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Guest Post by Jenny Ryan

Guest Blog Post for Chick Lit Plus
Do you remember Choose Your Own Adventures? I loved them when I was little – they gave you such power when you read them. The characters’ fates were in your hands!

Recently, I began writing a “Choose Your Own Adventure” of sorts: Every week I post a chapter of a chick lit novel-in-progress and post it online. The chapter always ends with two choices — should Katie do A or B? The readers pick their favourite, and the choice with the most votes dictates how I’ll start the next chapter.

When I started, I didn’t know I’d end up writing a Choose Your Own Adventure. Initially, I just thought I was writing a character sketch.

One day this past winter I was outside shoveling the walk. As I shoveled, a character appeared. Her name was Katie, she had wanted to be an artist, she had wanted to have adventures, she had wanted an exceptional life. And yet she was single, in an office job, with a mortgage she’d never planned on and a wardrobe entirely too full of cardigans. While I heaved snow off my sidewalk, I came up with a scene of her daydreaming at work. I knew there was potential there. I threw the shovel down, went inside, and started to write.

After about 1,000 words I got stuck. I thought about calling my sister; she always has great ideas when I get writers’ block. But I knew my friend A would probably have an idea, too. And my friend K — and T. All of these women had told me that they, like Katie, aren’t happy with their lives. “It’s like I fell asleep and woke up inside someone else’s dream,“ one friend had recently confessed. I knew the feeling.

There are so many people who share Katie’s story — a whole lot of us who aren’t sure how we ended up where we are, and aren’t convinced it’s where we should be. I knew this could be my audience. I decided I would post the story online, so that all these kindred spirits could meet Katie. And I had this flash of inspiration — I had to let the readers tell me what to write next. After all, it’s a story a lot of us are living. We might as well tell it together.

From a writer’s perspective, this is a challenging experiment. So much of writing is about isolation and creating intimate experiences with the characters. When writing a traditional novel, you share your drafts with a trusted group of confidantes, but when you work in the open, without an editor, and you publish instantly, and then you let the readers tell where you should take the story (often in a direction you hadn’t been expecting) — it’s a whole new way to write.

From a reader’s perspective, this publishing platform allows the readers to direct the narrative. Women, especially chick lit readers, love discussing the worlds inside novels. I’m creating a new kind of reading experience where readers get to give feedback about what they’d like to happen to the characters they are becoming invested in. It’s a whole new way to read, as well as a new way to write.

So how long will I write this story for? I can’t tell you that. How will it end? I can’t tell you that, either. Not because it’s a secret — it’s because I don’t know. I can’t make outlines, I can’t make plans. I can’t tell you if Katie will fix her leaking basement, I can’t tell you if she’ll fall in love, if her alcoholic sister will sober up, if she’ll put on that art show she’s been dreaming about. I hope these things happen, but it’s not really up to me. It’s up to all of us to decide her fate.

Join me, Katie, and the rest of the community at youweregoingtobefantastic.blogspot.com.

Jenny Ryan is a librarian, improv actor, and snack food aficionado living in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Tales From the Crib by Jennifer Coburn

Lucy Klein is a suburban wife, leaving in the, well, suburbs, with her lovely husband Jack. She is getting ready to make a big announcement at the dinner table- she is pregnant. Jack is getting ready to make his own big announcement- he wants a divorce. Jack goes first. Lucy is stunned. Though she knew her marriage wasn’t exactly rock solid, she still is surprised at the D-word, and the timing couldn’t be worse. But Jack devises a plan, a co-parenting plan. They would live under the same roof and raise the baby as friends. Yes, friends. Friends who would also bring their girlfriends home while Lucy lay alone in bed at night. Friends who let their girlfriends take her adorable little son to the park. Lucy is still determined to be a great mom, and give her son everything he should have- including time with his father. But can she balance the stress of motherhood and the delicate situation with Jack? Or will it prove too tough to handle?
I absolutely adored Tales From the Crib by Jennifer Coburn. And I will say that knowing I was about to read a book that covered mostly talk about babies, birth, and breast-feeding, I really wasn’t looking forward to it. I am not a mom myself, so I wasn’t sure I would be able to relate to Lucy’s character, but I was proved very wrong. Even though we didn’t have much in common, Lucy’s slightly off-kilter personality kept my attention and more importantly- kept me laughing. This book is super funny! I was reading it in my break room at work one day and burst into laughter at one particular point, causing everyone to look at me like I was crazy. The supporting characters, especially Lucy’s mom, bring their own comedy to the story. Overall, I thought this was a funny book, but also very eye-opening on motherhood and the trials new moms go through. I know I will remember some of the lessons Lucy learns along the way if my time should ever come to start a family. I will definitely be looking forward to reading more from the very funny Jennifer Coburn.
[Rating: 4]

