Author Interview: Meredith Schorr

Hello all! Today I've got Meredith Schorr on the blog, whose new novel, A State of Jane, was released earlier this month and I can't wait to read it! From what I can tell, Jane Frank is a heroine who's oh so relatable. Read on to find out more about Meredith and to learn a fabulous new term she coined. Let me just say: Balpha. So brilliant. Sorry to be so cryptic. Don't mind me. And away we go...

Here's a little teaser from A State of Jane's back cover:

"Jane Frank is ready to fall in love.  It's been a year since her long term relationship ended and far too long since the last time she was kissed.  With the LSAT coming up she needs to find a long term boyfriend (or husband) before acing law school and becoming a partner in her father's law firm. There's just one problem: All of the guys in New York City are flakes.  They seemingly drop off the face of the earth with no warning and no explanation.  Should she join her best friend Marissa in singlehood, making cupcakes and watching True Blood?  Or should she follow her co-worker Andrew's advice and turn the game on those who scorned her? As Jane attempts to juggle her own responsibilities and put up with the problems of everyone around her, she starts to realize the dating life isn't as easy as she originally thought."

LM: I hear that! Welcome to my blog, Meredith. I hear you work as a paralegal. Did you interview a lot of lawyers about the LSAT and the quest for partnership?

MS: Actually, no.  I’ve been a paralegal for 15 years and in that time, I’ve met and worked with so many lawyers and aspiring lawyers that it really wasn’t necessary to do extra research.

LM: The cover of A State of Jane is fabulously eye catching. Could you tell us a little about what it represents?

MS: I am so glad you like the cover!  The spinning globe and falling objects from the book shelf represent a lack of control which is exactly what happens to my main character, Jane Frank, when her life plan veers way off track.  When a Type A loses control, it isn’t pretty!

LM: I'll bet! Now, that bit in your blurb about “turning the game back on those who scorned her” is certainly intriguing! Any hints as to what that might entail?

MS: I don’t want to give too much away but I will say that after one too many guys flake on Jane without any warning, after initially showing so much interest, she becomes quite keen on turning the tables.

LM: That's fabulous. Tell me, how is A State of Jane different from Just Friends With Benefits? How are the two novels similar?

MS: Well, both books are similar in that they are light, fun, humorous reads.  They are also similar in that the characters are realistic and the problems they face are relatable to women everywhere.  The main difference, I think, is that while both books are chick lit, Just Friends With Benefits contains a strong romantic element and A State of Jane does not. 

LM: How long ago did you start writing?

MS: I took my first writing course in 2002 or 2003 focusing on short stories and then I spent a couple of years blogging, but I did not start writing my first novel, Just Friends With Benefits, until 2008.

LM: Did you always want to be an author or did you get there by a roundabout way?

MS: I definitely did not always want to be an author. In fact, one of my older sisters used to write some of my assignments back in school!  My love of the craft first started in my role as a trademark paralegal. I enjoyed writing to my clients and loved receiving comments that I had exceptional writing skills.  That is when I began writing creatively.  I had no idea at the time that I would someday be a published author.  I count my blessings almost every day for discovering my passion for writing as it brings me more happiness than almost anything else I do.

LM: Aww, that's so wonderful to hear. Tell me: Do you have any wild or wacky writing quirks?

MS: I’m not sure this qualifies as a “quirk” but I do a lot of writing on my phone and my iPod touch.  It is less intimidating to fill a small screen with words as it is a large screen.  And it’s very convenient for writing on the go!

LM: Who are some of your favorite authors?

MS: Emily Giffin, although I have not read her most recent yet, is one of my favorites.  I also really enjoy Sophie Kinsella, Julie Buxbaum and Adena Halpern. Although these are the more well-known authors in my genre, I’ve recently been made aware of some great new authors including but definitely not limited to Tracie Banister, Natalie Aaron, Denise Grover Swank and Samantha Stroh Bailey.  I’m excited to read your book too!   

LM: Thanks! I hope you like it. What's your all-time favorite opening line?

MS: “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” - J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

LM:  Nice one. What’s your ultimate professional dream? Bestselling author status? Hollywood film adaptation? Total world domination? All of the above?

MS: I would really just like to make enough money writing that I could do it full time. I would love to have a nice-sized loyal readership. And, of course, I always cast who would play my characters in a movie or television show, you know, just in case :-)

LM: I hear that! What's your next project? Can you give us a little teaser of what’s to come?

MS: I am working on revisions of my 3^rd novel, also chick lit.  I don’t want to give much away, but the main character is actually a part time popular chick lit book reviewer/blogger who finds herself being asked to review the book of her high school nemesis.  There is also a romance.

