Novelicious.com | The Women's Fiction Blog for Readers and Writers

The Secret Dreamworld of an Aspiring Author by Anna Bell - Getting Professional

What a difference a year makes. I don’t think I could even tell you what book I was working on this time last year. I think I was flitting about working on one of my half started books. But in the last year I’ve self published a book and written two more. I don’t know when it changed, but I started to get serious about writing.

I’m not saying that I wasn’t serious about writing before hand;  I’ve been droning on in this column for a couple of years, I have enough words in partially started books to create two or three full length novels, and I have plenty of rejection letters from agents. What has changed has been my approach to it. 

I guess if I’m really honest, I sort of hoped that agents or publishers would see something in my writing that would make them want to sign me. They’d take me under their wing and nurture my writing into fruition. I guess I was being lazy in my approach, hoping my words would speak for themselves. 

Novelicious Natters - When Did Chick Lit Get So Confused?

For the record, I’m not enthralled by the ‘Chick Lit’ label. Chick. Ick. Lit. Shit. It’s reductive and flippant. But, a tad annoyingly, it’s also incredibly powerful. In terms of website traffic it’s four times as powerful as the term ‘women’s fiction’ and eight times as powerful as the term ‘female fiction’. Over 40,000 people a month search Google for ‘chick lit’.  I’d love to take my own little stand and exchange every ‘chick lit’ on this website to something less sexist and more descriptively accurate. But I really want those 40,000 people on Google to come to this website instead of the competition. I want those people who search google for Chick Lit to find what it is that they’re looking for on Novelicious, and once they're here, we can also tell them about other great books that they may not have previously thought to read. And in any case, what term would you use in place of Chick Lit? The whole thing is already confused enough.

What does Chick Lit mean? Which books ARE so-called Chick Lit?

For me, Chick Lit was always a sub-genre of women’s fiction – usually a novel starring a 20-30 year old protagonist and with a strong comedic focus – sort of like the book version of a Romantic Comedy movie, but not cheesy; funny, sometimes irreverent, escapist, recognising-your-life-in-them books about incredibly important life topics such as LOVE and FRIENDSHIP and FIGURING OUT HOW TO BE HAPPY (who decided that love and friendship and trying to be happy were fluffy?).

Novel News - The Desperate Bride's Diet Club by Alison Sherlock

This is the chick-littiest cover we've seen in yonks! The concept is pure chick lit too. We cannot wait for this one.

Every bride dreams of looking beautiful on her wedding day. Doesn't she?

Violet doesn't. She is dreading it. In fact she can't think why Sebastian ever asked her to marry him. When they met, she was a size 14-16. Now she is size 20.

How will she ever find a dress which doesn't make her look ridiculous? And fat.

Dieting club New You! promises the answers. But things just go from bad to worse. It is time for Violet to come up with some solutions of her own...

The Desperate Bride's Diet Club is released on the 26th April. More here. (Amazon)

Novelicious Chats To...Ali Harris

INTERVIEWED BY CESCA MARTIN

Tell us about your novel 'Miracle on Regent Street'.

Well, I like to think it’s a real cuddle-up-with-a-cashmere-blanket-and-a-hot chocolate kind of a read, the kind of book that will remind you of classic old movies and bygone days when Christmas was about magic, not money. It’s a story about a sweet, unassuming stockroom girl called Evie Taylor who works in the basement of Hardy's; a faded, forgotten old department store that has seen better days. For the past two years she's lived an invisible life in London, sorting endless boxes of old-fashioned stock by day and looking after her sister’s two young children at night. Her neighbours think she's the hired help, her self-obsessed shop floor colleagues mistake her for her stockroom predecessor and even her manager doesn't know her actual name. But despite all this she loves working at the store. So when she overhears that Hardy's is at risk of being sold unless it seriously increases its profits by December 26^th – just three weeks time - she hatches a secret plan to save it. Evie and Hardy's are both looking for a Christmas miracle to turn their fortunes around, but will it take the shape of the handsome American who has swept in to town and shaken things up like a snow globe?