In My Mailbox: Week of May 22

In My Mailbox: Week of May 22, 2011

Title: Love and Freedom
Author: Sue Moorcroft
Received: From Choc Lit
Synopsis: New start, new love. That’s what Honor Sontag needs after her life falls apart, leaving her reputation in tatters and her head all over the place. So she flees her native America and heads for Brighton, England. Honor’s hoping for a much-deserved break and the chance to find the mother who abandoned her as a baby. What she gets is an entanglement with a mysterious male whose family seems to have a finger in every pot in town. Martyn Mayfair has sworn off women with strings attached, but is irresistibly drawn to Honor, the American who keeps popping up in his life. All he wants is an uncomplicated relationship built on honesty, but Honor’s past threatens to undermine everything. When secrets about her mother start to spill out …Honor has to make an agonising choice. Will she live up to her dutiful name and please others? Or will she choose freedom? From the best selling author of Starting Over, this novel has great charm and a cast of unforgettable characters.

Title: Confessions of a Call Center Girl
Author: Lisa Lim
Received: From Lisa Lim
Synopsis: Madison Lee is a fresh college grad, ready to take on the world of print media. But she has zero luck landing a job. Unemployment is at ten percent and on the rise. Desperate and left with no other options, she accepts a position as a service rep at a call center in Pocatello, Idaho. At the Lightning Speed call center in Spudsville, Maddy plunges into the wild and dysfunctional world of customer service where Sales is prided over Service and an eight hour shift is equivalent to eight hours of callers bashing her over the phone. Oh sure, the calls are bad. But Maddy manages to find humor on the phone and off the phone. And with all the salacious drama behind the calls, there is never a dull moment at the Lightning Speed call center.
Lately . . . Maddy has been pining for her smolderingly gorgeous co-worker Mika Harket. Now things are heating up on the phone–and elsewhere. Don’t hang up on this novel. Working at a call center has never been this garish . . . or this delightful.

Title: The Summer We Came to Life
Author: Deborah Cloyed
Received: From Eric @ Planned Television Arts
Synopsis: Every summer, Samantha Wheland joins her childhood friends – Isabel, Kendra and Mina – on a vacation somewhere exotic and fabulous. This year, it’s a beach house in Honduras, but for the first time, their clan is not complete. Mina lost her battle against cancer six months prior, and the friends she left behind are still struggling to find a way to move on without her. Before the trip ends, the bonds of friendship with her living friends, the older generation’s stories of love and loss, and Samantha’s glimpse into a world far removed from the one in which she belongs will convince her to trust her heart.

Title: One Bird’s Choice
Author: Iain Reid
Received: From a friend
Synopsis: Meet Iain Reid: an overeducated, underemployed twenty-something, living in the big city in a bug-filled basement apartment and struggling to make ends meet. When Iain lands a job at a radio station near his childhood home, he decides to take it. But the work is only part time, so he is forced to move back in with his lovable but eccentric parents on their hobby farm. What starts out as a temporary arrangement turns into a year-long extended stay, in which Iain finds himself fighting with the farm fowl, taking fashion advice from the elderly, fattening up on a gluttonous fare of home-cooked food, and ultimately easing (perhaps a little too comfortably) into the semi-retired, rural lifestyle. A hilarious and heartwarming comic memoir about food, family, and finally growing up, One Bird’s Choice marks the arrival of a funny, original, and fresh new voice.