LM: I love the sound of that. So much built in conflict! Okay, now let's move on to a little something I call "pick one". First question: Plotter or Pantser? 

SM: I am primarily a panster.  I have a general idea of how the novel will end but how it happens is mostly a mystery.  I think it’s more fun that way.

LM: Character first or Plot first?

MS: Hmm, I’ve never actually thought about it.  I would say I come up with the general plot first and then tweak it depending on the characters I create.

LM: Mac or PC? 

MS: PC

LM: Edit as you go or Power Through and Edit Later?

MS: Both! I edit while I write and then I edit again when I am finished.

LM: Morning person or Night owl? 

MS: During the week I am a morning person – I get up early to go to the gym and like to go to bed by 11.  On the weekends, I am more of a night owl.  I stay out later at night and love to sleep in.  I try to revolve my Saturday afternoon schedule around sleeping late!

LM: Coffee or Tea? 

MS: Coffee

LM: Coke or Pepsi?

MS: Neither, not a fan of soft drinks.

LM:  Sandals or Stilettos? 

MS: Both depending on the occasion.  I save Stilettos for special occasions and when I want to look super sexy.  Otherwise, sandals are much more comfortable!

LM: Diamonds or Pearls? 

MS: Diamonds

LM: Snow-capped mountain or Sandy beach? 

MS: Sandy beach

LM: Cowboys or CEOs?

MS: I don’t really have a “type” so it’s difficult to say. If Bradley Cooper showed up at my door, I would let him in whether he was wearing a cowboy hat/ boots and nicely fitted jeans or a designer suit.  I do like intelligent guys, but I wouldn’t make assumptions that CEOs are any smarter than cowboys.

LM: Ginger or Mary Ann? 

MS: Mary Ann.  I feel like Ginger tried too hard whereas Mary Ann was sexy without being so in your face.

LM: Superman or Batman? 

MS: Superman – I loved Christopher Reeve!

LM: Alpha heroes or Beta heroes? 

MS: May I have a little bit of both, please?  Is there such a thing as a “Balpha”?  I like a hero who is supportive and expressive yet also strong and protective.  Sexy for sure and he has to be funny. I also appreciate a man who can be aggressive and take-charge but easy going and laid back is also a nice quality.  *sigh*

LM: Austen or the Brontes? 

MS: To be honest, I am not a fan of either.  I am ducking for cover in case you want to throw things at me.  It’s not that I dislike either of these authors, but I haven’t read any of their work.

LM: Hehe. No worries. Mr. Darcy or Captain Butler?  

MS: I would have to go with Rhett Butler.  Mostly because I did not read Pride & Prejudice and loved Gone With The Wind.  That being said, I do love Colin Firth and am aware that he played Mr. Darcy in the BBC adaption so I might need to reconsider my answer…

LM: Well there you have it, folks. I hope all of you are as excited about reading A State of Jane as I am. Meredith, thanks so much for stopping by!

How to find Meredith Schorr:

Meredith's blog

Twitter

Facebook

Purchase A State of Jane:

Amazon (print)

Amazon (e-book)

Barnes and Noble

Can't Even Think of a Title for This Post!

Hello, my dearest lovelies.

I am trying to decide on a title for my first ever self-published book and I'm having the hardest time with it! I'd love to get your opinion on this. Here's the skinny on the book, a romance/chick lit hybrid:

Maya is a former NY fashion designer who's run out of town because of a scandal. She reinvents herself as a fabric artist in San Francisco and is commissioned to do an installation at a dot com headquarters in Silicon Valley. Derek is the wunderkind tech entrepreneur who Maya goes to work for. He's a crazy workaholic - Maya describes him as a cold, robotic, superhuman android type. The story begins with her already in San Francisco, so the scandal stuff is in the past.

The cover will lean more towards chick lit than romance (even though Derek will be on there) and so I thought maybe the title should be more romantic. I'm afraid of irritating chick lit fans who might think there's too much romance in it so thought the title should maybe clue them in to the content. Then again, the blurb will do that...

Decisions, decisions.

Okay, here are some title options:

Woven

Woven Fabric

Butterfly Threads

Interlacing Threads

But Robots Can't Cuddle

Reinventing Maya

Masquerading as Maya

Maya 2.0

Which one would you pick? None of the above? If there are two or three of them that you like, please let me know. Many thanks!!!

Love,
Libby

Author Interview: Tracie Banister

Folks, today I've got Tracie Banister on the blog, author of the brand new novel, In Need of Therapy. I've just finished reading her first one, Blame it on the Fame, and let me tell you, it's a hilarious tale of five very different Academy Award nominees during the run-up to their big night. Packed with LOL moments and a few oh-no-she-didn'ts, I loved it and I can't wait to read In Need of Therapy. And now, without any further ado...

