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REVIEW: Murder at Midnight . . . On a Sailboat
PostDateIcon  February 13, 2012  |  PostAuthorIcon  Author:  admin

~ By Toni Linenberger

My friend Frank Calcagno wrote a book.  Actually he wrote three, but who’s counting?  (Apparently he’s up to four, darn him.)  The fact he wrote them while working full-time, raising a family, and generally being an all-around nice guy means we will try not to hate him.  Did I mention his daughter got married last summer?  I don’t, hate him that is.  I do however, admire his work ethic.  I would like to be disciplined enough to write books the way he does.  But I digress.

Frank’s latest book is Murder at Midnight . . . On a Sailboat.  It is billed as a comedic mystery; a romance; and a beach read.  It is none of these.  Trust me, I asked my mom and she agrees.  The book, sadly, isn’t selling well.  I’m thinking the billing has quite a lot to do with it, and have been left with a lot of questions as to how genres are defined.

It is a good book.  There’s a story and a resolution and change:  all those nifty things you look for in a good book.  However, if you are going into it looking for romance and comedy and mystery, you’re not really going to get it.  That’s when the disappointment sets in.  Mom said she almost stopped reading because she was expecting a beach read and wasn’t getting one.  (I’m not actually sure what constitutes a beach read to my mother, I’ve never asked.  I somehow think her definition and mine might be a little different.)

Yes, there is a beach.  The story takes place on a lovely island no one has ever heard of and certainly doesn’t remember the name of.

Yes, there is a mystery.  The story includes a dead body – sort of – and an attempt to discover the manner of death.

Yes, there is a romance.  The protagonists of the story are on their honeymoon.

No, this is not a [insert name of favorite beach read author here] beach read.  Admittedly I am not much of a beach girl (too fair skinned) but my vacation reads tend towards Suzanne Brockmann, Vicki Lewis Thompson, and Allison Brennan.  I think that means I’m not really qualified to judge a beach read.  Let’s just leave it as I know it when I see it.

No, there is not a great denouement where the detective solves the murder and exposes the crime.

No, there is a not a great romance where the hero and heroine experience a great change that brings them closer together.  They are on their honeymoon, and there is a great telling of the back story.  Torture of characters, not so much.  (You do remember from above that I’m a Brockmann fan, right?  No one does torture of characters like she does.)

So what is it?  As an ebook there is no back cover copy.  The Smashwords description says:

Norman and Kathy see their dream honeymoon turn into a nightmare on a resort filled with incompetent staff. Trying to salvage something worthwhile out of their dismal trip, they sign up for a murder mystery cruise on a small Italian yacht. After all, how could things get any worse? Join Norman and Kathy as they set sail with an odd set of fellow vacationers on a wild romp through the Caribbean.

What this is is a good story with great characters.  The description is accurate – there are an odd set of vacationers in this book.  They are all well-developed and fun to read.  This is the vacation no one wants to have.  In a way it is like a train wreck:  you just can’t look away.

Is it a comedy?  Yes, I’ll give the cover copy that.  There are some truly funny moments as Norman and Kathy try to navigate the disaster of a honeymoon and the start of their new life together.

It is the story of growth and change and melding two lives and two families together.  With a devious urchin thrown in for excitement.  Norman and Kathy don’t always get what they want.  But then again, who does?

Frank usually writes science fiction / young adult.  This is a foray into something new and different.  The chance to see an author explore something new to them is what makes this book so interesting.

Is this book going to make best reads of the year lists?  Sadly, no.  It is going to make the list of things I’m proud of my friends for?  You bet.

Readers, what do you consider a beach read? Have you ever been disappointed because a book’s back cover copy doesn’t truly represent the story? Why is genre such an important aspect of marketing?

Toni is an historian and published technical writer who is slowly venturing into the blogosphere with thought-provoking reviews on romance and mysteries.  One day she hopes she will be able to turn her attention to writing the Great American Novel.  Toni lives with the most spoiled cat on the planet (Lincoln) and his sister (Abby) in a house filled with wine, chocolate, and, of course, books.