Was this your first novel?

Ohhho no! I have three completed manuscripts (and a couple of abandoned attempts) lurking in a box somewhere. Although my first attempt (a book called Strawberries and Dreams which I wrote in 1999!) is lost forever on an ex boyfriend’s probably no longer functioning PC. Better off that way, to be honest!

How many years have you been writing?

I’ve written stories since I was little – but I’ve been seriously dreaming of it as a career since I was 22 (aka a long time ago!) I had just left University after studying a degree in Performing Arts and was working as a waitress in a theme restaurant. The chick lit genre had just been born and reading Bridget Jones was a real light bulb moment for me. I began writing my own novel during the day (about a frustrated waitress, of course!) I read every book in the genre, bought the Writer’s and Artists Year Book, studied every acknowledgment page to see who my favourite authors were represented by and bought every book about writing fiction I could. When I’d written three chapters of my novel I sent it to ten agents. I got rejected by nine but when I hadn’t heard from the tenth I decided to take the initiative and ring them. I somehow (don’t ask me how) managed to get through to one of the biggest, most successful literary agents in London and he told me he had my manuscript in front of him and that he thought it had ‘something’ but that he had been about to send me a rejection letter. I begged him to read more and incredibly, he agreed. I went home and wrote four chapters in as many days and sent it to him. When his rejection letter eventually came through I was devastated. At that point I decided that I just wanted to write for a living – so I decided to apply for work experience at some of my favourite women’s magazines. I wasn’t giving up – just taking a sideways step. I wanted to learn skills that I could transfer to writing fiction but in an exciting, stimulating environment. It was the best decision I ever made. After a year of unpaid work, I got my dream job at Company magazine. I spent the next three years writing features – including my own column, working with incredible people, meeting celebrities – and the best part? I got to meet my favourite authors and grill them about how to get a book deal. I was still writing fiction, but in my spare time. I even sent a manuscript off to a couple of publishers –at one point I had lunch with an editor from Harper Collins which I was so excited about, but nothing ever came of it. I was getting closer, but not close enough!

Novel News - The D Word by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

We don't usually cover ebooks on Novelicious, but we just have to make an exception for The D Word. First off, this book is written by the two fabulous ladies who run the awesome Chick Lit is Not Dead website and secondly, it sounds really really great...

Jordan Daniels and Elle Ryan thought their lives would become less complicated when they walked away from their respective relationships one year ago. But instead, they find themselves vying for a relationship with the same divorced man.

As a spiritual counselor, newly single mother Jordan Daniels makes her living predicting other people’s futures. If only she could foresee her own. A year after filing for divorce from her husband, Kevin, he seems to be the one moving on effortlessly, while Jordan still can’t bring herself to fill his old underwear drawer. But it’s not until Jordan’s polar opposite, Elle steals Kevin’s heart, that Jordan becomes convinced she’ll be replaced both as a wife and a mother to her five-year-old son, Max.

When Elle met Kevin, the last thing she wanted was another relationship. Especially not with a man with baggage-she already had enough of her own. She left her fiancé, Chase right before their wedding to avoid the imminent D word, something she’s convinced runs in her family like a disease. But a year later, she’s no closer to becoming less skeptical about marriage. And despite her attachment to Kevin and his son, when Elle sees just how far Jordan’s willing to go to win Kevin back, Elle starts to question if she should have left Chase in the first place.

In The D Word you’ll walk in the shoes of Jordan and Elle as they discover that sometimes you’re not that different from the person who makes you feel the most insecure.

 
Liz and Lisa have also re-released their first novel, I'LL HAVE WHO SHE'S HAVING, which as well as having THE most gorgeous cover is currently selling on Amazon for 70p. That's 70p!

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THESE BOOKS

Visit Chick Lit is Not Dead

Follow Liz and Lisa on Twitter

Review - Catch Me A Catch by Sally Clements

REVIEW BY DEBS CARR

We don't review ebooks here at Novelicious, but we're making one exception with this book as it's been shortlisted for the RNA Joan Hessayon Award for New Writers.

