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The next gal making the rounds in the Girlfriend Cyber Circuit is Shanna Swendson, (shanna_s) author of fairy tales for modern times like DAMSEL UNDER STRESS and the recently released DON'T HEX WITH TEXAS!



A Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Original
May 2008, 304 pages, $14.00
ISBN 978-0-345-49293-7

    Katie Chandler has fled fast-paced Manhattan and returned home to a simpler life, working at her family’s feed-and-seed store in Cobb, Texas.  In a painfully selfless gesture, Katie left the sexy wizard Owen Palmer to battle his demons in the magical realm—after all, she just seemed to attract evil, which only made Owen’s job a lot harder.  But now, it seems, trouble has followed her home.  Despite the fact that Merlin, Katie’s former boss at Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc., has assured her that Cobb is free of enchantment, magically speaking, Katie begins to notice curious phenomena.

    Cobb is being plagued by a series of unexplainable petty crimes and other devilish mischief, and after her experiences in Manhattan, Katie knows “unauthorized magic” when she sees it.  As this new dark magic strikes deep in the heart of Texas, Owen reappears (literally) to investigate.  Now Katie’s friends and family must show the bad guys why it’s bad luck to hex with Texas, while Katie and Owen combine their strengths like never before to uncover a sinister plot before evil takes root in the Lone Star State.

    Swendson’s contemporary urban fantasy novels have enchanted fans of romance, chick lit and fantasy alike.  DON’T HEX WITH TEXAS—and don’t miss what Booklist calls “one of the best romantic-fantasy series being written today”!

Click here to read an excerpt!

Welcome, Shanna! Grab some coffee, get comfy in the beautician’s chair, and let’s get down to the gossip.

What’s the most regrettable hairstyle you’ve ever had? Any mullets? Rat tails?

I have curly hair and didn’t learn how to deal with it until I was out of college. I didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to brush it once it was dry, and my mother thought that my hair had to stay short or else the weight of long hair would pull the curl out of it, so I spent my childhood and teen years with truly unfortunate hair. It was too short to curl properly, and I kept trying to brush it into submission, so I tended to have a big, poofy cloud of bushy hair. My high school nick name was “bird nest.”

What hair styling product can you not live without?

Conditioner. Without it, I would strangle in the knots created in my mass of hair.

How long have you been with your current stylist and what are your appointment conversations like—chatty and personal, or quiet and professional?

I just had to switch stylists because my former one vanished without a trace. Even the salon doesn’t know what happened to her. That was a real crisis because I have trouble finding people who can deal with curly hair, and I loved this stylist. We had nice, long chats during appointments, so I was surprised that I never heard from her when she left the salon. I discovered that she’d gone missing when I called for an urgent appointment before my book release and a big awards ceremony weekend.

But I think I like the stylist I found when I tried the salon that just opened across the street from my house. It’s too soon to tell what our appointments conversations will be like.

In my novel, the ladies have fun answering the “Hypothetical Questions of the Week” from their favorite tabloid. So here are some for you:

HQ #1: For one day, time travel is a reality and you have the opportunity to visit any famous deceased author you want. Who do you pick?

I’d love to hang out with C.S. Lewis for a while. The Narnia books were a major influence on me when I was a kid, and as an adult I’ve enjoyed his theological writings. I’m curious about what he was really like as a person.

HQ #2: You magically find a $100.00 bill in your box of cereal. In what frivolous way would you spend it?

I’d head straight to the bookstore and load up on the books that I’ve been curious about but haven’t bought because I couldn’t justify spending the money.

HQ #3: Paparazzi are stalking you, looking for shots of odd things authors do while writing. What do they catch you doing, hmm?

They would die of boredom watching me stare into space for hours on end. They might occasionally catch me bursting into song for no apparent reason.

HQ #4: If you followed the career path you chose for yourself in high school, what would you be doing for a living now?

