Chick Lit Plus by Samantha March

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Healthy Recipe: Mediterranean Chicken and Pasta
Chick Lit Plus

Healthy Recipe: Mediterranean Chicken and Pasta

If anyone was following my Twitter updates yesterday, you realized that I hate grocery shopping, I hate cooking, and I was having immense struggles trying to figure out something healthy and easy to prepare. Well after a disastrous trip to the grocery store and buying little to no food, I got recipes in my inbox this morning from Women’s Health Magazine. Each recipe takes approximately 20 minutes to prepare, are healthy, and somewhat simple to make. My favorite recipe was the Mediterranean Chicken and Pasta- as chicken and pasta are two of my staples. Check out the recipe and ingredients below:

Makes: 4 servings
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
1 6-ounce jar marinated artichoke hearts
1 tablespoon olive oil
12 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1 7-ounce jar roasted red peppers, drained and cut into strips
1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives
3 cups hot cooked campanelle or penne pasta
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (optional)
Directions
1. Drain artichoke hearts, reserving marinade, and chop them. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat; add chicken and garlic. Cook and stir until chicken is brown. Add the reserved artichoke marinade, broth, wine, and dried oregano.
2. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Stir in chopped artichokes, roasted peppers, and olives.
3. To serve, spoon chicken mixture over pasta. If desired, sprinkle with feta cheese.
Nutrition facts per serving: 347 calories, 26g protein, 38g carbohydrate, 9g fat (1g saturated), 3g fiber

Get more recipes from WHM by clicking here. Bon Appétit!

March 2, 2010
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Christina Milian Welcomes Daughter
Chick Lit Plus

Christina Milian Welcomes Daughter

It’s a girl for Christina Milian! The R&B singer, 28, and husband, rapper The Dream, welcomed daughter Violet on Friday, People.com has confirmed. The couple married in September and announced their pregnancy in October. This is the first child for Milian and the fourth for The Dream, who has three children with ex-wife, singer Nivea.

March 1, 2010
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Jennie Garth to Write Children’s Books
Chick Lit Plus

Jennie Garth to Write Children’s Books

Another cast member of Beverly Hills: 90210 is going to be a children’s author! Jennie Garth has followed in the footsteps of former co-star Tori Spelling and will pen her own children’s books, according to Usmagazine. Garth says, “I just signed a two-book deal to start my own children’s books.” The books will be aimed at children aged 3-8 and will be first released February of 2011. Negotiations are still in the process of what exactly the books will be about.

March 1, 2010
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Chick Lit Author Allie Spencer
Chick Lit Authors

Chick Lit Author Allie Spencer

Allie Spencer wanted to be a writer most of her life, but she received her MA and went on to law school, qualifying as a…

March 1, 2010
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Beautiful Blogger Award
Updates

Beautiful Blogger Award

I was so excited this morning to see that I had received my very first “Beautiful Blogger Award.” One of my favorite bloggers, Lauren from My Life Incomplete, had awarded me, and I couldn’t be happier! Thank you Lauren! I will not lie though, before receiving this award, I had never heard of it. But I learned that bloggers can hand out the award to other bloggers they feel do exceptional work, and if you receive the award and want to accept it, you must write 7 things about yourself, and pass the award along to other bloggers. Some confusion lies though, as I do not know how this award got started and seems that you can maybe choose how many other bloggers you want to pass it along to, or the person giving the award can tell you how many you need to pass it to. Kind of confusing, right? But I want to keep it going on my end, so here are my 7 things about me:
1. I hate all things vegetable. There is not one vegetable I like, though I will try them occasionally and see if my taste buds have changed. Last weekend, I tried celery. Ew.
2. I have wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I used to write my own books starting around age nine that modeled after my then favorite series ‘The Baby-Sitters Club.’
3. I love dancing. When I am feeling down, I just plug my iPod in and start dancing around my room. I can be cheered up within minutes.
4. I can’t cook to save my life. Grilled cheese and basic spaghetti are about the extent of culinary genius.
5. I hate winter, especially snow. It’s cold, gross, and causes car accidents. I find nothing amusing about it.
6. I am obsessed with the E! channel. I don’t think there is one show that I don’t enjoy watching. I am especially looking forward to the new series of Kendra.
7. I work out almost every day. I actually do feel great after an hour in the gym or on my yoga mat. And I feel like I eat better after a workout, a double bonus for me.

