slips up and Jo catches it. Finally he tries to apologize and set their relationship right again. He tells her that she and Amy have changed places in his heart, but they haven’t. There are things that people say to try to save face, and that is one of them. Yes, he clearly loves Amy, which he should, but Jo’s got that piece of his heart and probably always will.
I think what delighted me most with McNees’ book is that she’s clearly Team Jo as well. McNees’ Alcott is not shy about the fact that she’s based Laurie on Joseph, and even though history tells us that Jo ends up with her Professor and Alcott ends up alone, McNees spins a believable tale that parallel-parks quite nicely into the history of what we do and do not know about Alcott’s life. Here, Alcott’s proclivity for burning letters and journals works because while we know she was in Walpole at the right time in her life for a mature, life-changing relationship that could influence her greatest work, she made sure that we’ll never get the details. McNees fills in the gaps with characters that are true to the historical Louisa and the fictional Jo and Laurie. It’s also well-researched — especially in the characters of Bronson Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson — but never beats the reader over the head in its “researchability.” Like Little Women itself, it’s a captivating tale that draws the reader in and makes you fall in love with the March girls and the Alcotts all over again.
And now, I can focus my time traveling on something else…like placing a bet on the 2004 Red Sox.
McNees’ next book, In Need of a Good Wife, will be out in September.
By day, Elle Filz is an IT geek in Baltimore, MD. By night, you can either find her singing karaoke or jotting down notes for her next women’s fiction story. She is also an aspiring Betty Crocker-type who thanks God every day that a fireman lives next door.
~ Interview by Melina Kantor
It’s truly an honor to have one of my favorite authors, Carole Matthews, visiting the blog today. Her books are full of humor, romance, and exotic travel.
Read on to hear about her books, her experiences as an author, and some fabulous advice.
Welcome Carole!
Q: What inspired you to write your first novel?
A: This sounds terrible, but I didn’t really have a plan to become a novelist at all. I’d always been an avid reader, but didn’t think that ordinary people like me wrote books. I thought you had to live in a glamorous place and have a Hollywood lifestyle as all the books I read were things like Jackie Collins and Sidney Sheldon.
At the time, I was working as a beauty therapist and was writing articles for magazines mainly on aromatherapy when – for reasons now lost in the mists of time – I entered a short story competition and, to my complete amazement, won. Then I did the most sensible thing I’ve ever done in my life, I spent the money, not on shoes and handbags as I normally would, but on a writing course. When the course came along, I thought that I should start a novel to work on. The tutor loved it and advised me to send it off to an agent. Fortunately, he loved it and sold it within a week. That became my first ever book – Let’s Meet on Platform 8. It was at the start of the whole chicklit wave in the UK and I was very fortunate to catch that wave again in the USA a few years ago when my book “For Better, For Worse” came out and went straight onto the USA Today bestseller list after being chosen as a Reading with Ripa pick on Live with Regis and Kelly.
Q: I have read and adored every single one of your books, but my two favorite are “With or Without You” and “Wrapped up in You” because of all the exotic travel. It seems you’re quite the traveler! How have all of your adventures influenced your writing?
A: Thank you so much! They’re two of my favorites as well. I do like travel to influence my books. I tend to set one fairly close to home and then somewhere more exotic. For my books I’ve been to the Masaai Mara, I’ve walked the Inca Trail in Peru, have travelled across China and, very shortly, I’ll be heading off to Lapland for research for my next Christmas book. I think if you try to visit the country you’re writing about then you can add a lot more color and authenticity to the book, plus the trip always seems to throw up plot points that I’d never even thought about. I write two books a year and that uses up such a lot of material. I do think that travel broadens the mind and we do meet an incredible range of people on our trips – train drivers, forensic scientists, you name it and we’ve probably met them – and everyone has their own story to tell. I think you have to be interested in life in general to be a writer.
Q: On your Web site, you have a link to “Child Action Nepal.” Can you tell us a bit about the charity?
A: “With or Without You” is set in the Nepal in the Himalayas and on our trip there we were just so taken by how kind and humble the people were when they have so little in the way of material comforts. We were also struck by the number of children living in terrible poverty, homeless on the streets of Kathmandu. When I came home, I happened to read an article in the newspaper about a lady called Florence Krief. Florence had done a similar trip to ours but when she came home she decided to give up her job as a city trade, sell her home and devote her life to bringing some family love to these terribly deprived children. I decided to contact her and we’ve been friends ever since. She’s very inspirational and now has two orphanages in Kathmandu each providing a loving home for twenty children. It’s a very small charity and we’ve tried to support it ever since. I like the fact that all the fact that all the money goes to the children and isn’t spent on fancy offices and lavish fundraisers.
Florence is a truly amazing woman. If you’d like to find out more about her work go to, http://www.childactionnepal.org.uk/
Q: What is your opinion of the term “chick lit?” Would you classify your books as chick lit? Why or why not?
