Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Girl Fight


So while I'm figuring out just what Novel 5 is going to be about, there is a way to get your chick lit fix BEFORE next spring.

In fact, at the end of June, there's going to be a fantastic short-story anthology out called "This is Chick Lit" featuring authors such as Lauren Baratz-Logsted (The Thin Pink Line), Jennifer Colburn (The Wife of Reilly and Reinventing Mona), Arielle Papa (On the Verge), Heather Swain (Eliot's Banana), Caren Lissner (Carrie Pilby) and Me - of course.

The reason this book is called "This IS Chick Lit" is because there's an anthology by a group of authors called "This is NOT Chick Lit" coming to a book store near you. Now, I don't know if you all know about the brewing debate about Chick Lit, but it basically goes like this:

There are some women writers who resent their fiction being labeled as "chick lit" and feel it's demeaning and undercuts their literary credibility. There are other writers - like me - who don't really care what you call it, as long as readers find and enjoy said books.

The dueling short story anthologies point out the differences in both camps. Personally, my general philosophy is to write for readers, not write for critics, so I don't really care how derisive the New York Times is of girly covers. I mean, I'm not writing for them. But that's just my two cents.

Anyway, look for This is Chick Lit, coming soon!

2 comments:

caralockwood said...

Hi Chris!

Thanks for writing!

I've had book signings in the burbs in the past, but I'm not sure about this year. It's really all up to my publisher to negotiate those. I'll definitely let you know as soon as I do.

All best,
Cara

Samantha said...

Why is it that this summer (the season of my pouring through book after book) I can't find the time to get to any of them (stupid new job)...and all my favorites (authors) are just pumping books out? I love that most of you have myspace pages now...it makes access and questions much, much easiers.
I bought "I Did" and it's next in the stack...maybe I'll get to it this week.
Have a good week!