And now to pass the award along. I am going to do my favorite 7 bloggers.
1. I’m not sure if it is proper to pass the award back to the one who awarded me, but Lauren from My Life Incomplete was one of my first favorites when I joined the land of Twitter, and I find her blog not only inspiring, but she has become a cyber friend, helping me out when I had those hard to answer questions. Lauren is a single mom, blogging on how being divorced doesn’t mean life is over, and dishing out the lessons she has learned along the way.
2. Larissa from Larissa’s Life writes great book reviews and has fabulous book giveaways. She’s another fun one to chat with on Twitter!
3. Jenn from Jenn Book Crazy reads like crazy! She is always posting another great book review, and I love the reading challenges you can find on her site.
4. Tena from Crazy Book Slut first drew me in by the name, and her site is fabulous! She does a lot of book reviews for the romance drama, and those are super fun for me to read. She has a great 2010 challenge to read 50,000 pages!!
5. Sheena from Sheena Says Stuff is a photographer and graphic designer and a ‘sometimes’ writer, who started the Funny Book Club on Twitter. She says she isn’t sure yet if the club is for funny books or just a blog that is funny and about books, but either way you should check it out!
6. Kirsty from Noveliscious has a top notch website that I love visiting on a daily basis. You can get book information, reviews, interviews, and there is even a For Writers section that I favorite.
7. S. Krishna is a blogger, book reviewer, grad student, and Associate Editor and Review Coordinator of @thebookstudio. Whew! Her site is full of great book reviews and fun giveaways to enter.

So that is my Beautiful Blogger award, and to those that I handed the award out to, in order to accept you need to post 7 things about yourself and hand out the award to 7 bloggers you think are fabulous. Thanks again to Lauren and let’s keep this going!

February 28, 2010
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In My Mailbox: Week of February 28
Updates

In My Mailbox: Week of February 28

In My Mailbox: Week of February 28

Title: Poor Little Bitch Girl
Author: Jackie Collins
Received: From Jackie Collins for review
Synopsis: Three twenty-something women, one hot rich guy, two mega movie stars, and a devastating murder: Poor Little Bitch Girl has it all.
Denver Jones is a hotshot twenty-something attorney working in L.A. Carolyn Henderson is personal assistant to a powerful and very married Senator in Washington with whom she is having an affair. And Annabelle Maestro—daughter of two movie stars—has carved out a career for herself in New York as the madame of choice for discerning famous men. The three of them went to high school together in Beverly Hills—and although Denver and Carolyn have kept in touch, Annabelle is out on her own with her cocaine addicted boyfriend, Frankie.
Then there is Bobby Santangelo Stanislopolous, the Kennedyesque son of Lucky Santangelo and deceased Greek shipping billionaire, Dimitri Stanislopolous. Bobby owns Mood, the hottest club in New York. Back in the day he went to high school with Denver, Carolyn and Annabelle. And he connected with all three of them. Frankie is his best friend.
When Annabelle’s beautiful movie star mother is found shot to death in the bedroom of her Beverly Hills mansion, the five of them find themselves thrown together . . . and secrets from the past have a way of coming back to haunt everyone. . . .

Title: The Overnight Socialite
Author: Bridie Clark
Received: Public Library
Synopsis: In this beguiling retelling of the classic Pygmalion, we meet Lucy Ellis, a Manhattan transplant who dreams of making it as a fashion designer but instead toils away on a Garment District assembly line. Road-blocked each time she tries to score a break, Lucy is beginning to think the unthinkable: maybe it’s time to pack it in and move home to Minnesota. Then, during a torrential downpour, at her most bedraggled and disheartened, Lucy meets Wyatt Hayes IV.
Wyatt-man-about-town and bored Ph.D. anthropologist- has just been publicly dissed by New York’s reigning socialite, Cornelia Rockman, whom he’d been dating. He boasts to his best friend Trip that he can transform any woman- even a trailer-born nobody like Lucy- into this year’s “It” girl. “Give me a few months,” he tells Trip, “and I could turn her into a social luminary. She’ll make the rest of the pack look like dim little tea lights.” If Wyatt can fool the East coast aristocracy into thinking Lucy’s the real deal, he can reveal the farce behind Cornelia’s social superiority complex…and score a career-boosting book deal.
Headstrong Lucy challenges her teacher at every turn, but armed with a made-up pedigree and a wardrobe costlier than most studio apartments, she’s soon navigating a world in which the most photographed socialite takes all. Can Lucy survive in a wilderness where no girl wears the same gown twice, the Astors are considered Johnny-come-latelies, and weddings are more lavish than the coronation of Louis XIV? Will she forge the connections needed to make a name for herself in fashion? And can she surmount the schemes and suspicions of her newfound rival, Cornelia?
Three months of rigorous prep and test runs culminate in Lucy’s showdown at the Fashion Forum Gala, where she and Wyatt confront the ne plus ultra of society…and their unexpected feelings for each other. But the gaps between them-as well as Wyatt’s secret agenda-may make this improbable couple an impossibility.
Set against the gold-plated world of Manhattan’s social elite, The Overnight Socialite puts a witty twenty-first-century spin on a timeless story of transformation and unlikely love.

