By: Karen Cioffi,
on 7/4/2014
Social media is such a useful tool - if you don't get carried away with it and waste too much precious time. Why it's useful is you can find fresh content at your finger tips from those you follow, connect with, or like. That's how I found a must-read post, "Big Changes on Amazon Categories" from Author Marketing Experts. I found it at GooglePlus. It seems Amazon made changes to its book
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By: Wow!,
on 2/1/2010
Author Blog Tour & Book Giveaway Comments Contest!
Elisa Lorello grew up on Long Island, NY as the baby to six older siblings. Growing up during the '80s, Elisa covered her walls with Duran Duran posters and used lots of hairspray. She explored many passions, including drawing, tennis, and music, but in her early 20's, exercised her gossiping skills while working as a manicurist.
In 1995, Elisa left Long Island to attend the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth for both her bachelor and master's degrees. In 2000, as part of her graduate education in Professional Writing, she became a teaching associate, and met two professors of rhetoric and composition who took her under their wings. This union of teaching, rhetoric, and writing ultimately became Elisa's calling, and remains so to this day. She now lives in North Carolina where she teaches academic writing at North Carolina State.
In 2004, Elisa began her first novel, Faking It. Since then, Elisa has written a sequel, Ordinary World, and is currently co-writing a third novel with a friend and former student. That is, when she can tear herself away from her favorite form of entertainment--Facebook.
Find our more about Elisa by visiting her websites:
Elisa's website: www.ElisaLorello.com
Elisa's blog: I'll Have What She's Having
Twitter: twitter.com/elisalorello
Facebook: Faking It Fans
Ordinary World
By Elisa Lorello
Andi Vanzant had everything she wanted--a husband, a home, a job she loved, a cat named Donny Most. Then a drunk college student plowed into her husband's car and she lost everything...except the cat.
Andi's faced with a nightmare world and the work of trying to transform it into an ordinary world. She's certain that life will never be ordinary again but begins to find her way with the help of an unlikely support group that spans the world--a widowed mother on Long Island, a supportive boss in Massachusetts, an old boyfriend in Italy, and a fortune telling housewife in Peru.
Ordinary World is the story of a woman accepting losses and embracing gifts. To some degree it is the story every woman fears and every woman must some day live.
Genre: Chick Lit/Women's Fiction
ASIN: B002VECPYM
Ordinary World is available in both print and Kindle versions.
Video (below):
By: Kelly Fineman,
on 4/29/2007
Today was a difficult day. Unlike in Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, however, tomorrow will not be better. Today was difficult because we got a new puppy. An adorable, fuzzy black puppy, who is sweet and loving and loveable and a complete time suck of a being. Until said puppy, whose name may or may not be Wally, is house-broken, my life will consist of a lot of ins and outs (and ins and outs) and cleaning up mess. But I digress.
Tomorrow, as you know, is the last day of April and hence the last day of National Poetry Month. I'll be ending the month with my promised interview with Adam Selzer, author of How to Get Suspended and Influence People, which I reviewed yesterday. For those wondering, I read the book and loved it so much that I contacted Adam and asked if he'd let me interview him. So I'm not pandering a book for an established friend. More like I'm pandering for an interview with someone whose work I already admire. Just in case any of you are in the Read Roger camp on these sorts of thing. Which I doubt.
Today, I'm sharing a poem by A.E. Housman. It is a hopeful sort of poem, I think. And because it is late, and I am tired, and I think this one is so clear and perfect, that nothing more need be said:
Stars, I Have Seen Them Fall
by A.E. Housman
Stars, I have seen them fall,
&emsp But when they drop and die
No star is lost at all
&emsp From all the star-sown sky.
The toil of all that be
&emsp Helps not the primal fault;
It rains into the sea,
&emsp And still the sea is salt.
By: Kelly Fineman,
on 4/29/2007
Today was a difficult day. Unlike in Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, however, tomorrow will not be better. Today was difficult because we got a new puppy. An adorable, fuzzy black puppy, who is sweet and loving and loveable and a complete time suck of a being. Until said puppy, whose name may or may not be Wally, is house-broken, my life will consist of a lot of ins and outs (and ins and outs) and cleaning up mess. But I digress.
