Stress and blogging

Check out my post at www.literarychicks.com today for an inside look at stress and the published author.  Also literary agents.  And Benadryl.

 

I'm BAAAACKKKKK!

Totally exhausted and still on Mendocino time, but almost through the 1545 e-mails I missed during my week-long retreat. Life is good!!
Alesia

Super Guest Author Time!!!

It's nearly my day to tour the fabulous MARIANNE MANCUSI on behalf of the Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit, but since my internet access will be dicey over the next 10 days, I'm going to post news about her terrifically funny book, A CONNECTICUT FASHIONISTA IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT, today! Read here for an excerpt!

A Q&A with Marianne Mancusi:

Alesia: So, about time travel - doesn't the lack of deodorant and toothpaste back in Medieval times squick you out?

Marianne: If it were real life – then yeah, ewh. But we’re going with the fantasy here. In my book, Lancelot has great smelling breath and is never too sweaty. J

Alesia: Have you ever been the Guinevere to your own Arthur and Lancelot?

Marianne: Actually yes, but I’ve learned my lesson about posting lurid tales from my past or present on the Internet for the world to read. So I’ll take the story to my grave! But I will say this. While it did end tragically for all parties involved, I’m happy to report I escaped the whole burning at the stake thing, for which I will be forever grateful.

Alesia: You're an Emmy-award winning news producer - when are you going to write about that? And didn't Holly Hunter ROCK in BROADCAST NEWS?

Marianne: Funny you should ask! I actually have a proposal called “News Blues” sitting on some editor desks now. It’s a chick lit set in a TV newsroom – an insider’s look at the reality behind the nightly newscast. It stars a special projects producer who always gets stuck producing the “common household products that kill” stories – until one day when she gets the story of a lifetime dropped in her lap. It’s a bit of a tell-all kind of thing, but with a dramatic fictional storyline and a hot romance to round it out. This is the book that’s closest to my heart, so I do hope it sells soon.

Broadcast News was an excellent movie! Probably the only realistic movie about TV news I’ve ever seen. (Don’t get me started on that Michelle Pfeiffer Robert Redford one!)

Press Release:

MOVE OVER BRIDGET JONES! DORCHESTER PUBLISHING RELEASES FIRST EVER CHICK LIT TIME TRAVEL NOVEL

Imagine a Bridget Jones like character spiraling back in time to the days of Camelot. That’s the unique premise behind the latest chick lit offering from Dorchester Publishing. "A Connecticut Fashionista in King Arthur’s Court" (May 2005) combines, for the first time ever, chick lit attitude with a time travel plot. Debut author Marianne Mancusi, an Emmy Award winning television news producer for the NBC affiliate in Boston, pens a sexy, magical, laugh-out-loud romp through the legend you only thought you knew.

"I love the voice of Chick Lit," says Mancusi. "But I felt the same old plotlines about a girl in the city with a bad boss and good shoes were getting old. I wanted to do something a little different."

Connecticut Fashionista features an outspoken fashion editor named Kat, who’s certainly not your typical damsel in distress. But when a gypsy curse sends her back in time to the days of King Arthur, she’ll need every ounce of her 21st century wits (and pop culture references) to navigate the legend. After all, surviving a magical plot, an evil prince, and a case of mistaken identity--all without changing history or scuffing your Manolos--takes some doing!

So slip on your stilettos and clutch your Cosmos tight, as Dorchester Publishing and Marianne Mancusi send you on a wild, wacky, and oh-so-fashionable trip back in time.

About Marianne Mancusi

Marianne Mancusi is a multiple Emmy Award winning television news producer for WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts. She has worked for news stations in Orlando and San Diego. A Massachusetts native, she currently lives in Massachusetts with her British husband Aaron and their dog Molly. She has six other adult and teen chick lit novels under contract with Dorchester and Berkley.

Literary Chicks Day

It's Friday, so it must be my day to blog over at www.literarychicks.com!  There's a special sneak peek at Kirby in my upcoming book, Nice Girls Finish First, coming from Berkley Sensation July 5th in trade paperback!

I'm packing and packing and packing and packing.  Okay, actually, I'm doing laundry so I can actually have clean clothes to pack . . .

Happy weekend!!

Alesia, procrastinator extraordinaire

 

 

Okay, I just added the comments part . . .

which I didn't have up before, so now it looks like I'm a total loser who gets zero comments on all of her posts . . . LOL. Or, I can choose to think of it as nobody talking back to me, which never, ever happens in my home life. [See post on motherhood at the literary chicks!]

Still on deadline, but wanted to ask the perpetual puzzler: What kind of packer are you? I'm a 'make an organized plan, pack all outfits I'll need, then randomly throw in another 20 lbs. of stuff 'just in case' until the suitcase is over the airlines weight limit" packer. Sigh.

Since I'm leaving for California Saturday for 9 days, this has more relevance than you might think . . .

aargh! photo didn't post!

author computer challenged.  sigh.  will try again later . . .

 

 

 

 

Cool thriller news!

Stay tuned for exciting news about my first legal thriller, BLONDES HAVE MORE FELONS! I've just been invited to join a fantastically cool group of authors for a joint venture - The Mystery Chicks - and I'll post news of that soon, too. Swamped today, but here's a pic of me at the RT convention with terrific mystery authors Harley Jane Kozak and Susan McBride. We had an interesting discussion about our waiter, who was clearly an ex-felon in the Witness Protection Program. "There is NO COFFEE FOR YOU. All coffee THE SAME. You DRINK COFFEE NOW."