I’m doing exactly what I really wanted to do when I was in high school, but if I was doing what I told people I wanted to do, I’d be a globe-trotting television reporter (my degree is in broadcast journalism).

HQ #5: If you could go back in time and make changes to any of your published books, would you? If so, which one and why?

Most of the changes I want to make are minor, just wording tweaks. But I did learn after this new book (Don’t Hex with Texas) was written that my publisher didn’t want the last book I’d planned for completing the series, so I suppose I wish I could go back in time and write that last book instead of this one so the series could end properly. Still, though, I really love this book and I would hate to erase it from existence, so I live in hope that eventually the publisher will want to finish the series.

The Lightening Round—no more than two words per answer!

Do you . . .
    Outline or wing it?     Both!
    Talk about works-in-progress, or keep your trap shut?     Some talk
    Sell by proposal or completed draft?     It depends
     Love to edit or cringe at the thought?     Love editing
    Prefer writing a new book or marketing the old?     Both
    Write better at home or in a coffee shop?     Home alone
    Read your released book or no thanks, I’ve read it enough?     No, thanks!

And finally, what’s your favorite . . .
    Time to write?    Late afternoon
    Movie?   I can’t possibly pick one – it depends on my mood
    Book?   To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis
    Author?   Connie Willis
    Song?   Another one I can’t possibly pick. I have different songs that strike me at different times.
    Pair of shoes?   The Infamous Red Stilettos – a pair of candy-apple red patent heels I bought to reward myself for selling the first book in the series that ended up inspiring the second book in the series. They’re my power shoes that I wear to major events when I want to make a splash.
    Guiltiest pleasure?   Sci Fi Friday – I love it when the Sci Fi Channel has a good Friday-night line-up, like now when they’ve got The Sarah Jane Adventures, Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica. I make a good TV-watching dinner, like pizza, some snacks and a dessert, then spend the evening bonding with my sofa. And then I get online to discuss it all.
    Line from a movie?    “We’ll always have Paris.”

More about the Author:

SHANNA SWENDSON escaped the corporate rat race to be a novelist and pop culture essayist.  She is the author of Enchanted, Inc. and Once Upon Stilettos, in addition to contributing essays to books about television series, authors, and novels.  When she’s not writing or watching television and movies so she can write about them, she enjoys cooking, traveling, and singing.  Visit her web site at www.shannaswendson.com.

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he next gal making the rounds on the Girlfriend Cyber Circuit is Sara Hantz!  Sara is the author of THE SECOND VIRGINITY OF SUZY GREEN, a 2008 New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age pick.



Suzy Green used to be one of the coolest nonconformist “almost-Goth” party girls in Australia. That was before her older sister Rosie died and her family moved to a new town. Not even her best friend would recognize her now. Gone are the Doc Martens and the attitude. All she wants is to be like Rosie—perfect. The new Suzy Green makes straight As, hangs with the in-crowd at her new school, and dates the hottest guy around. And since all her new friends belong to a virginity club, she joins, too. So what if she’s not technically qualified? Nobody in town knows . . . until Ryan, Suzy’s ex, turns up.

As the past and present collide, Suzy struggles to find her own place in a world without her sister.

Publisher: Flux
ISBN-10: 073871139X
ISBN-13: 978-0738711393

"I loved this book. I read it in one sitting and could not put the book down. I think that Flux has a hit with this book. I think Suzy is more like the modern girl. She has flaws and is not perfect. Reading this book is like hearing your best friend tell you the story of her life. It is fun, sweet, and hilarious. Sara Hantz really knows how to get into the teenage mind and tells us that we are okay just the way we are. Another great addition in teen chick lit and I hope to see more with this author."--Young Adult Book Central (5 Stars!)

