Chick Lit Author Blog Hop 2012 - The Incomparable Bernadette Strachan

A few years ago, I was browsing in Borders (RIP Borders) when I happened upon a book with the most adorable cover. It featured a woman with flippy hair, a flippy skirt, a little dog and a parasol amidst several colorful beach umbrellas. Naturally I picked up this book, Little White Lies by Bernadette Strachan. I read the back copy, smiled and headed straight for the register.

Fast-forward a couple of months and I was the proud owner of all the books Ms. Strachan had had published.  And she had become one of my all-time favorite authors.

I’m really not sure what I love best about her writing. It’s got to be a toss up between her outrageous characters and her hilarious turns of phrase.  Just to pick a couple of examples at random, Ms. Strachan creates memorable characters such as Blair Taylor, the perma-tanned television host from Handbags and Halos who’s addicted to astrology readings and colonic irrigations and Sister Jane, the rabble-rousing nun from Diamonds and Daisies whose fierce competitive side bursts through during a piggyback race scene.

Here are a couple of snippets I found just now as I was flipping through my books:

“Like Marmite and Barbara Streisand, beach huts divide people into two distinct camps. You either love them or you hate them.  Billie loathed Marmite and the way it made her breath smell of the undead; Ms. Streisand’s heavy-handed way with a ballad gave her the dry heaves; but she loved beach huts. She was mad about their cheerful décor, their dinky dimensions and their unabashed kiss-me-quick vulgarity.”

From Little White Lies

“The arthritic wheezing of the buses circling the green hissed minibreak.  Yehudi’s bow scratched out the word on his violin, and the birds twittered, minbreak, minibreak as they squabbled over worms in the grass.  Or so it seemed to Ruby as she made her way to Drama Queen’s.”

From How to Lose a Husband and Gain a Life

I ask you, have you ever heard of a more creative way to convey the fact that someone needed a vacation?!

Not that Ms. Strachan’s books are all light-hearted tales of the candy-in-the-sky variety. Not even close. Her characters deal with all sorts of issues including abandonment, disgrace, infidelity, homelessness, homophobia, disability and more. But the stories unfold in such a delightful and fresh way, they’re anything but heavy. Not to mention the plot twists. Ms. Strachan’s books are anything but predictable.  I can’t praise this fabulous writer enough, but I’d better stop before I get carried away. Highly recommended!

Love,

Libby

And now for the prizes!  Leave a comment below with your name and email address and you'll be entered to win a copy of my ebook, Fashioning a Romance, which is coming out this Friday!

And for a chance to win the Chick Lit Author Blog Hop Grand Prize of a $150 Sephora gift card, here's what you need to do:

1. Collect all 34 secret words. There will be secret words hidden in each of the blog posts on the hop, and they'll be italicized, so they're easy to locate. Hint: mine is pink as well. Figured I'd better do that since I italicized the book titles.

2. Submit your list of 34 secret words to CLABlogHop@aol.com before midnight on Sunday, May 20th and you'll be entered into the Grand Prize drawing!

3. The Grand Prize winner will be announced on Monday, May 21 and the $150 Sephora gift card can be redeemed online or at any Sephora store in the US.  The contest is open to US residents only.

Below is the Linky list with all 34 participating authors' blogs. You'll have an opportunity to win a different ebook at each blog hop stop. Happy hopping!!