  
Jack Miller has just sailed single-handedly across the Atlantic, but before he can get to his intended destination, he has a problem with his boat and ends up docking at the small Irish town of Durna. He is sent to the local pub, The Maiden's Arms to find Devine, the ship chandler, who he hopes will be able to find the necessary parts so that he can continue with his journey.

When Jack arrives at the pub, he finds Annie Devine. She is a chocolatier, who has been living in Dublin for the past two years since being jilted at the altar. Annie has reluctantly returned to her home town to stand in for her sick father as the Matchmaker at the Annual Durna Matchmaking Festival. She mistakes Jack for one of the entrants and insists on taking his details and photograph to enter them in the matchmaking book. When she discovers that he has nowhere to stay, she offers him a room in her parent's home.

The local men know Annie is single and iit seems to Jack that they're more interested in her than the other entrants. He admits that he's only in Durna until his boat can be repaired and isn't in the town for the festival, and suggests that they pretend to be a couple so that she's left alone to get on with the job of matchmaker.

Annie is a chocolatier and can't wait to return to Dublin to take part in a contest that is the chocolatier's version of the Oscars. Jack has his own personal agenda. Not only does he have a deadline to keep for his successful marketing business, but he has someone from his past that he needs to find. The mutual attraction between the two intensifies, but just when they seem to be getting close, their ambitions and personal lives get in the way. How can they ever hope to have a relationship, or any future together if they live on seperate sides of the Atlantic and want such different things?

This book starts with Jack battling through a storm in his boat and continues to keep the attention right though to the satisfying ending. The sexual chemistry is brilliantly written as beautiful, but self-conscious Annie and rugged, millionaire Jack with his difficult past, begin to fall in love. The story sweeps you along and is sometimes funny, occasionally sad, as we learn the full extent of Jack's personal tragedy and comforting too as they both begin to discover things about themselves they hadn't thought of before.

I started to read this book on the last morning of my trip to Sorrento and didn't stop reading through two flights - both unbelievably with the same Captain whose landing skills leave a lot to be desired - and ended up finishing just before arriving back in Jersey.

You can visit Sally Clement's Website here

Catch Me A Catch is published by the Wild Rose Press and you can find out more and read an excerpt here

Novelicious Chats To... Amanda Brobyn

1. Can you tell us a little about your average writing day?

I write Tuesday's, Thursday's and Friday's when my son is at school and my 3 year old is in nursery. People often say 'isn't it great that you can work around the kids.'  What? Have you tried writing with a 3 year old whose only vocabulary consists of 'Mummy' and 'I want'....Seriously, I need absolute solitude to write and I find that a silent house allows for a greater flow of creativity. What I can tell you about my average day is that I sit on my bottom far too much!

 2. When you are writing, do you use any celebrities or people you know as inspiration?

I haven't used celebrities just yet although I can see the humour in it, but I definitely use  the characteristics and the occasional storyline from people I know.  I'm dreading 'The Curry Club' which is my second book because it is loosely based on at least 3 people I can think of. But you know what? The best story lines are those which are true to life. You need to write plausible stuff to match the intelligence of your readers....so what if I pinch a little from people's lives???... It just shows how dull my own is!!!

 3. What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?

As a scriptwriter I would probably have to choose 'Angels' by Marian Keyes. I loved the hellish journey  Emily went through to try to get her script into development, let alone into production, although at the same time I am pretty sure I will go through exactly the same when Crystal Balls is re-written as a feature film. It's on my To Do List!  One of the funniest bits for me is when Maggie is on Venice Beach, LA, and she orders gets a lolly ice. All the size zero babes on the beach gasp in horror. Bring it on!

4. What is your writing process? Do you plan first of dive in? How many drafts do you do?

Review - The Sweetest Thing by Cathy Woodman

I hadn't read any of Cathy Woodman's books when I received this one, so Iit I wasn’t sure what to expect. Having now read The Sweetest Thing, I can't wait to buy her backlist and read the others.