"This was a thoroughly enjoyable read, and really made me remember what being a teenager is like. Trying to fit in sometimes means giving up some of the things you love - Suzy finds this out the hard way. All of the characters were so well developed, and one of my favorites was Maddie, the best friend who struggles to believe all that Suzy is going through to impress her “new” crowd of friends. I applaud the author for encouraging teens to just be themselves instead of trying to be something they aren’t."--Upon Further Review

Author Bio:
Sara Hantz started writing when she ran out of degrees to study and decided it was much more fun to make things up than to comment on dry academics. Born in England, she moved to New Zealand a few years ago. The Second Virginity of Suzy Green is Sara's first novel.

To read an excerpt, go here!

Also, check out Sara's blog for more news and updates about her books!


Welcome, Sara! Grab some coffee, get comfy in the beautician’s chair, and let’s get down to the gossip.

First off, what hair styling product can you not live without?

Text It

What beauty product can you not live without?

My Clinique moisturizer

How long have you been with your current stylist and what are your appointment conversations like—chatty and personal, or quiet and professional?

I’ve been with her for two and half years, ever since I moved to the area. We have chatty and personal conversations…. I go every month so we know each other pretty well!

Here's your “Hypothetical Questions of the Week:”

HQ #1: If you could hit the rewind button, which book published by another author do you wish you could have written? Which movie screenplay?

Bridget Jones Diary and the screenplay for it

HQ #2: You magically find a $100.00 bill in your box of cereal. In what frivolous way would you spend it?

Going to the movies (several times!!)

HQ #3: Paparazzi are stalking you, looking for shots of odd things authors do while writing. What do they catch you doing, hmm?

Talking to myself, dancing, working out if characters can physically do the things I have them doing.

HQ #4: You’ve been locked in a bank vault with that guy from The Twilight Zone, so you finally have time to read! What’s the first book you crack open? (And don’t worry—no one stepped on your glasses.)

Marian Keyes latest

HQ #5: If I asked the members of your critique group who you’re most like when critiquing manuscripts, would they choose Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul or Simon Cowell?

Randy Jackson (with maybe a bit of Simon thrown in)

The Lightening Round—no more than two words per answer!

Do you . . .
    Outline or wing it?     Outline
    Talk about works-in-progress, or keep your trap shut?     Keep trap shut
    Sell by proposal or completed draft?     Completed draft
    Love to edit or cringe at the thought?     Cringe
    Prefer writing a new book or marketing the old?     Writing new
    Write better at home or in a coffee shop?     Home
    Read your released book or no thanks, I’ve read it enough?     Read it

And finally, what’s your favorite . . .
    Time to write?     Morning
    Movie?     Love Actually
    Book?     To Serve Them All My Days
    Author?     Sophie Kinsella
    Song?     What are you doing the rest of your life?
    Pair of shoes?     Brown flat boots
    Guiltiest pleasure?     Marshmallows
    Line from a movie?     'Just in cases’ from Love Actually

Thanks for stopping by, Sara, and best of luck with THE SECOND VIRGINITY OF SUZY GREEN!

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Seriously, who doesn't love Carrie Jones? She's an awesome gal, awesome writer, (I'm jealous, but don't tell her, okay?) and she's running for the Maine legislature. For the total scoop, go here!

AND Carrie Jones is so sweet that she's totally forgiven her good buddy, good pal Laura Bowers for not blogging about her during her recent Girlfriend Cyber Circuit tour. (Please, Carrie? Say I'm forgiven!) I was having a week-long brain fart getting ready for our vacation to San Antonio to visit family.

Yeah, I know. Excuses, excuses. ;)

So, without further ado, here's all the juicy gossip on Carrie and her recent release, LOVE, (AND OTHER USES FOR DUCT TAPE!)




“People keep changing who they are and defining themselves by their own choices, and that’s cool most of the time, but not all the time. No, it’s not cool all the time at all."

On the heels of her stunning debut , TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (EX) BOYFRIEND, young adult author Carrie Jones continues the story of Belle Philbrick, navigating through what remains of her senior year towards a future that may hold more surprises than she could have imagined.