A: I don’t mind the term chicklit at all, but what I do think is misleading about it is that it covers such a wide-range of books. Some people think that chicklit is all about teenagers dating and don’t realize the richness of subject matter it covers. My own books tend to feature women in their thirties and forties who are struggling with relationship or lifestyle issues, so they couldn’t necessarily be classed as ‘chicks’! The thing I love about chicklit though is it opened the door for women like myself to write about ‘ordinary’ contemporary issues, the things that affect millions of women. I was suddenly able to write about my home town and the things that bothered me, even though I didn’t have a yacht or a movie star boyfriend. So thanks very much for that chicklit!
Q: What advice do you have for the not yet published members of our chapter?
A: People often say to me that they want to write, but don’t have the time. If it’s important to you, then you must find enough time to sit in front of your computer and produce 100,000 words or whatever. Treat yourself to a babysitter or a cleaner – buy yourself those hours to write.
Don’t chase the market, write about what you really want to. More often than not, if you’re trying to write what’s hot now, then what publishers want will have moved on by the time you’re finished. I think that was madness lies. Think of the very best story you can and write that.
In the UK, it seems to be virtually impossible to get a book deal with the big publishers these days and I know a lot of writers who are self-publishing to ebook. It seems to be a good thing to do. It gets your work out there and you have total control over what you produce and how it’s marketed. I’m doing that with my own books now in the USA and I love it. I was publishing one book a year through mainstream publishers in the States and yet writing two. It was driving my lovely dedicated readers mad as they wanted more books from me and struggled to get hold of them. So my dearly beloved, Lovely Kev, is working his way through my backlist and all my titles will soon be available for downloading. My new book – “Summer Daydreams” – will come out in February this year at the same time in America as it does in the UK. We did the same thing for “Wrapped Up In You”. This is an exciting time to be published. I think writers should embrace it.
Thank you so much for visiting the blog today! I’m looking forward to your next book!
Carole Matthews is an internationally bestselling author of hugely successful romantic comedy novels. Her unique sense of humour has won her legions of fans and critical acclaim all over the world.
As well as appearing on the Sunday Times and USA Today bestseller lists, Carole is published in 30 different countries. Her novel Welcome To The Real World was shortlisted for the RNA romantic novel of the year award. She has recently been given an award from The Festival of Romance for her Outstanding Contribution to Romantic Fiction.
Previously very unlucky in love, she now lives happily ever after with her partner, Lovely Kev, in a minimalist home with no ornaments or curtains. She likes to drink champagne, eat chocolate and spends too much time on Facebook and Twitter.
When she’s not writing novels she likes trekking in the Himalayas, rollerblading in Central Park, taking tea in China or being cajoled up the Andes by Lovely Kev. More often than not, she can be found daydreaming in her garden shed in Milton Keynes.
“Wrapped up in You” is available to download on Kindle for 99 cents for a limited period.
A Christmas fling or has Janie found the real thing?
Thirty-something hairdresser Janie Johnson’s single status is a constant source of gossip for her friends and clients. So after too many nights in with her cat, a blind date disaster and news that her ex is getting married, Janie realizes it’s time to do something dramatic with her life.
Leaving winter behind, Janie takes the plunge and books an exotic trip to Africa. Her friends think she’s mad and Janie thinks they may very well be right… but then she falls head over heels for her tour guide – and fully fledged Maasai Warrior – Dominic. But can Janie now face spending a snowy Christmas back home without him?
Packed with unforgettable characters, romance and laughter, “Wrapped up in You” is your very own perfect Christmas Carole!
“Summer Daydreams” will be out in February 2012 on Kindle for $2.99.
What if you had always dreamed of something more…?
Nell McNamara has a happy life: her boyfriend Olly adores her, their four-year-old daughter Petal is the centre of their world and Nell has a steady but uninspiring job in her local fast food outlet. When the premises need a makeover, Nell jumps at the chance to unleash the creativity fizzing inside her. Inspired by what she can achieve – and encouraged by the best friends a girl can have – Nell is determined to try something new. Waving goodbye to her dull job, she starts up a new business making her own line of must-have handbags, which are soon flying off the shelves! It seems Nell’s dreams are finally coming true, but her success doesn’t come without a price. Before too long, Nell has to ask herself if it’s really possible to have it all…
Full of fun, love and laughter, soak up the sunshine with “Summer Daydreams”.
Posted in Interview |
Tags: Carole Matthews, chick lit, Child Action Nepal, Romance Writers of America, RWA, Wrapped Up in You, writing |
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~ By Melina Kantor
Hello Fellow Chick Lit Fans,
How’s your week been?
Any writing successes or book recommendations to share?
If so, leave us a comment.
Chick Lit News:
Vintage chick lit? Hmm.
Blog Posts of Interest:
Eileen Rendahl wrote this wonderful post about what NOT to say to a writer. Amen!
Then there was this post about what you must stop doing if you want to be a writer. (Language alert…)
See you next week.
Meanwhile, dear book lovers, I leave you with this video. Enjoy!
Melina writes contemporary women’s fiction with a pinch of oregano and a dash of chutzpah. She recently returned from a two month trip to Crete and Israel, where she visited family and friends did her best to turn her travels into research and inspiration for her writing. You can visit her at http://melinakantor.com.
Posted in Chick Lit News and Links |
Tags: chick lit, Melina Kantor, Romance Writers of America, RWA, writing |
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