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This Week in Chick Lit
PostDateIcon  February 10, 2012  |  PostAuthorIcon  Author:  admin

~ By Melina Kantor 

Hello Chick Lit Fans,

Happy Friday!

And Happy almost Valentine’s Day!

This week, there’s been a lot of talk about The Harlequin Romance Report. 1500 women were interviewed about their thoughts on romance and dating. The findings are fascinating, and could even become inspiration for your WIP or a future novel.

You MUST check it out, and then leave a comment here with your reaction.

Have a great weekend!

(Thank you to Debbie Ridpath Ohi for the wonderful cartoon!)

One last question – What are your favorite Valentine’s Day themed chick lit / contemporary novels?

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.

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Interview With Toni Plummer
PostDateIcon  February 8, 2012  |  PostAuthorIcon  Author:  admin

~ Interview By Alana Albertson 

I was first introduced Toni Plummer in 2006 at Alisa Valdes Rodriguez’s Chica Lit Conference in Miami. We bonded over Mojitos and salsa dancing and have over the year met up for dessert and country line dancing. Not only is she a brilliant editor at St. Martins (she edited one of my favorite books, Living the Vida Lola by Misa Ramirez) she is a writer and a former Stiletto Contest judge. Her first book is a tragically beautiful collection of short stories that touched my soul.

Please welcome Toni to our blog!

Q: What inspired you to write a group of short stories as opposed to a novel?

A: What I wanted to do was write about many small moments that, added up, painted a kind of portrait of a family and a community. I first tried to write the book as a novel, but what I ended up with were many disconnected scenes, not a true novel. Writing a short story collection allowed me to focus on what I wanted, without having to tie everything together so directly. I’m also a big fan of short stories–I love the power they can pack.

Q: How did your experiences as a bi racial (Mexican mother, Anglo father) Mexican-American influence your writing?

A: I think my experience growing up was very different than that of my friends, who came from almost completely Mexican backgrounds. In college, I did make some other friends with backgrounds more similar to mine. Both sides of my heritage were special to me, and so when I began to write these stories I set out to write about a character with similar family dynamics–I just found it more complex and interesting. 

Q: How does your day job (editor at St. Martin’s) help/hurt your writing? 

A: As with any job, it takes time away from writing. Being an editor isn’t a 9-5 job. It’s a big investment of time and energy. On the other hand, I’m constantly reading submissions, editing, and talking about novels. This has trained me to regard my own work more objectively. Also, my authors are truly amazing and their work habits and promotional efforts inspire me. I’m very fortunate to be in a position where I work with and come across authors all the time. It’s given me a much better grasp of what the life of an author is like and what it takes to be successful at it.

Q: Your stories are beautifully bound to the rich settings surrounding the characters – which is a challenge for many writers. Did you choose to write stories based on the setting or did you choose landscapes that best suited your stories?

A: I knew that I wanted to write stories set in my hometown and the greater Los Angeles area, because it’s what I knew and I found a lot of inspiration there. I think that before I could write about anywhere else I had to capture my feelings and awe for these places. I also knew what the stories and characters would be though, so you could say those came first. The stories were always very much bound to the places. One couldn’t exist without the other.

Q: If you were assigned to teach a course at a college on Chica lit, which 5 books(any genre) would you assign and why?

A: Fun!

  1. THE DIRTY GIRLS SOCIAL CLUB by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez. You couldn’t teach a class about Chica lit without discussing this book. It was wildly different than anything before it, and it got a lot of interest from publishers, critics, and readers. It’s an entertaining and intelligent look at female friendship that I think all readers of literature about Latinas should be familiar with.
  2. MIDNIGHT AT CASA DRACULA by Marta Acosta, for its interesting take on the vampire novel and its sense of humor.
  3. JUICY MANGOS, edited by Michelle Herrera Mulligan. This was the first English-language erotica collection written by Latinas, and it gives insight into a big part of our identity, our sexuality.
  4. THE ACCIDENTAL SANTERA by Irete Lazo. This first novel gives a touching portrayal of how one modern woman comes to integrate religious beliefs into her life, and the role her family and culture play in that.
  5. DEATH AT SOLSTICE by Lucha Corpi. This mystery features a Chicana detective and does a wonderful job of weaving in California history and Mexican folklore.