Author Profile: Cathleen Holst

Author Name: Cathleen Holst

Website: http://cathleenholst.webs.com/
Bio: Born and raised in Atlanta, Cathleen is a bona fide”Georgia Peach” with her feet firmly planted in the South. She grew up playing on the lawn of Stone Mountain park, beneath its famous carving, strolling the sidewalks of historic downtown Stone Mountain & Tucker and loving every minute of it. Despite whisking a few of her characters off to glamorous places like New York, she has no intention of relocating herself to a city where good ol’ fashioned sweet tea isn’t readily available. Perish the thought!
However, she would have her boarding pass in hand in a New York minute for a shopping trip off Rodeo Drive.
Cathleen currently resides in a small suburb of Atlanta with her husband, three children and two rambunctious dogs. She is also unabashedly obsessed with all things Superman. And when not reading or writing you’ll likely find her watching more television (usually Superman related) than any one person should, eating chocolate and then running countless miles to negate the effects of the creamy devil.
Her writing influences include Fannie Flagg, Beth Hoffman, Helen Fielding, Sophie Kinsella, and Lindsey Kelk.

Titles: Everleigh in NYC

See my review of Everleigh in NYC
See my interview with Cathleen!
Bio Retrieved from cathleenholst.webs.com

Author Profile: Laura Dave

Author Name: Laura Dave

Website: http://www.lauradave.com/
Bio: Laura Dave was born in New York City in 1977 and grew up in Westchester County. She attended The University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated with a BA in English, and The University of Virginia, where she earned her MFA. While in school, Laura received several awards for her writing including The AWP Intro Award in Short Fiction.
Laura is the author of the acclaimed novels “The Divorce Party” and “London is the Best City in America.” In addition to writing books, Laura has also worked steadily as a journalist. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Glamour, Self, Modern Bride, Redbook, ESPN the Magazine, and The New York Observer, as well as on NPR’s All Things Considered.
In 2008, Cosmopolitan Magazine named Laura a “Fun and Fearless Phenom of the Year”, calling her “an inspiration” to young women.

Currently: Laura lives in southern California, where she is at work on a new novel.

Titles: The Divorce Party, London is the Best City in America, and The First Husband

See my review of The First Husband
Bio Retrieved from lauradave.com

Love Struck by Chantel Simmons

I highly enjoyed Canadian author Chantel Simmons’s debut novel Stuck In Downward Facing Dog, so when Chantel contacted me about her second novel, I had to accept! This story follows twenty-seven year old image consultant Poppy Ross. Poppy finds out that her loving husband, Parker, has been having an affair with a co-worker. Poppy is devastated, but unsure how to proceed next. Before she can get her thoughts together, she receives a phone call- from the mistress herself! Parker had been struck by lightening while the two were out together, and was in the hospital. Parker had suffered amnesia, and can’t remember that last three months- including the affair. Poppy finds the mistress in the hospital, and becomes determined to give herself a makeover to be just like her. She figures this is the only way to save her marriage. But as Poppy’s efforts keep proving to be more and more disastrous, she begins to think her marriage is quite possibly over.
I thought Love Struck was comical, humorous, funny…need I go on? The charades that Poppy put herself through to try to transform into Parker’s mistresses were hilarious- from the talon fake nails that kept falling off, the stripper stiletto shoes, and especially the scene in the spray tan booth- I could not help but laugh my way through this book. There was a serious matter beneath all the comedy- that Poppy’s husband had an affair. I didn’t like that instead of just asking Parker straight out, the best option she could think of was transforming herself into someone she wasn’t. But it took that to help Poppy see who she really was, and in the end, help improve her marriage. Though I did kind of see how the affair accusation would work out, I loved the happy ending. Another definite recommendation from Chantel Simmons.
[Rating: 4.5]

GIVEAWAY: The Midwife’s Confession by Diane Chamberlain

Dear Anna, What I have to tell you is difficult to write, but I know it will be far more difficult for you to hear,…

The Midwife’s Confession by Diane Chamberlain

I love giving five stars, and the latest novel by Diane Chamberlain earns them all. The Midwife’s Confession is a tangled story of friendship and love, secrets and betrayal, and realistic characters that will make you cry while you see their story unfold. Tara, Emerson, and Noelle have been friends for years, but when Noelle commits suicide, leaving behind only an unfinished note, Tara and Emerson find out they might not have truly known their friend. The complex mystery that surrounds not only Noelle’s death, but Noelle’s life before her suicide drives the woman to put the pieces together. But when Noelle’s secrets are finally revealed, Tara and Emerson are in for a heart-wrenching discovery.
This novel was near impossible to put down. I loved trying to figure out the mystery alongside Tara and Emerson, and there were several occasions that I thought I had it all pieced together. I was never even close. The compelling drama indeed made me cry, and left me a bit unsettled at the end, but I loved it all the same. I know I said something similar in my review of Chamberlain’s The Lies We Told, but I was unsettled for a different reason. I don’t want to give a lot away here, but it was because there was a mystery surrounding Noelle and Tara’s deceased husband. The story was so good I had to call my mom immediately after I finished it to talk her ear off about it, then send her out my copy so she could read it as well. Again- all five stars are earned in The Midwife’s Confession.
[Rating: 5]