Love is in the air: Belle’s mom has a new boyfriend, her best friend Em and Em’s boyfriend Shawn can’t keep their hands off each other, and Belle’s ex, Dylan, is content with his new guy, Bob. As for Belle and her new (straight) boyfriend, Tom? Nada. Zip. Zilch. To all appearances, they’re the perfect couple. But Belle knows a thing or two about appearances... Carrie Jones draws a bead with her unique lens and offers her take on the sexual pursuits of teens—it’s not just about virginity. It’s about relationships. In her quirky, heartwarming style, Jones pays homage to the power of friendship and forgiveness in a culture where forgiveness seems a forgotten virtue.

“The story is honest, earthy, and appealing. BTW, it’s difficult to explain about the duct tape of the title, except that it is a charming creative medium. Jones knows about Maine, being a native, and she knows about writing (with an MFA from Vermont College.)” — Claire Rossier, KLIATT

“Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape) is on my list of Best Books of 2008 (So Far). It is just as good if not better than its predecessor. Carrie Jones allows her characters to mess up and learn from their mistakes rather than condemning them. There’s beauty in flaws, and considerant, observant Belle is just the person to see that beauty - in others, in her world, in herself.” — Best Books of February, Little Willow.

“This book, the sequel to Tips on Having a Gay (Ex)Boyfriend, made me feel like I was in high school again. It was funny and sad and wonderful. And I was reminded that the tiniest sensory details can make a book shine. The rip in the vinyl seat of a pickup truck. A crack in the sidewalk that looks like New Hampshire. I was sad when this one ended. Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape) is what a young adult novel ought to be. Challenging and thought provoking, and always real and accessible ...” — author Kate Messner

Want to read an excerpt? Go here.

Carrie Jones counts among her credits and accomplishments:

1. Winner of the Maine Literary Award, Martin Dibner Fellowship.
2. Her first book was nominated to ALA’s Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers list.
3. Numerous awards for column, editorial and sports writing and photography from the Maine Press Association.
4. Ellsworth, Maine’s youngest female city councilor.
5. Graduate of Bates College plus an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College.
6. Spoken at national and regional conferences of the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators.
7. A big fan of duct tape.

LOVE (AND OTHER USES FOR DUCT TAPE) is Carrie’s second YA novel. Her third novel, GIRL, HERO, will arrive in stores August 2008. Congratulations, sweets! I wish you the very best. :-)

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Next gal making the rounds on the Girlfriend Cyber Circuit is E. Lockhart, author of The Boyfriend List and its sequel, The Boy Book; Fly on the Wall; Dramarama; and the upcoming How to Be Bad, co-written with Lauren Myracle and Sarah Mlynowski.

In stores March 25th is The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks:




Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14:
    Debate Club.
    Her father's "bunny rabbit."
    A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15:
    A knockout figure.
    A sharp tongue.
    A chip on her shoulder.
    And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.

Frankie Laundau-Banks.
    No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer.
    Especially when "no" means she's excluded from her boyfriend's all-male secret society.
    Not when her ex boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places.
    Not when she knows she's smarter than any of them.
    When she knows Matthew's lying to her.
    And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.

Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16:
    Possibly a criminal mastermind.
    This is the story of how she got that way.

* Starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly.

"Big ideas are an essential part of the fun in this sparkling tour de force.... Lockhart (Dramarama; The Boyfriend List) dexterously juggles a number of smart and tantalizing themes—class and privilege, feminism and romance, wordplay and thought, friendship and loyalty—and combines the pacing of a mystery with writing that realizes settings and characters, large and small, with an artist’s sure hand....An exuberant, mischievous story, it scores its points memorably and lastingly."-- Publishers Weekly

Click here to read an excerpt . . .

. . . or here to buy it from Powells.

In May, she will be touring cities, including places in Georgia, Florida, Illinois, southern and northern California and Connecticut for her book, How to be Bad, co-written with Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle. Click here for tour dates and location!



Congratulations, E., for both book releases, and best of luck with your tour!