Jennie Copeland thought she had everything she’d ever wanted. She married her childhood sweetheart and lived with him and their adorable children in a beautiful house, so she’s heartbroken when her husband leaves her for another woman and decides that it’s time to move with the children to East Devon where she enjoyed many childhood holidays.

She buys a rundown house with several acres of land with the intention of starting again by supporting herself with her own baking business and giving her children a new way of life where they’ll spend time enjoying themselves with outdoor pursuits rather than spending time inside on a computer. However, she isn’t the only one nursing a broken heart. Her only neighbour, Guy Barnes, a grumpy, but ruggedly handsome farmer, is fairly sure she’ll not last the year in the country. He doesn’t make her very welcome to begin with and despite her misgivings about him Jennie soon has to turn to him when things start to go wrong.

Review - My Bollywood Wedding by Rekha Waheed

Maya Malik has proposed to her perfect man Janghir Khan and despite his family’s reservations about having her as a prospective daughter-in-law, she resolves to plan the perfect wedding.

Not only does Maya have to contend with her wealthy family and his extremely wealthy one fighting over the dowries, but also had Janghir’s sister-in-law, Seema who dislikes her intensely and seems to be taking over the wedding arrangements rather than simply assisting Maya with the preparations. Janghir’s cousin Zain, a handsome George Clooney look-alike keeps offering Maya help and when Janghir appears to be distancing himself from Maya, she begins to wonder if she is indeed marrying the right man.

Seema has a way of making Maya feel fat and useless and as time presses on, she begins to realize that the wedding she was hoping for is becoming something of a distant dream. Maya resolves to sort herself out and take the reins back from the scheming Seema and find a way to give Janghir a wedding to be proud of.

Novel News - Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner

Then Came You is the next novel to be released by the ah-may-zing Jennifer Weiner. I've read all of her books and am currently reading her latest release 'Fly Away Home'. I'll definitely be picking up 'Then Came You' in July

The Blurb reads...

Jules Wildgren is a twenty-one year old Princeton college senior with a full scholarship and a family she's ashamed to invite to Parent's Weekend. Tall, blond, and outwardly identical to her wealthy high school classmates, her plan is to take the ten thousand dollars she'll receive from donating her 'pedigree' eggs and try to save her father from addiction. Amie Barrow is a thirty-four year old working-class married mother of two who scrapes by on her family's single paycheck.After watching a TV show about surrogates, she thinks she's found a way to recover a sense of purpose and bring in some extra cash...India Bishop, thirty eight (really forty-three), believes she's found her happy ever after when she marries a very wealthy and much older man, Marcus Croft, but decides that a baby will seal the deal. When all of her attempts at pregnancy fail, she turns to technology, and Annie and Jules, to help make her dreams come true. But each woman's plans are thrown into disarray when Marcus suddenly dies, and his twenty-three year old daughter, Bettina, is named guardian of the unborn child. As the baby's due date draws near, these four women - with nothing and everything in common - discover what makes each of them a mother in her own right.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THEN CAME YOU

Review - Lizzy Harrison Loses Control by Pippa Wright

Lizzy Harrison isn’t a romantic heroine. Not even close. She doesn’t have a cat, owns no more shoes than the average person, and is in no way hopelessly scatty and disorganised. In fact her life is in perfect order, and that’s just how she likes it. Okay, so she hasn’t met the right man yet, but she really doesn’t have the time what with her busy job in PR and her packed schedule of improving activities. Her diary is planned months in advance and she’s determined that nothing spontaneous will force its way into her life.

...hasn’t she?

 But when her best friend Lulu questions her need for control, Lizzy starts to wonder if she needs to let go a little. So when she’s thrown into the arms of her boss’s number one client, notorious comedian (and love-rat) Randy Jones, she reluctantly relaxes her hold on routine. Lizzy Harrison is about to find out that losing control could win her more than she had ever imagined.