Tomorrow, as you know, is the last day of April and hence the last day of National Poetry Month. I'll be ending the month with my promised interview with Adam Selzer, author of How to Get Suspended and Influence People, which I reviewed yesterday. For those wondering, I read the book and loved it so much that I contacted Adam and asked if he'd let me interview him. So I'm not pandering a book for an established friend. More like I'm pandering for an interview with someone whose work I already admire. Just in case any of you are in the Read Roger camp on these sorts of thing. Which I doubt.
Today, I'm sharing a poem by A.E. Housman. It is a hopeful sort of poem, I think. And because it is late, and I am tired, and I think this one is so clear and perfect, that nothing more need be said:
Stars, I Have Seen Them Fall
by A.E. Housman
Stars, I have seen them fall,
&emsp But when they drop and die
No star is lost at all
&emsp From all the star-sown sky.
The toil of all that be
&emsp Helps not the primal fault;
It rains into the sea,
&emsp And still the sea is salt.
I have long wondered how to categorize my writing. This article gave me much needed insight therefore giving me a little more focus but more importantly inspired me to not worry about it, keep writing and let my publisher decide. Thanks ladies!
Thanks for this interview. As I begin the agent search, I have been very confused about the lines between chick lit/women's fiction/literary fiction. I am glad there is some grey in between.
avinn888-
By all means keep writing, and write the best story you can, but when it's time to query agents, do your homework and let them know that you understand the distinctions between this genre. They want to make sure you understand the market rather than your leaving it all up to them. Agents are looking for authors who will actively participate in making their book a success!
This discussion is timely, as I'm trying to figure out how to classify my project. I'm editing my grandfather's diaries from the Russo-Japanese War, during which period he was sentenced to death 4 times (this forms the spine of the book). He was also involved in a plot to assassinate the czar, as well as other underground activities. I would never call it a "memoir" because my grandfather is dead and I can't ask him questions, plus I'm editing it, which not only involves shortening it but will require my writing a new opening chapter (in his voice) that will contain the relevant information presented during the first 5 chapters.
I suppose this is what is known as "Narrative NonFiction," or "Creative Nonfiction," but when I've walked into a bookstore to ask where that section is located, I end up having to explain all of the above and then often get directed to "Memoirs," or "History." (I should see where In Cold Blood in shelved, but that has become so mainstream it might even be shelved in Fiction). What do you think?
A cat named Donny Most? As in Happy Days?
That's too funny. I love it.
[email protected]
Bryna-
First of all, WOW! Your project sounds fascinating. Second of all, WOW! I can see where you'd have difficulty placing it. Creative nonfiction can cross over several genres, including memoir and personal essay, but your project sounds like historical memoir. Is there such a category? I don't know -- it's possible I just made it up. But if you're querying agents (and the good thing about nonfiction is that you can submit a proposal w/out having completed the manuscript), that might be the way to go.
Best of luck with it!
:)
LuAnn, that's pretty much the reaction everyone in the book has. I love it too. In fact, I would so want that cat.
If I could just make two minor clarifications. I never grew up in New York City, but rather the Long Island suburbs. It's true that Long Islanders call Manhattan and the five boroughs "the city", or they call them and Long Island "New York" and the rest of New York "Upstate", as if that's its name, but Long Island was always my home turf.
Also, I sucked at gossip while I was a manicurist and gave it up rather early -- found other conversations much more productive, as did my clients. (Although those were the OJ Simpson and Amy Fisher days, and those topics were inescapable. Man, I just outed my age, huh...)
:)
I'm drawn to books for so many reasons. I love books set in the NY metro area and even more books by authors from that area, since I grew up on Long Island too.
I love women's fiction (and chick-lit).
I'm intrigued by all the locales mentioned, and wondering how Elisa is able to weave her plot across those settings.
Ordinary World sounds like an interesting read.
Hi Patricia-
*Faking It* opens with Andi recently moving back to NY after having spent years in MA. Add her daily commute and suddenly I had multiple locations to work with. Most of Faking It takes place in Manhattan, while Ordinary World took place mostly in the Boston area.
The plot kind of weaved itself, I think. There's a lot of commuting and movement from place to place, but not in a way that makes the reader feel disoriented. It worked out really well, actually, because it allowed the characters to figure out where they really belonged.
I don't know if I answered your question, but I hope you'll pick up the books! Faking It especially pays homage to a lot of locales on Long Island. :)
Melissa Sarno, thanks for your comment, and good luck with your writing!