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The next gal making the rounds on the Girlfriend Cyber Circuit is Jennifer Lynn Barnes, someone I greatly admire and could possibly be my long, long, long lost relative since my maiden name is Barnes.  (Jennifer, any farmers in your family?  No?  Okay, moving on.) 

She's the author of GOLDEN, TATTOO and the new THE SQUAD series about high school cheerleaders who are more than what they seem, and an outsider who must become one of them- to save the world. Part Charlie’s Angels, part Bring It On, THE SQUAD focuses on a group of government operatives who double as high school cheerleaders. Already optioned for television by The N, The Squad takes you behind the perfect smiles and too-short skirts to prove that there’s nothing more dangerous than underestimating a cheerleader… especially if she’s on The Squad.



THE SQUAD: PERFECT COVER

Bayport High operates like any other high school - jocks at the top, outsiders at the bottom, and everyone else in between. Enter Toby Klein, a sophomore computer hacker who doesn't play well with others. She has zero school spirit, a black belt in karate, and what her guidance counselor calls an "attitude problem." She's the last person you’d expect to be invited to join the varsity cheerleading squad.
But things are different at Bayport.

Bayport's varsity cheer squad is made up of the hottest of the hot. But this A-list is dangerous in more ways than one. The Squad is actually a cover for the most highly trained group of underage government operatives the United States has ever assembled. Athletically, they're unmatchable, though they make it all look easy on the field. Mentally, they're exceptional - but with one flash of their gorgeous smiles, you'll completely forget that. Socially, they're gifted, so they can command and manipulate any situation. And above all, they have the perfect cover, because, beyond herkies and highlights, no one expects anything from a cheerleader.

Toby Klein might not seem like the most likely recruit, but she’s never been one to turn down a challenge. If she can hand the makeover, Bayport High may just have found its newest cheerleader.

Pretty, popular, armed, and extremely dangerous - meet THE SQUAD.



THE SQUAD: KILLER SPIRIT

Saying Toby Klein is an unlikely cheerleader is like saying Paris Hilton might be into guys - understatement of the year. But the varsity squad at Bayport High gives new meaning to the phrase All-American, and Toby's double life as a varsity cheerleader and a government operative means balancing protocol, pep rallies, computer hacking, and handsprings.

Now something’s about to go down in Bayport, and the Big Guys Upstairs need to know what. The Squad is on the case, but it looks like this mission could put the "L" in lethal. And if the spy business doesn't kill Toby, it’s starting to look like Brooke, the team's captain, might. The nominations are in for homecoming court, and rumor has it that Toby is the unlikely frontrunner for queen.

Terrorist threat? Bloody mission gone wrong? Demented squad captain?

Bring it on.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THE SQUAD:

"Fast, fun, and full of adventure -- you'll never look at cheerleaders the same way again." - Ally Carter, New York Times Bestselling Author of I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You and Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

“Thoroughly addicting.” –Publishers Weekly

“In addition to offering crafty plotting and time-honored typical teen conflicts and rivalries, Barnes maintains a sharp sense of humor in this action-adventure series…Give me a C, give me an I, give me an A, give me more of Toby’s adventures in espionage.” -The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“Just screaming to be turned into a television series.” –Bookshelves of Doom

“If you cross Ally Carter's spy books with Meg Cabot's THE MEDIATOR series, you've got your smart-aleck anti-social heroine kicking butt and taking names...in a cheerleader outfit. If you haven't discovered this series yet, you're really missing out.”–Teensreadtoo.com, Gold Star Award for Excellence and a Reviewer’s Choice Top Ten Pick

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jennifer Lynn Barnes is a Fulbright Scholar and a recent graduate of both Yale University and Cambridge University. A former competitive cheerleader, she was named an All-American Cheerleader by the National Cheerleaders Association in 1997. She can neither confirm nor deny any experience she may or may not have had as a secret agent, but she can tell you that in addition to the Squad series, she’s the author of three other teen novels: Golden, Tattoo, and Platinum. Jennifer wrote her first book when she was still a teenager and she is currently hard at work on her next. Visit her online at www.jenniferlynnbarnes.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Best of luck with your new series, Jennifer! 