I've had my eye on this book for a while, not least because the cover screams UNABASHED CHICK LIT! which is my fave kind. So, when I received the book and saw that it was being touted as chick lit for those who don't like chick lit, I was intrigued.

For the record, this book probably will appeal to those who don't like traditional chick lit because it's a damn good read regardless of genre. But, I'll be honest, this IS one of the chick-littiest (is that even a word?) books I've read in yonks, and in the very best way.

It has all the elements - A funny, smart protagonist, a touch of glamour, wayward bosses, twists and turns, funky friends, kooky families and more than one sexy bloke. What, for me, sets this book apart from the rest is that it has one of the most authentic voices of all chick lit heroines I've read. One of the main reasons that Sophie Kinsella is multi gazillion selling is that she has a rare ability to create incredibly funny, warm heroines we can relate to and imagine ourselves having a night out with. Pippa Wright also has this skill. Lizzy Harrison is the kind of girl you'd probably get the giggles with.

I loved loved loved Lizzy Harrison Loses Control. Pippa Wright is a sparkling, CHEEKY new voice in chick lit and I'm totes eager to read more from her.

10/10

Find out more about this book!

Pure Passion Awards 2011 - The Longlist

The Long List for the Pure Passion Romantic Novel of the Year was released yesterday over on the Romantic Novelists' Association Website.

My money is on Jojo Moyes for The Last Letter From Your Lover which was one of the most engaging, sweepingly romantic and original novels I've read in years.

The shortlist will be announced on Feb 10th 2011. Who do you think will make it? Who do you think will win?

The Long List in alphabetical order is below (I've linked the titles to Amazon so you can read more about each book).

• To Defy a King by Elizabeth Chadwick (Little, Brown - Sphere)
• The Good, the Bad and the Dumped by Jenny Colgan (Little, Brown - Sphere)
• The Golden Prince by Rebecca Dean (HarperCollins)
• Sons & Daughters by Margaret Dickinson (Pan MacMillan)
• Kissing Mr. Wrong by Sarah Duncan (Headline)
• A Perfect Proposal by Katie Fforde (Random House)
• The Jewel of St. Petersburg by Kate Furnivall (Little, Brown - Sphere)
• Amazir by Tom Gamble (Beautiful Books)
• The Island by Elin Hilderbrand (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Queen of New Beginnings by Erica James (Orion)
• The Way to a Woman’s Heart by Christina Jones (Little, Brown - Piatkus)
• I Heart Paris by Lindsey Kelk (HarperCollins)
• His Last Duchess by Gabrielle Kimm (Little, Brown - Sphere)
• Christmas Eve at Friday Harbour by Lisa Kleypas (Little, Brown - Piatkus)
• The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Virgin Widow by Anne O’Brien (Mira)
• Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn (Little, Brown - Piatkus)
• The Search by Nora Roberts (Little, Brown - Piatkus)
• The Legacy by Katherine Webb (Orion)
• Hope Against Hope by Sally Zigmond (Myrmidon)

Visit the RNA Website

Review - Down To Earth by Melanie Rose

REVIEWED BY KIRA SLAUGHTER  

When Michaela Anderson signs up for a charity parachute jump, she gets more than a case of vertigo...

Suffering last minute panic, Michaela’s three colleagues go first. But just as she takes her leap of faith, an almighty gale blows up from nowhere.

When she returns to the ground, she finds the airfield deserted, her car gone and the seasons mysteriously changed. Posters nearby proclaim Michaela to have been missing for the last six and a half years...

Everything about her life is completely different.

But Michaela is determined to find out the truth. Was she kidnapped? Is she now suffering amnesia- or has something even more extraordinary occurred?

With the help of handsome pilot Matt, Michaela sets out to find the truth. And what she discovers rocks everything she has ever believed in to the core...

Before I was sent this book I had only read one of Melanie Rose’s other books, Could it be Magic. I really enjoyed it and found that the magical twist made it entirely different. With this one the theme of the unexplained had me gripped from the very beginning. When you read about the unexplained disappearance of the main character, Michaela, you start to think 'could that happen', and 'has it ever happened before?'.