There are many, many more books of course, but this list gives a good sampling of different genres and would lead to interesting discussions on family, relationships, politics, career, and spirituality.

Q: What are you looking for in submissions?

A: I’m looking for engaging fiction with strong female characters. Plot is very important, no matter what genre. I tend to like novels with humor.

Thank you so much for visiting the blog today, Toni!

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Interview With Lucy March
PostDateIcon  February 6, 2012  |  PostAuthorIcon  Author:  admin

~ Interview By Deborah Blake 

I first found the amazing Lucy March through another favorite author, Jennifer Crusie. At the time, Lucy was writing humorous romance (what some might call Chick Lit) under the name Lani Diane Rich. I quickly became hooked on both the books and the woman—following her over to her blog where she was posting every day about her journey to her 40th birthday. The blog, and Lucy’s soul-baring honesty, creating a fabulous, unique community called “The Betties” which still exists to this day.

Lucy, however, has moved her focus back to writing, teaching, and blogging about writing, often in the company of fellow author pals Jenny Crusie and Anne Stuart. Together, these Goddesses share their vast accumulated writing wisdom, and on her own, Lucy teaches her acclaimed classes at Storywonk.com.

I was fortunate enough to meet Lucy in person last year at the New England Chapter RWA Conference in Salem where she was the guest of honor. She was even more inspiring and charming in person, but I didn’t have nearly as much time to talk with her as I would have wished. Thankfully, she has agreed to come chat with me now, and answer a few questions about her new book, A LITTLE NIGHT MAGIC, her new life, and what we can expect from her next.

Deborah:

Hi Lucy! I think it is quite fitting that we met in Salem, since your new book is filled with magic. In fact, I just finished reading A LITTLE NIGHT MAGIC, and I absolutely loved it. But it is a change in some ways from your previous books. It is still clever and funny, but it has a whole different feel to it. What genre would you consider it to be? Paranormal romance? Magical realism? Or have you invented something entirely new? And for those who haven’t read it yet, can you tell us a little something about the book?

Lucy:

Hey, Deb! Thanks for having me here!

I don’t think I’ve invented anything entirely new; it’s a funny, romantic story that takes place in a world where magic is real, and ready to cause trouble.

The story is about a waffle house waitress living in a small town in Western New York who discovers that she has odd, seemingly innocuous magical powers. With them, she has to save her town from the malevolence of dark forces. Save the waffles, save the world.

Deborah:

I assume that you changed to the pseudonym Lucy March to mark the difference between the old books and the new ones. Was this your idea, or did your publishers (St. Martin’s Press) ask you to do it? How does it feel to recreate your persona as a writer? Are there pros and cons to changing your name, or is it all good?

Lucy:

It was my publisher’s idea, and I went with it, although I’m terrible at it. It’s a very thin veil between my identity as Lani Diane Rich and Lucy March; sometimes I feel like Lucy March is a uniform I only wear at work. It’s a pretty uniform, though!

I think having the separate identity is easier for some writers than for others. I’m terrible at it. I teach writing and record podcasts about storytelling as Lani Diane Rich, and I write the books and all that as Lucy March. Half the time I don’t know who I am. Had I realized at the time how bad I was going to be at this, I might have requested that we keep my regular name. As it stands, I will just continue to do my best, and answer to whatever anyone calls me.

Deborah:

I know from your blog that you have gone through a tremendous amount of change in the last couple of years, and I really admire the fact that you have created a wonderful new life for yourself. How are things going, and how have your personal changes impacted your writing?  

Lucy:

Things are great. I divorced a few years ago and recently remarried, which was as much of a shock to me as to anyone else. I’m not the kind of person who needs to be married. As a matter of fact, I wasn’t terribly good at it the first time, and was determined never to do it again. But then the absolute right person came into my life, and it was either stick to some idea I had about marriage sucking, or take a chance that it was real. It was, and so far, so good.