Title: Dirty Girls on Top
Author: Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez
Received: Public Library
Synopsis: The Dirty Girls are back, saucier and sexier than ever….but would it be wrong to ask them to be a little smarter, too?? Especially when it comes to men. And sex.
Lauren Fernandez is at the top of her game as the cleverest columnist the Boston Gazette has on board—but she can’t quite figure out how to pick a guy or how to eat (and not drink) like a healthy person. Usnavys is still sashaying all over town, 260 pounds of her dolled up in designer duds and ready for action—from anyone except her husband Juan, that is. He’s become just a bit boring staying home scrubbing the tub and cooking up chicken fingers for pre-schooler Carolina while somebody else brings home the bacon.
Maybe the other Dirty Girls could help Lauren and ‘navy out, but they’ve got their own messes to deal with: Rebecca Baca hasn’t gained a pound since college (well, who would, if they had an ounce of self-control?) but suspects her picture-perfect marriage may not yield the baby she longs for; Sara may be the star of her own decorating show on cable television, but her dangerous pull toward her ex-husband Roberto isn’t so pretty; Amber keeps renaming herself and doesn’t want to hear that her soulfulness and reinvention aren’t enough to make fans actually buy her music; and Elizabeth is discovering that a relationship with another woman takes more than bravery and a nesting instinct.
Dirty Girls on Top is about trying to figure it all out without quite as much time left as there was five years ago. And it’s about sex and love—getting it, not getting it, yearning for it, having it with the wrong person, fighting it from the right person, trying it a new way, giving up on it. And, in the end, if your fingers are crossed and the planets are in alignment, having it come out just the way it should.

Title: Drop Dead Beautiful
Author: Jackie Collins
Received: Public Library
Synopsis: “Like mother, like daughter. “No truer words for Lucky Santangelo’s sixteen-year-old Max, who goes looking for trouble when she hooks up with some guy she met on the Internet. Soon the beautiful, willful Max finds herself in deeper waters than she can imagine as she becomes a pawn in a greater scheme that leads back to Lucky and Billy Melina, the studly movie-star boyfriend of Lucky’s best friend, superstar Venus. “” If Max’s troubles weren’t enough, Lucky has her multi-billion-dollar Las Vegas hotel complex to contend with…along with Anthony Bonar, the illegitimate grandson of her one-time Godfather and lethal enemy, Enzio Bonnati. So begins a non-stop thrill ride as Lucky builds her dream resort–and gambles with all she holds dear. Max, too, is following her dreams, and as her high-flying triumphs prove, she’s more than just a little Lucky.

February 28, 2010
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Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes
Chick Lit Review

Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes

The Park Avenue Princesses are on a mission- find the perfect Prospective Husband. The unnamed heroine dives right in, finding what seems like the most fabulous men but realizing they are only toads disguised as a prince (literally- a prince). Along with best friend Julie Bergdorf, the group of wealthy socialites go through the life of luxury, their biggest worries being when their next alpha-beta peel is scheduled, and what to wear to the hottest party this weekend.
Following the adventures of the rich and fabulous proved hilarious in Plum Sykes debut novel, Bergdorf Blondes. A light but hilarious read, it was difficult to put down because the characters were able to suck you in and make you feel a part of the clique. Chick lit readers will enjoy the fluffy plot and over the top situations, especially if you were a fan of the Clueless movie! Blondes is entertaining, carefree, and a glamorous trip through the glitzy world of the girls who have it all.

February 28, 2010
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Guest Post from Author Carol Mason
Chick Lit Authors

Guest Post from Author Carol Mason

My new novel, The Love Market, I am told, has just hit the shelves in stores across Canada. I love that expression! I only have to read it to feel that the entire hair-pulling, teeth-grinding ordeal of a year spent writing a novel was all worth it. Of course then I rush to my local bookstore and fail to see the book anywhere. Or it may happen to be in a box, amidst a pile of other unpacked novels in the corner of the store, even though theoretically it’s supposed to be proudly occupying its well-earned space on some up-front and centre shelf where the world can see it and buy it.