When the book starts Michaela is just your average girl. She’s in a relationship and living with her boyfriend, who also happens to have a little girl. She works at an insurance firm which is the reason she’s doing this jump in the first place, it’s for charity and her co-workers have been dragged in to doing it as well. As they’re all riding up to the point where they’ll jump from, Michaela gets increasingly nervous, but the comforting words she receives from the gorgeous jump instructor Matt, make her feel a little better.

Michaela is the last person to jump out of the plane and what happens next is so random, yet grabs the reader. When she lands from her jump everything is different; the weather, the airfield and the fact that her car is no longer parked where it should be. At this part of the book I could not stop reading as I wanted to find out what on earth had happened to her. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Michaela, she’s confused and upon stumbling into a nearby pub, she finds posters of herself plastered over the walls, with the words ‘Have you seen this girl?’ If this were a film this would be when the du du duuuuuh music kicks in! It sinks in that Michaela has been missing for the last six and a half years. Her only solution is to call the last person who saw her before she jumped: Matt.

This is where the book gets really interesting, as events from the last six and a half years are explained to Michaela. Her life and the people in it have changed dramatically and she has no idea who she can turn to, as everyone thinks she went missing on purpose. What unfolds now is the perfect mystery, and with some very impressive twists, Down to Earth becomes a brilliant Who? What? Where? mystery that I found hard to put down. Only read this book if you have a clear two days, otherwise you’re never getting anything done!

I’m giving this a 9/10!

Melanie Rose's Website

More About This Book

Review - From Notting Hill with Love...Actually by Ali McNamara

REVIEWED BY KIRA SLAUGHTER 

Scarlett loves the movies, but does she love sensible fiancé David just as much?

When Scarlett has the chance to house-sit a grand mansion in Notting Hill- the setting of one of her favourite movies- she jumps at the chance to live out her film fantasies. Soon Scarlett finds herself starring in a romantic comedy of her very own: but who will end up as the leading man?

 A few months ago I was on Amazon (shocker!) and I was looking for books to add to my wish list. This one cropped up and when I read the synopsis I immediately knew that this book would be right up my street. Based on some of the best romantic comedies around, this book grabs you and pulls you in until you aren’t able to tell real life from fiction.

Scarlett is an avid movie fan and her obvious choice of film is the romantic comedy. She has always thought that her life should really be like one of the characters from Bridget Jones’ Diary or Notting Hill. She is engaged to David who, much to Scarlett’s chagrin, is nothing like the romantic heroes from her movies. He is sensible, has a good job and wants to get married as soon as possible. He doesn’t understand Scarlett’s obsession with the movies and repeatedly tries to convince her that real life is nothing like a chick flick! Even Scarlett’s Dad is conspiring against her and wants her to take her head from out the clouds and get on with her life.

When Scarlett’s friend Maddie asks if she’d be interested in house sitting in Notting Hill she jumps at the chance, hoping that her favourite movie will come to life, with her as the star. In the few weeks she is in London, she meets the outrageous Oscar, her gorgeous next door neighbour Sean (who is on my list of top chick lit hotties!) and even deals with some issues that have been troubling her since she was young.

You can’t help but love Scarlett, even though she’s scatty and lives in her dream world most of the time, her heart is in the right place. Some of the situations she lands herself in had me laughing out loud (seriously, I even snorted at one point, very embarrassing!).

The sign of a good book to me is if I feel disappointed when I get to the last page, and this is one of those. I wanted to be in Notting Hill, living Scarlett’s dream along with her. It took me a day and a half to read this novel and I will be very surprised if you don’t get as involved with the story as much as I did.

A very impressive debut from Ali McNamara!

I’m giving it a 10/10!

Tune in tomorrow for a fantastic video from Ali Mcnamara, featuring her writing room!

Purchase this book

Visit Ali's Website

Follow Ali on Twitter