LM: Welcome, Tracie. Please tell us a bit about your new novel, In Need of Therapy.

TB: I think my book blurb says it best: 

Lending a sympathetic ear and dispensing sage words of advice is all part of the job for psychologist Pilar Alvarez, and she's everything a good therapist should be: warm, compassionate, supportive. She listens, she cares, and she has all the answers, but how's the woman everyone turns to in their hour of need supposed to cope when her own life starts to fall apart?

While working hard to make a success of her recently-opened practice in trendy South Beach, Pilar must also find time to cater to the demands of her boisterous Cuban family, which includes younger sister Izzy, an unemployed, navel-pierced wild child who can't stay out of trouble, and their mother, a beauty queen turned drama queen who's equally obsessed with her fading looks and getting Pilar married before it's "too late." Although she'd like to oblige her mother and make a permanent love connection, Pilar's romantic prospects look grim. Her cheating ex, who swears that he's reformed, is stalking her. A hunky, but strictly off-limits, patient with a bad-boy appeal and intimacy issues is making passes. And the sexy shrink in the suite across the hall has a gold band on his left ring finger.

When a series of personal and professional disasters lead Pilar into the arms of one of her unsuitable suitors, she's left shaken, confused, and full of self-doubt. With time running out, she must make sense of her feelings and learn to trust herself again so that she can save her business, her family, and most importantly, her heart.

LM: Sounds fabulous. Have you worked as a therapist? If not, what was the research process like?

TB: I seriously considered psychology as a career and took several fascinating classes on the subject in school, but in the end I decided that I didn't have the patience to be a good therapist (I always want to tell people what to do and get very frustrated when they don't follow my excellent advice!) I've also been to therapy myself, so I know how psychologists operate and what the whole therapeutic process is like. So, the only research I really had to do was into specific psychological issues like Transference or Hypochondria or Sudden Wealth Syndrome.

LM: Hm. I wouldn't mind having Sudden Wealth Syndrome. Tell me, did you find it challenging to write from the POV of a Latina?

TB: Not really. I thrive on writing for characters who have different backgrounds, family dynamics, personalities, and careers than mine. Putting myself in someone else's shoes is fun! With Pilar, I enjoyed turning the whole Latina stereotype (loud, brash, vulgar) on its head and making the character really smart, grounded, career-oriented, and classy.

LM: Inquiring minds want to know: who would play Pilar in the film adaptation?

TB: I always pictured Pilar as Eva Mendes because Eva is sexy and pretty without being intimidating. Plus, Eva has this lovely, warm smile and kind eyes, just as I imagined someone as nurturing as Pilar would.

LM: How is In Need of Therapy different from Blame it on the Fame? How are the two novels similar?

TB: Both novels have humor and romance; they just vary in tone. The humor in my first book, Blame it on the Fame, is more biting as that story is set in Hollywood where there's a lot of competitiveness going on. And In Need of Therapy, the humor arises more from the situations the heroine finds herself in both personally and professionally. One big difference in the books is that Blame has some spicy language and love scenes while Therapy is much tamer in that regard. I'd like to think that books one and two are equally fast-paced and fun.

LM: I'm sure there are. Tell us - how long ago did you start writing?

TB: I can't remember a time when I didn't write! I was writing plays when I was in elementary school, multi-part stories in junior high, and literary analyses in high school. I started work on my first novel (Historical Romance if you can believe it!) when I was 20. So, writing has always been a very big, important part of my life.

LM: Did you always want to be an author or did you get there by a roundabout way?

TB: I always considered myself to be a writer, but I didn't think about writing to get published until about 8 years ago when my long-time job came to an end. Friends and family encouraged me to devote myself full-time to my writing and really make an effort to get my work published. Once I started down that track, there was no turning back!

LM: I hear ya. Do you have any wild or wacky writing quirks?

TB: I don't know about any of my quirks being wild or wacky, but I am a creature of habit. I always write in the same place (at my desk in my office), I always wear my Old Navy hoodie cardigan (which I call "my writing sweater"), and I always drink the same thing when I'm working (Lemon La Croix - I'm convinced that the carbonation stimulates my imagination!) Oh, and I always touch the head of my Shakespeare paperweight, which my brother bought for me in Stratford-on-Avon, before I started writing. For luck or inspiration, I'm not sure which.

LM: Cool. Who are some of your favorite authors?

TB: Of all time? Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Georgette Heyer, and Shakespeare. The author who made me want to become a writer was Kathleen Woodiwiss. I discovered her in my late teens and fell in love with her strong female characters and the well-developed romances in her books. The modern-day authors who inspire me are Lauren Willig, Gail Carriger, Elizabeth Peters, Nora Roberts, and Janet Evanovich.