I think everything in your life flavors the writing, like the way that whatever’s in the ground while the grapes are growing flavors the wine. I’m too close to my work to say what has changed, exactly, but I think it was going to change anyway. It will always change. I always change. I’d like to believe it’ll always be for the better, but that’s probably not for me to decide.

Deborah:

You give online classes for writers based on what you have learned over the course of your career. (I took one myself, in fact.) The classes focus on the process of Discovery (pre-writing) and Revision (post-writing). Which is your favorite part of writing—discovery, drafting, or revision—and why?

Lucy:

Which is my favorite? Hmmm. Well, I hate drafting; that’s always the hard part, although there are those exciting moments when you have the perfect line or the perfect moment, and it can be exciting. Revision is a powerful process, and I like that, but it’s also a lot of hard work, and it can sometimes be demoralizing. Discovery is when you let your magic flow; you play, you read, you watch movies and television, and you imagine all the wonderful things the book is going to be.

Discovery. Hands down.

Deborah:

One of my favorite aspects of A LITTLE NIGHT MAGIC was the magic. Of course, most of us don’t have the ability to do magic the way your protagonist Olivia does, but I love the idea that some people might have special gifts. If you could have one magical talent, what would it be?

Lucy:

Ha! I think if I had to pick the kind of magical talent that exists in the ALNM universe, I’d love to have the ability to change the look of things. You know, touch an ugly coffee mug and suddenly it’s red with white polka dots. Boom, and the wallpaper is a beautiful vintage pattern. Tap, tap, and the tablecloth is a vibrant green.

Deborah:

As always, my first thought when I finished the books was, “When is the next one coming out?!” What’s up next for Lucy March, and when can we hope to see the next book?

Lucy:

The next book in the series, That Touch of Magic, takes a secondary character from A Little Night Magic, Liv’s friend Stacy Easter, and tells her story. It’s scheduled to be released in early 2013, but of course, that means I have to finish it first. I had a good half of it written last fall, then realized it was all wrong and threw it out and started again. Now what I have is absolutely right, but I’m two months past my original deadline. My publisher was gracious enough to grant me until March, so I’m burning the midnight oil to get it done. Wish me luck!

Deborah:
Lucy, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me. Any parting advice for writers (whether published or working on getting published)?

Lucy:

I think if I was to give advice to a writer, it would be to honor the magic. Craft is great and it’s important, but don’t dismiss the value of the magic, which is that touch of flavor that only you can bring to that story. The magic is what makes it a book only you can write, and sometimes we discount the importance of that.

Thanks for having me! 

Lucy March is the alter-ego of bestselling writer Lani Diane Rich. She teaches online writing workshops at StoryWonk.com, where she also produces a daily podcast for writers, StoryWonk Daily, with her husband, Alastair Stephens. You can also find her at LucyMarch.com, LaniDianeRich.com, and Popcorn Dialogues.com.

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This Week in Chick Lit
PostDateIcon  February 3, 2012  |  PostAuthorIcon  Author:  admin

~ 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.

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Review: The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
PostDateIcon  February 1, 2012  |  PostAuthorIcon  Author:  admin

~ 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.

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Interview With Kate Rockland
PostDateIcon  January 30, 2012  |  PostAuthorIcon  Author:  admin

~ 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.

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This Week in Chick Lit
PostDateIcon  January 27, 2012  |  PostAuthorIcon  Author:  admin

~ 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.

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The Emotion of Sex
PostDateIcon  January 25, 2012  |  PostAuthorIcon  Author:  admin

~ 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

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/kimberlyllewellynbooks

Twitter

http://www.twitter.com/kimllewellyn

Savvy Authors Course

http://www.savvyauthors.com/vb/showevent.php?eventid=940

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The Chick Lit Voice
PostDateIcon  January 23, 2012  |  PostAuthorIcon  Author:  admin

~ 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

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