HelenKay Dimon

I don’t know much about Tor, but there seem to be a few publishing opportunities at the publisher if you’re looking for a home for your book. Go here to check it out.

And, in light of the books the editor is looking for, when was the last time you saw a Hanukkah book? I’m serious. We actually looked for one to review for PBR last December and came up empty. We found a novella in a holiday anthology, but that was it. Anyone have a good romance or chick lit centered on a Jewish heroine or hero? I’d be interested to check it out just because it’s not something I see all the time.

By the way, Kyra Davis’ books don’t count because I already know about her and loved her first book (am waiting very impatiently for her next release). Anyone else?

Another one…

Marian Keyes - yep, never read her. I know, I know. It’s a violation of all things chick lit not to have read her. Let’s just say I’m behind. She moves on and off my radar screen. Right now she’s more “on” at this moment thanks to this article about her upcoming release, Anybody Out There?. This the part that caught my attention:

Keyes is a well-established voice in Irish contemporary popular fiction. She takes risks and writes about sex and Generation Xers better than the doyenne of Irish female storytelling, Maeve Binchy. But, like Binchy, Sharon Owens and Sheila O’Flanagan, Keyes’s stories are affectionately and warmly told. The difference is that Keyes writes with bite. Pain is never far from her characters and their relationships.

Part of this may be due to the life experiences Keyes has faced. She is a reformed alcoholic and, consequently, she understands the damage and power of addiction. Her books are published in 29 languages and end with a sense of optimism. These are not happy endings just for the sake of it. Having known despair, her fiction, as much as it is unashamed chick lit, is ultimately upbeat. But Keyes also has another agenda.

The article is pretty positive. It even suggests that chick lit heroines, as a whole, may have a deeper purpose than cosmetics and shoes.

While Keyes has a faithful audience that wants to be entertained and satisfied with chatty fiction, Anybody Out There? will not disappoint. But it is also a tenderly written, insightful exploration of human emotions. Chick lit it undoubtedly is but, as the title hints, chicks who wear Porn Star lipstick are not immune from emotional darkness and may reach out in hope towards others.

Someone gets it! How often do you see the phrase “insightful exploration of human emotions” in relation to a chick lit title? Probably not as often as you should. I’m ready to give her a try.

I’ve actually been away for a few days. Took off to California for some family visiting. Hung out with Wendy. Met Kassia and managed to make her late for an appointment (’tho it is now clear she drives really, really fast). All in all, I had a lovely time. In addition to all the eating, visiting, book browsing, chatting, gossiping (not me, of course - I just listened while others gossiped…) and lounging in the sun, some other very cool things happened over the past few days. The list goes like this:

1. Saw my book on the shelf at Borders. The greatest thing ever? Yeah, pretty damn close. Making literary star and writing professor Tod Goldberg go up to the info desk and ask for a book called When Good Things Happen To Bad Boys - let’s just say that was priceless.

2. Heard from Ellen that the book is hitting the shelves in other states and without having to harass store employees to venture into the back and unpack it. And, Ellen bought it. I would have sent it to her for free, so it was doubly sweet of her to buy it.

3. Heard from Sylvia and my editor (they both emailed at the same time and I love them both for delivering the good news) that When Good Things Happen To Bad Boys - which doesn’t officially come out until April 4th - is on the Borders Romance Bestseller List for the week ending March 25th. There are others on the list, of course, but I think #5 is the most interesting:

1 THE DEVIL IN WINTER
Lisa Kleypas
Avon
2 THREE LITTLE SECRETS
Liz Carlyle
Pocket Books
3 FATAL BURN
Lisa Jackson
Kensington
4 THE MACGREGORS; ALAN & GRANT
Nora Roberts
Silhouette
5 WHEN GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD BOYS
Lori Foster, Erin McCarthy, HelenKay Dimon
Kensington
6 DEEP, DARK & DANGEROUS
Jaid Black
Pocket Books
7 PRETTY WOMAN
Fern Michaels
Pocket Books
8 TIME & AGAIN
Nora Roberts
Silhouette
9 THE ADMIRALS BRIDE
Suzanne Brockmann
Silhouette
10 IMPOSSIBLE
Danielle Steel
Dell

In the not-so-lovely category, here is some advice: Do not fly through Chicago. Trust me. Don’t.

One of the daily Washington Post editions last week had an article about people who horde books. Yeah, the writer used a nicer title. Something about bibliomaniacs. Sounds kind of pathological. The quote goes:

Washington, with its affluent and educated populace, is a natural habitat for bibliomaniacs, defined by the late British author Sir Hugh Walpole as those “to whom books are like bottles of whiskey to the inebriate, to whom anything that is between covers has a sort of intoxicating savour.”

You may think this sounds like an excuse. It’s really more of a geography lesson. Or, at least, I think that’s the author’s point. She points out that Washington ranked 4th last year in book sales behind New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay/Silicon Valley. Not too shabby. Maybe not a valid excuse for messy home offices and falling bookshelves, but an explanation.

On March 26, 2005, I wrote my first blog. Except for a few comments on the CBS movie Spring Break Shark Attack - let’s just say it wasn’t Jaws - the subject was…well, me. Annoying, I know. Be happy I don’t talk only about me every single day. I toy with the idea. Trust me.