More fun clothes . . . with explanations!

Doesn't this look like a great conference outfit? (Again with the incentive to stick to diet and exercise plan . . . ) It's Tuesday; check out my post on reviews at The Literary Chicks!

2nd grade talent shows . . .

For those of you wondering about the glamorous life of a published author, let me tell you about the red-carpet event I attended tonight:
The 2nd grade talent show.
Okay, to be fair, and give credit where it's due, it was in fact the kindergarten through third-grade talent show. This means that it lasted TWO HOURS.
Two solid hours of sitting on the cafeteria benches. The cold, metal benches.
Oh, did I mention that we arrived TWO HOURS EARLY for the optional music department fundraising dinner? Yes, that's FOUR HOURS of fun-filled extravaganza.
(Harry Winston wouldn't lend me any bling, either.)
On the other hand, I got to see my darling son sing a song (with his entire class) and light up with a smile that could have powered all of northeast Florida.
Seems like a fair trade.

Friday the 13th

Nothing scary happened today, but the day isn't over. Check out my post at the Literary Chicks blog for more about fairness and ninjas and princesses.

Okay, must track down important channel/time info for Star Trek Enterprise season finale.
hugs,
Alesia

Reality TV, redux

Okay, I think by my first novel, AMERICAN IDLE, we pretty much established that I'm a reality TV junkie. But some of these shows are a bit much, even for me. For example, AMERICA'S TOP MODEL I watched in utter horror last night as four astonishingly vapid girls competed for the title of most brainless. And the body image issues are truly horrifying - one girl weighed maybe 99 pounds, instead of 97, and there were comments over and over and over about how hefty she'd become. At the end of the hour, they got rid of the least whiny contestant.
Riiiiiight.
Now I'm watching tearful confessions on SURVIVOR and they're ALL lying!! It's hilarious!! "We're such good people; we're so honest! This accusation HURTS me!!" While lying through their TEETH!!! I am cracking up!
It's a TRAIN WRECK. I'm still watching . . . I'm such a loser. (of course, they voted off the only honest person. what a surprise. NOT.)
hugs,
Alesia, who already knows she'll be watching the season finale Sunday . . .

Okay, now that I'm doing all this yucky exercise, I need new clothes like this to be an incentive . . .

 

 

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Procrastination as art form

Here I am, not quite done with the daily dose o' editing on the book I need to turn in, and yet the call of the web is like a siren . . . No, not THAT kind of siren, although it IS kind of an emergency!! The kind of siren who lured ancient sailors and now modern-day writers to their dooms . . .

E-mail and e-mail loops. AARGHHHHH.

Does it really MATTER if I know all the news the exact nano-second it occurs?? Does it really make a difference to my life? Why am I one of those people who checks e-mail 1000 times per day, as if something EARTH-SHATTERINGLY IMPORTANT might happen in the ten minutes between checks. Sigh. It's not like I'm not reachable by at least three different phone numbers . . .

Okay, here's the problem. It's like those rats who got rewarded with cheese just often enough to make them twitchy. The other night, my editor e-mailed me at 10 pm to ask me for something she actually needed for a meeting first thing the next morning. What if I'd MISSED that? What if I'd let down my editor?? What if ALL OF NEW YORK PUBLISHING fell into a black hole because I didn't check e-mail??

Well, maybe not that last one . . .

Alesia, the neurotic procrastinator, searching for valid rationalizations

ps Check out Lani's wonderful post at www.literarychicks.com for the continuation of Motherhood Week

Our chick lit panel at RT

the chick lit panel at RT - aren't we cute? you'd think there'd be more pink!! LOL. The tiny figures you see before you are: Michelle Cunnah, me, Shane Bolks, Liz Maverick, and Marianne Mancusi. We had a terrific time!

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Competitive mothering: the Extreme Sport, and other news

Just when you think your bizarrely competitive brain is going to relax, now that you're no longer in the uber-competitive, testosterone-driven world of litigation, you find that you can compete on a whole new playing field: motherhood. For a look at just how insane I've become (and yes, I'm still twitching from the bowling party), check out www.literarychicks.com.

In other news, AMERICAN IDLE just finalled in another contest!! The First Coast Romance Writers' Beacon contest, in the chick lit category, with wonderful authors Lynda Sandoval [ www.lyndasandoval.com ] and Lori Avocato [ www.loriavocato.com ].

(I'm finally doing final edits on THE NAKED TRUTH, so am tired and a little brain-frazzed - forgive me for the disjointed ramblings.)

Finally, my new title for my very first funny legal thriller is now officially:
BLONDES HAVE MORE FELONS.
I guess MURDER BY MASS TORT was too serious. Now I just have to put some felonies in the book . . .

hugs,
Alesia

Writer Barbies?

Funny how you meet people with whom you have a lot in common - here I am with the rest of the Norwegian Basketball Team at the RT convention. (Also known as fab authors Sophia Nash and Kathryn Caskie)

Oh, not another one!

Yes, I've joined the dark side. The hordes of navel gazers otherwise known as daily bloggers. "Why?" you're asking. "Why subject us to more and more blathering trivia about your life and your thoughts and your daily activities? We don't care, already. We have lives of our own!" In response, my only defense is, well . . . you're here, aren't you? Which means you're like me and don't, in fact, have anything better to do while you slam down a cup or 7 of coffee. Welcome to the dark side. Luke, I am your father.
hugs,
Alesia