I'm BACK!! I HAVE INTERNET!!!

Finally!! Still surrounded by boxes in the new house in Virginia, but I have internet access so life is GOOD!!!

Today, I have the privilege to tour Robin Epstein and Renée Kaplan, and their terrific book: SHAKING HER ASSETS. Here's the scoop:


New York women just got a heroine to call their own.
Shaking Her Assets
by Robin Epstein and Renée Kaplan

"SHAKING HER ASSETS is funny, smart and
hugely entertaining."
--Jill A. Davis, author of GIRLS' POKER NIGHT

Chick lit meets the graphic novel in SHAKING HER ASSETS (Berkley Trade Paperback Original; May 3, 2005; $13.00), a clever and quirky debut novel featuring the adventures of a modern-day Manhattan heroine.

Meet Rachel Chambers, New York City copywriter, collector of vintage compacts, and self-proclaimed eBay-addict. For the second time in less than a month, Rachel finds herself standing on the street, holding a collection of her personal effects, trying to catch a cab at rush hour. Only this time, instead of juggling a box of coffee mugs and pilfered office supplies, her big paper shopping bag overflows with the remnants of her now defunct two-year relationship.

With no job, no boyfriend, and no back-up plan, Rachel has no choice but to reinvent herself. Instead of getting a conventional new job, she starts her own company—sort of. Rachel and her best friend Ben conjure up a business idea as a complete joke, and it unexpectedly starts to take off. But it's a risky stealth effort, with lots of improvising, a dose of guerrilla marketing, and copious amounts of total bluffing.

Meanwhile, Rachel’s been temping, and when the art director at her temp job gets wind of her romantic and entrepreneurial misadventures, he turns her into a comic book superhero, illustrating her hilarious escapades. Suddenly Rachel is taking New York by storm, remorselessly tossing aside losers and nay-sayers in her never-ending quest for success—and before long, Rachel's man-eating comic alter-ego has got her believing that she just might be able to pull this off in real life…but maybe without the cone-shaped bra.

Hailed by Alison Pace, author of IF ANDY WARHOL HAD A GIRLFRIEND, as "A funny, heartwarming page-turner for the entrepreneur in us all," SHAKING HER ASSETS gives New York women a superhero to call their own.


SHAKING HER ASSETS is the first novel by Robin Epstein and Renée Kaplan. Robin Epstein received her MFA from Columbia University. She has worked on sitcoms starring Joan Cusack ("What About Joan," ABC), Al Franken ("Lateline," NBC) and sold an original pilot to the Oxygen network. She is a contributor to NPR’s This American Life and is currently scripting a video game for Atari called Tycoon City: New York.

Renée Kaplan was a writer and editor for the New York Observer, before transitioning into television journalism, first as a producer for the "Charlie Rose Show" on PBS, and most recently for "60 Minutes II." Today she is a freelance television producer and writer.