LM: What's your all-time favorite opening line?

TB: It doesn't get any better than Pride and Prejudice: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

LM: I totally agree. What a brilliant opening line. What's your ultimate professional dream? Bestselling author status? Hollywood film adaptation? Total world domination? All of the above?

TB: Since I'm such a visual person and a lifelong fan of the movies, I'd say that seeing one of my books brought to life on the big screen would be the biggest thrill I could imagine. Heck, I'd be thrilled to see one of my books turned into a Hallmark Channel movie! :-)

LM: What's your next project? Can you give us a little teaser of what's to come?

TB: My next project is a still-untitled Chick Lit novel about two sisters who are polar opposites and live in San Francisco. I can't say anything more without getting spoilery, but I can promise plenty of comedy, romance, cute guys, and even cuter dogs.

LM: Ooh, I can't wait to read it. Now let's move onto a little something I'm calling "pick one".
Plotter or Pantser?

TB: I'm both actually, so call me a "Plotty Pantser!"

LM: Character first or Plot first?

TB: I almost always start with a premise first, then the characters just naturally spring to mind.

LM: Mac or PC?

TB: I used a Mac way before it was cool, but they're too pricey for me now. So, a PC is this struggling writer's computer of choice.

LM: Edit as you go or Power through and edit later?

TB: Edit as I go.

LM: Morning person or Night owl?

TB: I've always been a morning person.

LM: Coffee or Tea?

TB: Tea. Must be the British blood from my grandmother's side of the family.

LM: Coke or Pepsi?

TB: I live in Atlanta, which is where Coca Cola headquarters is located, so I'd probably be ejected from the state if I didn't say Coke. I'm drinking a Diet Caffeine Free Coke right now.

LM: Sandals or Stilettos?

TB: Neither, really. I'm more of a sneakers girl.

LM: Diamonds or Pearls?

TB: Diamonds. They're my birthstone!

LM: Snow-capped mountain or Sandy beach?

TB: Snow-capped mountain all the way. I'm a big fan of cold weather.

LM: Cowboys or CEOs?

TB: CEOs, definitely. I love a man in an expensive designer suit.

LM: Ginger or Mary Ann?

TB: Ginger. She had a better wardrobe!

LM: Superman or Batman?

TB: Batman. Superman is too much of a goody two-shoes!

LM: Alpha heroes or Beta heroes?

TB: It really depends on the story. I like to read and write about both.

LM: Austen or the Brontes?

TB: This is like Sophie's Choice! I'll go with Austen as she's my all-time favorite writer.

LM: Mr. Darcy or Captain Butler?

TB: Captain Butler, of course! I love a snarky bad boy! :-)

LM: Tracie, thank you so much for stopping by and telling us about your new book.

TB: Thanks so much for having me on your blog today, Libby!

Where you can find Tracie Banister:

Tracie's blog
Twitter
Facebook

Purchase In Need of Therapy:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Purchase Blame it on the Fame:
Amazon

The Girly Book Blog Hop

Hello everyone! I'm hosting my very first blog hop this month. Should be a riot. Here's the info:

If your protagonist and her love interest and/or antagonist are the meat and potatoes that go in a hearty stew, then your secondary characters are the ingredients that make it truly delish. Maybe they add a little subtle favor, or maybe they give it a fiery hot kick. Maybe they make your meal unforgettable - beef stew with molasses and raisins anyone?

Who could ever forget Shazzer from the Bridget Jones books? Or Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair? Or Grandma Mazur from the Stephanie Plum books?

Let's blog about secondary characters. Tell us what you love about the sidekicks in your book or a fabulous secondary character from another novel. Or both! Have fun with it.

If you'd like to participate, please be prepared to offer a prize to one lucky guest hopper. Apart from that, you can do whatever you want regarding the giveaway (have your guests answer a particular question, follow your blog or whatnot). 

Everyone is welcome to participate - authors (both published and not-published-yet), bloggers and reviewers are welcome too. Anyone who loves books and has something to say about secondary characters, I'd love to have you!

Please let me know if you have any questions - feel free to post 'em below. I'll be sending out more detailed instructions once the sign up link is closed. 

Hope to see you at the hop!

Love,

Libby

Gotta Love a Makeover!

It was time to change things up, so I thought I'd play around with blog colors and make things a bit more fresh. I know it's a lot of pinky purple, but I suppose I'm in a pinky purple kind of mood. :-)

Many apologies for neglecting the blog so much as of late. I've got a lot going on these days with three different writing projects in various stages. One finished and in edits with Musa, one finished that I've decided to self-publish this December, and one only just started. I've got my hands full, but I love it!

I've got some fun things in store for the blog in the next month, so be sure to check back soon.

Love,
Libby