Then reality kicks in, and I remember one thing: no dream is ever as perfect as we imagine it. If it was, life would stop the moment we got what we wanted.

I will never forget finding out that I had finally got bought by a top publishing house, that my book would be published in many different countries, I was being paid a slightly more than respectable salary for what I’d accomplished, and what’s more, they were buying a second book off me – one I’d not even written or conceived yet! I must be pretty fantastic, right? Surely after everything I’d been through I could allow myself to think myself fabulous just this once?

It had not been easy. (understatement of the century) I’d given up a well-paid job to write full-time. I’d initially given myself a year to get published and that year had turned into five. I imagined, because I was so gung-ho (and clearly deluded), that I’d make it with my first book. That one book turned into three unpublished attempts that still lurk in the bottom drawer of my desk, because I’m sure one day I will revive them and they will go on to be bestsellers. Actually it was five unpublished attempts. I forgot to count the two novels I wrote ten years previously that I was too lazy to back up on my computer, and my computer got stolen, and the novels went along for the ride. Surely I had earned my stripes?

“Are you sitting down?’ My agent asked me on a phone call from London. I had just woken up. It was 7AM Vancouver time. Then her next question was, ‘Do you have a bottle of champagne in the fridge?’

The thing was, I had become so conditioned to the concept of failure that imagining myself a success no longer ever crossed my mind. I disbelieved her when she told me that Hodder & Stoughton had just made a lovely offer on The Secrets of Married Women. What was she playing at? Is this how my agent got her jollies? I had to consciously sit there and reason with myself: Hang on Carol, she has no reason to make this up. Maybe it’s true.
I didn’t have a bottle of champers in the fridge. But by the end of that day I was eating sushi with Dom Perignon. The high I felt was like none I’d experienced before. I had done something that countless people told me I would never do: Even if they never came out and said it, it was there in their faces. I had gotten published. On a big level. Way to go me!
Mysteriously, I became all fixated on death after that. I didn’t want to die before I saw my first novel hit the shelves. Not that, until that moment, I’d ever imagined myself dying. I was in perfectly good health and a reasonably sane driver and I didn’t think I had any enemies who would be following me with a hatchet down a dark street. But after hearing my so-called “job” of writing had been validated by a big publishing house, and I no longer had to feel I needed to make excuses to people about what I did, I had a heightened sense of my own need to self-preserve. All I wanted was to walk into a big bookstore and see myself right there, next to whichever brand name author had a book out at the same time – then I could die happy. Or on a shelf filed next to whatever greatly successful writer bore a last name beginning with M. In my case, it always seems to be Carole Matthews. Seeing a table-load of my novel in Borders on Oxford Street made me want to rip off all clothes and dance naked on top of them. Not only had I hit shelves, I’d apparently hit tables too! I started lurking around the edges of bookshelves, watching to see if anyone would actually buy my book off that table. I never saw it happen. Then I fantasized about seeing someone reading my book on a bus. That never happened either. But then my moment came. I was skimming a British newspaper and saw a photograph of a WAG (Footballers’ Wives And Girlfriends) sitting on a beach reading a novel – and the book was none other than The Secrets of Married Women. A WAG was reading me! How cool was that?
Of course sometimes “hitting the shelves” literally means there is one copy, spine out, under the letter M. A pretty deflating sight to see. Especially as you tend to know it’s not because there’s only one left, but because there never was more than one in the first place. But still, I will always take my “one” copy to the most prominent position in the store, and place it right there – surreptitiously, like you never really saw me do that. But hey! If Carrie Bradshaw can do it, why can’t I?
So this weekend, Olympics fever over in Vancouver (almost), I will do my routine of driving to as many stores as I can hit and signing copies so that the sales team can stick pretty little stickers on them. As hard as it is to be published and to keep on being published, this thing I get to do when new book hits the shelves makes me remember why it is I started writing in the first place.
Signed by Author? Yep, that’s me.

February 27, 2010
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Marie Osmond’s Son Commits Suicide
Chick Lit Plus

Marie Osmond’s Son Commits Suicide

Marie Osmond’s teenaged son Michael Blosil has killed himself, People.com has reported. Blosil reportedly leaped to his death around 9 pm on Friday, and left a suicide note behind, citing his long battle with severe depression as a cause for the suicide. A rep for both Marie and brother Donny Osmond has confirmed that their Las Vegas show at the Flamingo Hotel has been canceled for Saturday, and will be on an indefinite hiatus.

February 27, 2010
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