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I've been absent from the blogoshere because of a major rewrite I'm trying to get done by Friday, so if you hear any thumping sounds this week, it's me knocking my head against the desk in frustration.

But in all of my editing madness, I forgot to blog about the latest gal making the Girlfriend  Cyber Circuit rounds, Paula Chase Hyman, author of the The Del Rio Bay Clique Series who also did a Shop Talk interview with me last May.   Check it out here!



Desperate times called for sneaky measures!

DON'T GET IT TWISTED
By Paula Chase
ISBN: 978-0758218612

“So, wait…this writing thing actually doesn’t get easier?” author Paula Chase asks. “If I’d known that I would have taken up a much easier profession like shark wrestling.” And compared to living in the minds of a clique of six teenagers, shark wrestling really may be easier.

In, DON'T GET IT TWISTED, the sequel to her debut, SO NOT THE DRAMA, Chase gives readers a peek into the Del Rio Bay clique’s foray into dating, while also dipping her toe into the issue of student athletics and cheating. Using humor and earnest insight, Chase continues the story of Mina Mooney and her mixed bag of friends.

DON'T GET IT TWISTED, [Kensington Books/Dafina for Young Readers] finds Mina scheming to go on a date with her crush, Craig, to The Frenzy, a coveted party thrown by the school’s football team. As she draws her friends into the plans, a newcomer throws an unexpected monkey wrench into her blossoming relationship with Craig.

The same newcomer has JZ sweating his spot on the Varsity basketball team and soon, both Mina and JZ are on the ‘by any means necessary’ road to trouble.

DON'T GET IT TWISTED is about the consequences and repercussions of the choices we make when we set out to get the things we really want.

The Buzz on DON'T GET IT TWISTED & The Del Rio Bay Clique Series

“Surprisingly real and deep…well worth reading.” – Teens Read Too

“Excellent for showing friendship that crosses racial and social boundaries.” – YA Books Central

“Don’t Get It Twisted, is another winner.” – Urban Reviews

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author, Paula Chase has written for Girls Life, Sweet 16 and Baltimore Magazine, among others. In addition to her background in corporate communications and public relations, she founded the Committed Black Women, a youth mentoring program for 14-17 year old girls. Her Del Rio Bay Clique series helped launch Kensington Books YA line and joins a burgeoning number of YA books targeted to multi-culti suburbanite teens. Chase calls her brand of teen literature, Hip Lit, a nod to the diversity spawned by the MTV-watching, 106 & Park-ing, pop culture hungry hip hop generation. The author lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters. Learn more about the series and author at www.paulachasehyman.com.

Congratulations, Paula!

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Happy Friday!  Next up on the Girlfriend Cyber Circuit is Karen Neches, who is the author of EARTHLY PLEASURES, (Simon and Schuster,) that has  been chose to be a Booksense Notable for February.

"...Appealingly unorthodox... a heaven where angels lust, drink and follow terrestrial celebrity gossip… A tangled story of cold ambition and true love unspools. Neches’s funny and sweet novel shows that to err is human and angelic as well."--Publisher's Weekly

Welcome, Karen! Grab some coffee, get comfy in the beautician’s chair, and let’s get down to the gossip.

When’s the last time you’ve treated yourself to a manicure?

Never, sadly. My nails look like they’ve been chewed on by termites.

What’s the most regrettable hairstyle you’ve ever had? Any mullets? Rat tails?

Remember in the 80s when they had those moussed asymmetrical hairstyles held in place with banana clips? Guilty!

Oh, yes.  The banana clip.  I had my array of rainbow colored clips as well!  Okay, ever had a major hair or salon disaster?