Debut Authors & Titles: June 2011

Debut Authors & Titles: June 2011

Title: The Wedding Writer
Author: Susan Schneider
Available: June 7
Synopsis: Lucky Quinn writes up weddings for one of the hottest bridal magazines. And it wasn’t easy to get there. From humble beginnings, she outsmarted her way into the center of New York’s glamorous magazine industry – making up for her background with a sharp mind, whip-thin physique, and ceaseless ambition.
Then, in one day, her life is utterly transformed; two of the magazine’s major competitors fold, and Lucky is named Editor-in-Chief, replacing the formidable, but aging Grace Ralston, who had been at the magazine’s helm from day one. Grace taught Lucky everything she knows, but now it seems that she taught her too well…
As the ripples of Lucky’s promotion spread, the intricate lives of four women begin to unfold. Felice, Your Wedding’s elegant and unshakeable Art Director is now being shaken for the first time by troubles at home. Sara, the Fashion Director, is famed for her eagle eye for fashion trends and exquisite hair. But, for all her know-how, “the Angel of Bridal” has never come close to starring in a wedding herself – she’s picked the dress, but where’s the groom? Grace, recovering in the wake of her sudden, humiliating fall from power, must learn to accept herself – and love – after a life dedicated to fulfilling other women’s dreams. And, through it all, Lucky begins to discover just how lonely the top really is.

Title: Groundswell
Author: Katie Lee
Available: June 21
Synopsis: Sometimes the biggest ripples come from the smallest events. Like the day that Emma Guthrie walks into world-famous movie star Garrett Walker’s trailer. When she steps through the door, she’s a novice PA who’s just dropped out of college after losing her scholarship. When she walks out, she’s on her way to becoming Mrs. Emma Walker—wife of an A-list actor. Soon, Emma has made the transition from nobody to red-carpet royalty, trading jeans and flip-flops for closets full of Chanel and Birkin bags, swishing past velvet ropes to attend every lavish party and charity gala on both coasts. With her husband’s encouragement, Emma pens a screenplay based on her life, Fame Tax, which becomes a blockbuster sensation. Through it all, Garrett is her ally and her mentor . . . until their relationship is thrown into question by an incriminating text message that Emma discovers on Garrett’s phone the night of the Met Costume Institute Gala.
Devastated by her husband’s infidelity and hounded mercilessly by the paparazzi, Emma must flee New York City to get away from it all and clear her head. Her destination? A sleepy coastal town in Mexico where no one recognizes her and there is nothing but unspoiled beaches for miles. Here, she meets Ben, a gorgeous, California-born surf instructor, who teaches her about the healing powers of surfing, shows her the joys of the simple life, and ultimately opens her up to the possibility of love.
From Manhattan’s hippest restaurants to the yacht-and-celebrity infested waters of St. Barts, Katie Lee’s debut novel is an irresistible insider’s glimpse into a glittering world—and a captivating story about how losing everything you thought you wanted can be the first step to finding what you need.

Title: Laura’s Handmade Life
Author: Amanda Addison
Available: June 23
Synopsis: Laura Lovegrove is leaving behind her seamless life in London. Architect husband Adi has been relocated to rural Norfolk, a far cry from ultra-urban Ealing. Though Laura knew village life would be different, she didn’t foresee a pokey cottage, nosey neighbours, errant poodles, and even an ex turning up. Chris had been her big love at art college and seeing him again is utterly confusing. Is she really so different from the impulsive student who once trawled charity shops for vintage treasures? When a fire all but destroys Laura’s collection of vintage clothes, she’s heartbroken. And seriously lacking in outfits. But, salvaging what she can, Laura makes do and mends – sewing purses, bags, even dog leads (which should solve the poodle problem). Soon, she’s inundated with orders. But Adi is becoming more and more distant; it’s like there’s something he’s not telling her. Can Laura make a stitch in time and pull her family back together again?