I also went into a long explanation about my name. How it’s HelenKay, not Helen. Despite that explanation, despite the fact my correct name is on the top of the blog and everywhere else on the website, and despite the fact I never sign my name as Helen, approximately 20% of the people who write and talk to me call me Helen. It’s a life-long struggle. ::heavy sigh::

But, one year later an I’m still here. That may not be great news for some of you. Sorry about that. The babbling has continued for a full year and will continue for another…unless you know something I don’t know. In that case email me. You can even call me Helen that one time if you’re providing inside information. Otherwise, we enter Year Two. No wiser, no thinner, no younger. A tiny bit more tired, but who doesn’t feel a bit worn around the edges now and then.

For those who have followed from the beginning or joined in late and keep coming back - thanks. Always love to chat. Always happy when you call me something other than a profane name.

Just throwing this sale announcement out there:

FICTION: GENERAL/OTHER
Lynn Harris’s DEATH BY CHICK LIT, following a freelance writer as she navigates the cut-throat world of commercial women’s publishing, to Kate Seaver at Berkley, by Paula Balzer at Sarah Lazin Books (NA).

Here’s all I know - yeah, I can google like everyone else out there: Harris is an author, journalist and co-creator of Breakup Girl.

That’s it. That’s all I know.

This one caught my attention when I was reading through RT. The “why” goes like this:

1. Thought the cover was cute. I’m a sucker for those things.
2. It got 4 1/2 Stars at RT.
3. There’s a romance, a killer and a mystery. The perfect trio for me.
4. I’m intrigued by the Berkley Prime Crime imprint. Don’t know why, but there’s no reason to hide the obsession.
5. The authors are mother and daughter. Okay…try to imagine that dynamic for a second. When I write I’m, shall we say, a tad bitchy. My mother, like all mothers, asks me what’s wrong when I’m bitchy. So, I have this vision of me grumbling over my keyboard, mom getting worried and asking what she can do to help and me going nuts because someone is talking to me while I’m trying to write. The likely outcome would be for me to threaten to throw her under a bus. Not because I mean it, mind you. No. Because I’m bitchy when I write. These women managed to make it work despite all that. Good for them.

That’s all good enough to grab me and get me to spend some cash.

No offense to Renee Zellweger…

Books about writers appear to be somewhat “in” at the moment whether or not the actress wears a fake nose…

I know Finding Neverland did well…

But, I find this Zellweger as Beatrix Potter thing odd. Don’t know why, but I do. Here is gist of the movie:

Written by Richard Maltby Jr., “Miss Potter” explores the life of Potter (Zellweger) as she becomes the author of the beloved and bestselling children’s book The Tale of Peter Rabbit and struggles to overcome a domineering, unsupportive mother and the chauvinism of Victorian England to become a published author.

Not exactly a cute fuzzy bunny moment. At least she wasn’t one of the head-in-the-oven or stones-in-her-pockets-then-wade-into-the-water types. Yeah, those have been done. Those aren’t cute fuzzy bunny moments either.

Writers are brilliant creatures. Some create from scratch. Some - the really smart ones - come up with the idea to write a book by using something other people have written. No, I’m not talking about Dan Brown…

I’m talking about the new release The Dead Beat by Marilyn Johnson. This one is a hardcover study of obituaries. The book is getting play everywhere, very good reviews and, as of this morning, was #166 at B&N. Not bad. The Washington Post says:

[Johnson's] real heroes are the editors and writers who compose cheeky, gossipy obits that are the hallmark of British style. The trend started in 1986 when, almost in concert, the London Times, the Telegraph and the newly formed Independent began to publish quirky, irreverent send-offs that reveled in a subject’s eccentricities and spectacular moral failings.

For those who follow the NYT and are familiar with the sometimes harsh words of reviewer Michiko Kakutani (hint: she didn’t win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism by loving everything - in fact, most days she doesn’t love anything) here is a blurb from her review of this book:

A fetching book about obituaries? Well, yes: Ms. Johnson writes about obituaries with the zeal — and insight — of an avid obit fan, someone who looks at half a dozen newspapers a day and spends hours online, Googling death: reading posts on the alt.obituaries newsgroup and posting favorite obits of her own.

My mindless chatter can be found at Access Romance’s All A-Blog today.

For those too lazy to click on the link - you know who you are - I offer two book sales from Publishers Marketplace. First, a wonderful multi-book deal for a debut author by an agency that seems to make impressive deals every single day:

Debut author Marley Gibson’s four untitled books in a series about a group of collegiate sorority sisters, to Angelle Pilkington and Karen Chaplin at Puffin, in a nice deal, by Deidre Knight at The Knight Agency (world.)

Second, ignoring the haven’t-I-just-read-this feeling I get from the plot description, here’s one in the $251,000-$499,000 advance range:

Lesley Downer’s THE LAST CONCUBINE, an epic saga following the life of one girl and spanning the second half of the 19th century in Japan (dubbed Gone With the Wind in Japan), to Selina Walker for Transworld, in a significant deal, at auction, by Bill Hamilton of A.M. Heath (UK/Commonwealth, excl. Canada).

Canadian rights to Penguin at the London Book Fair, also by Hamilton. French rights to Presses de la Cite, in a pre-empt; Greek rights to Oceanida, in a pre-empt, by Sara Fisher and Jennifer Custer of A.M. Heath, with auctions underway in Spain, Holland and Germany.