I played Anne in The Diary of Anne Frank and a stylist put a very dark vegetable dye in my hair he claimed would wash right out. My hair grabbed the color with washings turned a horrible metallic green. Thank God it was during the time when the punk look was popular.

Time for your “Hypothetical Questions of the Week”:

HQ #1: If you could hit the rewind button, which book published by another author do you wish you could have written? Which movie screenplay?

Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler (although only she could write it.) Adaptation is such a writers’ movie.

HQ #2: You magically find a $100.00 bill in your box of cereal. In what frivolous way would you spend it?

A high end bottle of Pino Noir.

HQ #3: You’re a big-time celebrity who just had a baby. If you were competing for the most bizarre celebrity baby name, what would it be?

Accessory. Sessie for short.

HQ #4: Paparazzi are stalking you, looking for shots of odd things authors do while writing. What do they catch you doing, hmm?

I have a picture of J.k. Rowlings on my desk and three times a day I bow to it while facing England.

HQ #5: If you could go back in time and make changes to any of your published books, would you? If so, which one and why?

My first book. I’d change the cover. It was this big hand on an old fashioned cash register. No one had a clue what it was about.

And finally, what’s your favorite . . .
    Time to write?     Morning
    Movie?     Rent
    Book?     The Secret History
    Author?     Anne Tyler
    Song?     Take the A Train
    Pair of shoes?     Clogs
    Guiltiest pleasure?     Red wine
    Line from a movie?     Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start—from Sound of Music

Thanks for stopping by, Karen, and best of luck with EARTHLY PLEASURES!

Here's more gossip on her latest novel . . .

Earthly Pleasures, by Karen Neches

Welcome to Heaven. Use your Wishberry to hustle up whatever you want. Have an online chat with God. Visit the attractions such as Retail Rapture, Wrath of God miniature golf and Nocturnal Theater, where nightly dreams are translated to film.

Your greeter might just be Skye Sebring who will advises her newly dead clients on what to expect now that they’re expired. “Heaven is like a Corona Beer commercial” she assures her charges. “It’s all about contentment.”

So different than Earth where chaos reigns. Unfortunately for Skye, she’s been chosen to live her first life. She’s required to attend Earth 101 classes, which teach all of the world’s greatest philosophies through five Beatle songs.

Skye has no interest in Earthly pursuits, until lawyer Ryan Blaine briefly becomes her client after a motorcycle accident. Just as they are getting to know each other, he is revived and sent back to Earth.

She follows his life via the TV channel “Earthly Pleasures” but discovers he has a wife as well as a big secret. Why then does he call a show for the lovelorn to talk about the lost love of his life?

In Earthly Pleasures (Simon and Schuster, February 2008, $14) great love can transcend the dimensions, narrowing the vast difference between Heaven and Earth.


"What a treat!  Earthly Pleasures more than lives up to its name.  I was glued to the pages of this delightful little gem of a novel, and wish it could have been twice as long!"-- Megan Crane, author of Frenemies

”Karen Neches' Earthly Pleasures is a rare treat. I laughed from the first page and cried in all the right places. Do yourself a favor and curl up with this book. Heaven knows, you won't be sorry!"--Julie Kenner, author of Demons Are Forever

"Equally hilarious and poignant, Earthly Pleasures is a little powerhouse of a novel about love, life...and what comes next."--Melissa Senate, author of See Jane Date and Love You to Death

"Karen Neches’s novel is an intriguing love story with a rare combination of both wit and depth. In her fresh voice Neches gives us an innovative version of heaven where the one true thing still remains: love that transcends both time and space." --Patti Callahan Henry, National bestselling novelist of Between the Tides

“Earthly Pleasures is more than just a novel. It's a dream, a calling, a divine trip from which you won't want to come home. I loved it!—Valerie Frankel, author of I Take This Man and Hex and the Single Girl.

About the Author

Karen Neches was single for over twenty years. She used to tell people she was in the “hospice stage” of being single as she never expected to recover. Then at the age of forty-three she finally met her soul mate. Earthly Pleasures is dedicated to him. She maintains a web site at www.karenneches.com.

