Who knew?
I read my Publishers Weekly review today for Plum Blossoms in Paris. Every ABNA semifinalist received one, and here's mine:
Daisy’s high school boyfriend breaks up with her via email and she’s devastated, so, like any reasonable chick lit heroine, she decides to take a break from her university’s neuroscience program so she can flee to Paris to find herself, and pick up a new hunky boyfriend along the way. Daisy meets a charming, French stranger on a train who she later runs into at a museum. Soon enough Mathieu, who has mother issues, offers to take Daisy on an insider’s tour of Paris. He wants to "live freely" with her, he explains, which is French bachelor code for "let’s just fool around." The author’s witty banter and solid prose are a match for Sophie Kinsella or Cecilia Ahearn, and Daisy is more familiar and accessible than their protagonists. She’s certainly smarter too. But then again, isn’t everyone equally dumb when it comes to love?
I have never read a chick-lit novel. But I guess I'm good at writing them.
I recognize that this is mostly a favorable review, and yet it feels so different from the book in my heart. My Mathieu isn't "hunky." And he doesn't want to fool around.
Anyway, I'm bewildered, but...
happy?
--
HERE is something to be really happy about!
Jaye Wells, a fantastic writer and friend, just announced a 3-book deal with Orbit US for her urban fantasy series. Yay, Jaye! So get on over to her blog and congratulate her. She deserves it.
--
ETA: I suck at taking vacations.
Showing posts with label ABNA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ABNA. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Ahem: A Little Groveling Is In Order
Hi.
You like my words, right?
I mean, they don't make you physically and/or mentally wretch or want to suddenly speak in tongues, right?
Like if you were forced, at gunpoint (or something), to read 5,000 of them, all right in a row and without stopping, you wouldn't choose death instead, right?
Right?
And if you were compelled, by the ardor of my affection for all of you, to write a short review after reading these 5,000 words, this responsibility wouldn't make you crack and weep and bellow, "WHY? OH, DEAR LORD, WHY DOES SHE TORMENT ME THUSLY?" toward the heavens, even if you were, in all honesty, an agnostic/atheist/polytheist/Wiccan/other not inclined toward dramatic God appeals or using words like, "thusly"?
Okay. Good to know.
I entered my novel, Plum Blossoms in Paris, into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest a few months ago. The ultimate winner (to be announced in April) receives a publishing contract and a healthy advance. They have winnowed the 5,000 entries down to 800 or so semifinalists. And I'm one of them (whee!).
Amazon has posted the excerpts for their customers to read and review. I'm not sure how critical these reviews are to advancing toward the next level (in late February, they'll cut the pool down to 100), but I assume they'll matter.
So please, if you have the time, or desire, during the next few weeks to stop by and read my first couple of chapters, I would be very grateful. If you like what you read, and want to pen a review, that would be great. If you don't like what you read, and don't want to review, that would be equally great.
My excerpt is here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012658UI
It's a pdf, which is a little awkward to read, so if you want to print it out, that might be helpful. The powers-that-be were supposed to cut if off at a chapter break, but they went too long, and chopped it off mid-sentence. I can live with this.
Thank you so much to those who are willing to do this for me. And please only do so if you are genuinely interested in the synopsis. In all seriousness, I welcome your honest reviews, so don't feel an obligation to pad the rating. There's certainly room for improvement here.
Thanks again!
You like my words, right?
I mean, they don't make you physically and/or mentally wretch or want to suddenly speak in tongues, right?
Like if you were forced, at gunpoint (or something), to read 5,000 of them, all right in a row and without stopping, you wouldn't choose death instead, right?
Right?
And if you were compelled, by the ardor of my affection for all of you, to write a short review after reading these 5,000 words, this responsibility wouldn't make you crack and weep and bellow, "WHY? OH, DEAR LORD, WHY DOES SHE TORMENT ME THUSLY?" toward the heavens, even if you were, in all honesty, an agnostic/atheist/polytheist/Wiccan/other not inclined toward dramatic God appeals or using words like, "thusly"?
Okay. Good to know.
I entered my novel, Plum Blossoms in Paris, into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest a few months ago. The ultimate winner (to be announced in April) receives a publishing contract and a healthy advance. They have winnowed the 5,000 entries down to 800 or so semifinalists. And I'm one of them (whee!).
Amazon has posted the excerpts for their customers to read and review. I'm not sure how critical these reviews are to advancing toward the next level (in late February, they'll cut the pool down to 100), but I assume they'll matter.
So please, if you have the time, or desire, during the next few weeks to stop by and read my first couple of chapters, I would be very grateful. If you like what you read, and want to pen a review, that would be great. If you don't like what you read, and don't want to review, that would be equally great.
My excerpt is here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012658UI
It's a pdf, which is a little awkward to read, so if you want to print it out, that might be helpful. The powers-that-be were supposed to cut if off at a chapter break, but they went too long, and chopped it off mid-sentence. I can live with this.
Thank you so much to those who are willing to do this for me. And please only do so if you are genuinely interested in the synopsis. In all seriousness, I welcome your honest reviews, so don't feel an obligation to pad the rating. There's certainly room for improvement here.
Thanks again!
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