Hey There! Are you an avid chick lit reader? Do you pick up anything from Jane Austen to Sophie Kinsella? Have dozens of pastel colored books on your shelves? Books with powerful heroines, women caught in a bind, best friends at each others’ sides…or throats? Books with female protagonists searching for Mr. Right, or getting swept away by Prince Charming or the unsuspected best friend since grade school? Or getting in a bit of a pickle with the Bad Boy only to find Mr. Darcy at the end of the novel?
From lipstick and designer handbags, to broken hearts and high-powered careers, chick lit topics and stories are wide, wonderful, and filled from page to page with scads of issues (small and big) that each and every woman can relate to. In some way or another. At least a leading lady you can resonate with, or a character or two…or her plight, gaff, or scream-from-the-top-of-a-mountain championing and success.
I love chick lit. I have for quite some time and for all of the reasons above (and then some). I’ve kept just as many chick lits on my bookshelves as I have mysteries, classics, thrillers, poetry and short story anthologies, travelogues, biographies, how-to books, self-help books, cookbooks, get-your-finances-in-order books, nonfiction criminal collections, magical-mystical-Harry-Potters, and contemporary fiction works…. Yes, chick lit fills my shelves and Kindle, and the genre’s been on my mind a lot lately for a few reasons.
One, my new novel is a chick lit (or, ‘Contemporary Women’s Fiction’ as some prefer to call it). When Girlfriends Break Hearts screams chick lit with its girly cover and juicy synopsis. As author and book reviewer Kate Policani said in her recent review of my book HERE, “When Savannah Page labels this book as ‘chick lit’, she is not kidding. If you have too much testosterone for stories including ‘feelings’, relationships, decorating, gardening, or girls nights with baking and chick movies, this book is not for you. The rest of us will love it!”
Reason number two for chick lit being on the brain. It’s International Chick Lit Month!
And that leads me to reason number three…the Chick Lit Author Blog Hop 2012 in celebration of the month, hosted by fellow chick lit author, Tracie Banister.
This afternoon I finished this 34-author Blog Hop and boy-oh-boy was that a delight! Each day this work week I spent some time reading a handful of the featured chick lit authors’ blog posts. 34 authors posted their chick lit-centric blog post and they were all delightful. (Even one in there from a male chick lit author. I think that’s just super cool!)
I know I talked about the Hop in my last blog post, but this awesome group of authors and this neat-o Blog Hop deserves a second shout-out.
Basically until this Sunday night you can hop around to each author’s blog and read their Blog Hop post. Then when you come across their italicized word take note of it, because if you collect all 34 and submit them to the email they provide before Sunday at midnight, you’ll be entered in the Grand Prize drawing for a $150 Gift Certificate to Sephora!
AND, if you comment on an author’s blog post then you’ll be entered in their own drawing for a free ebook of theirs. So that’s a win-win; and I participated in all 34 blogs and I really I hope I score a FREE ebook. Or two! (Or that nifty gift certificate would put a soon-to-be-newly-shiny-lipsticked smile on my face!)
I’d also like to take a quick little moment to say thank you to the authors on this Hop who took a moment to give a little shout out for my own stab at chick lit. I really appreciate it. I’ve wanted to write it for a long time, and after I braved the world and released my first travelogue book last December, I decided it was finally time to tackle that big pastel-colored book cover dream! (Alright, so mine’s a little neon. But that’s still super chick lit-y hah?)
Have fun with the Blog Hop everyone and I do hope you participate. Even if you just have time for a few of the Blogs. If you’re a chick lit reader you’re sure to find a few new books (and authors) that you can’t wait to meet!
Have a great weekend everyone and…
Happy Reading!