Neches also writes under the name Karin Gillespie and is the nationally bestselling author of The Sweet Potato Queen’s First Big-Ass Novel with Jill Conner Browne and three novels in the critically acclaimed Bottom Dollar Girl series. She’s founder of the virtual tour The Girlfriend Circuit as well as the grog for Southern authors A Good Blog is Hard to Find. She is a former lifestyle columnist for the Augusta Chronicle.

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by Astrid Lindgren
Translated by Florence Lamborn
published in Sweden in 1944
Viking Press edition 1950


Pippi scared me when I was young. It had nothing to do with the books at all, and certainly nothing to do with some sort of threat to my prepubescent masculinity of this scrawny little Amazon, but it had everything to do with the 1960's movie based on the book.

Funny how memory is. I can see these images as part of my childhood vividly like they happened a few years ago, but I have to remind my kids that I first encountered Pippi back in the days before there were DVD's, before videos, and in this case even before my family owned a color television. In that blue-green cathode haze Pippi held a strange power that made me watch with my face half turned away in fear. I knew girls like Pippi, girls that could womp a baseball better than I ever would and wouldn't think twice about jumping down an open manhole cover, but they didn't scare me like this.

Because Pippi was the first movie I ever saw dubbed into English.

How and why did they talk like that? Their mouths and the sounds they made didn't sync up and worse; The way they were dubbed, stilted and forced like bad community theatre thespians trying to read Shakespeare into whimsy, had me feeling there was an invisible presence in the room that had turned down the sound and was making up the dialog for all the characters as they went along. And because of all this I never read Pippi Longstocking until I was a full-grown adult and felt I could handle it subject without the fear of those early memories rushing to accost me.

How nice it was to finally get Pippi in her correct form, a spunky and precocious 10 year old with a pet monkey and a horse that lives on the front porch. She lives by her own rules and with total abandon, and can foil crooks just as handily as Homer Price. That adults are dolts and can be outwitted by a wild child like Pippi is cake for a young reader . That Pippi actually doesn't even care about any adult besides her father is the icing.

Lindgren -- in a fashion that must be a genre unto itself by now -- originally wrote these tales for her own children. Writing to please children may seem obvious but many who try tend to fail because they impose their adult logic and adult world onto the proceedings. Logic alone is enough to kill a good story. Not that children don't long for and crave logic, because they do, but it's the logic they create that's important. When you think about what we do as developing humans, how we take raw data and information and learn to craft connecting ideas, thoughts into images into ideas into logic, the whole of it more impressive than anything we claim as adults. As adults we manipulate the hardware and the software of the brain to make sense of our world; As children we build the hardware and software from scratch and call it the world.

At the core of the Pippiverse are two innocents who serve as our grounding, Tommy and Anika. They provide the necessary balance that allows the Pippi books to endure because they counter the desire to "be good" with the twined desire to explore without rules. When challenged, even to the brink of hysterical danger, everything works out in the end because deep down Pippi has total unspoken faith that it will. I don't think it would take much to apply the lessons of Pippi into some warm-and-comfy self-help impulse item sitting on the counter at your local chain bookstore. Here's hoping no one thinks this is a good idea.

Many books for children feature troubled families and it's an odd comfort we find in seeing that others might have it worse than we readers do. I know I'm not the only person who felt like his family was severely dysfunctional while viewing other equally dysfunctional families as more "normal" than my own. That sense of "other" aside, what tripped me up while reading was that I didn't believe Pippi when she said her father, The Captain, would come home one day. I committed the adult sin of doubting a child. No matter how fictitious, I'm sure that as a child myself I would have taken Pippi at her word or at least given her the benefit of the doubt where my adult mind tried to force the story to conform to my own adult sense of what was "right". What a joy -- an honor, really -- to be bested by Pippi like all the other stubborn fools she's encountered.

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