Want My Book for Free?

Well, today is your lucky day! (Actually, you still have to win to really be lucky, but at least I'm pointing you in the right direction!) There are a slew of contests going on all over the web to win Time of My Life, and if you don't want to pay for it (though I really, really, really hope that you will), try your hand at winning one of them:

1) Betty Confidential's Lit Lounge

2) GoodReads' Giveaway Program

3) Kristen Kirk's Family That Reads Together Blog

4) Sandra Joseph's Blog

Good luck!

Yet More Me

Thanks so much to EVERYONE who sent well-wishes on release day, either here, via email, on Facebook or wherever! I am so, so, so appreciative!

I'm running around like a total nut, signing copies at various stores around the city, but in the meantime, here are some Q/As to keep you entertained!

I'm over on Writer Unboxed answering some questions about craft and what was different with novel #2, and then, I'm over on one of my favorite author's blog, Eileen Cook, who wrote the hilarious Unpredictable and whose blog seriously makes me giggle every day, answering some more questions about ToML.

Enjoy! (And don't forget to pick up THE BOOK!)

Today's the Day!!!!

So in case you didn't know, I have A BOOK COMING OUT TODAY! Yes, really. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it lately. :)

It's called Time of My Life, and it's a story about regret, what ifs, longing, motherhood, parenting, lost love, found love, friendship and redemption. And I truly hope that you will RUSH OUT AND BUY IT ASAP! In all seriousness, the first two weeks a books sales are critical to its success and to publisher support, and I would be so, so, so indebted if you could pick up a copy (and tell all of your friends!) within the next few days.

You can buy it here:

Amazon and Barnes and Noble and pretty much any bookstore near you.

Still not convinced? Here are a few objective reviews (because, let's be honest, I'm not objective):

"After this hilarious read, you may just return to your own crazy-busy routine a little happier." - Redbook

"Perfect to read with friends. A book we love." -Cosmopolitan

"Book pick of the month. Insightful and honest, Winn Scotch keeps it light but delves into the dark doubts of the road not taken." - Family Circle

"A must-read. A fantastic, often funny novel." -Hallmark Magazine

"Scotch’s second book shows a writer coming into her own, a storyteller who doesn’t take the easy way out, and a woman with a fine understanding of human nature." - Booklist

"An engaging, fast-moving, high-concept drama. Scotch keeps one dexterous step ahead of page-flipping readers eager to guess the outcome." - Publishers Weekly

"If you've ever wanted your own do-over, this read will keep you guessing 'til the end." - Library Journal

"Time of My Life is a fabulous, madcap read, but don't be fooled: Allison Winn Scotch's narrator is wrestling with some tough issues: how do I find my place in the world? Can I become a wife and mother without losing myself? Would I have been happier if I had chosen another path? Scotch's book is hilarious and true. I loved it." -Amanda Eyre Ward, author of Sleep Toward Heaven, How To Be Lost and Forgive Me

"I loved this book! Time of My Life is funny and delightful and honest in the way only the best novels can be. Scotch's protagonist, Jillian Westfield, asks the highly-relatable question: "Did I pick the wrong life?" And, as she finds her answer, she also finds her best self. I could not put down this novel, reading it all in one delicious sitting. I envy the reader picking up this book for the first time." - Laura Dave, bestselling author of London is the Best City in America and The Divorce Party

"Time of My Life is for anyone who has asked the question "what if?", which is to say that this book is for everyone. This story of one woman's big regrets and choices will keep you reading all night, and guessing till the very end. An honest and engaging tale about how hindsight may not be twenty-twenty, and how our decisions are rarely black and white. I loved it." -Julie Buxbaum, author of The Opposite of Love

Thanks everyone! Now shut down your computer and rush to your nearest bookstore! (Unless, of course, you're buying online, in which case, stay right where you are.)

Hey, So Did You Know...

...That I have a book coming out tomorrow? :) Yep, just in case you hadn't heard.

Whew! And so begins the next few weeks of craziness.

The good news is that I did a lot of Q/As in advance, so here's some reading (and a BOOK GIVEAWAY!) for you guys:

http://www.fracturedfriendships.com/ : This was a really neat Q/A because it focused on the friendships in the book, which I really enjoyed talking about.)

http://www.bettyconfidential.com/ar/h/a/a02164.html: I did a Q/A over at the great women's site, Betty Confidential, and they're GIVING AWAY A BOOK! Check it out!

http://www.seizeadaisy.blogspot.com/: The wonderful Larramie discusses the book, as well as has me chime in on some thoughts. If you don't check out her blog, you should: you won't find a more upbeat, positive person to warm your day!

Oh, and you know, in case you want to order the book, head to Amazon and nab it! (More on that tomorrow!)

When You're In the Pressure Cooker

Okay, I won't lie. Despite my post earlier this week about trying to be zen about next week, I don't think I'm being particularly zen. This was pretty clear when I was up at 4am last night, trying desperately to fall back asleep but sensing that my brain wasn't going to allow it. So now, I'm just all about coping mechanisms. I've found that really, the only way to sap any stress from my body is via exercise, but even that isn't totally cutting the mustard right now. I got a massage earlier this week, and now...I'm wondering what else I should do. It seems like distraction might be a good tactic: maybe immerse myself in a movie or something so I actually forget about what's happening (my book is coming out!) next week.

So what do you guys do when you feel like you're about to spontaneously combust? I bet we could all learn a thing or two!

And with that, I'm off to shoot a tv spot for ToML - how cool, right? I can only hope that I don't appear as exhausted on screen as I am off! :)

Man, Sometimes I Love My Job

So, despite the fact that I am feeling all sorts of anxious pressure this week, I am also seriously loving my job right now too. One of the things I love most about what I do is that I get the chance to speak to all sorts of people whose work I admire, so I am super-super-super psyched to interview Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton from Friday Night Lights this week. I even got to see an advanced screener of the season three premiere episode! My husband walked into my office and said, "Nice, I thought you were working," and I said, "I AM working, darling! THIS is my work!" I mean, what a great job I have: watching one of my favorite all-time shows as a requirement for an interview! Btw, if you're not watching this show, you are seriously missing out. I was a late-comer to it, but bought both seasons of DVDs (like, $25 on Amazon), and it was the best money I've ever spent. For real.

I'm also loving life this week because I wrote the cover story for American Way that comes out today, in which I interviewed Brooke Shields. I do a lot of celebrity interviews, but most of these are Q/As, and when I was assigned this piece, my editor and I chatted about the fact that I'd write it as a straight profile. And man, I was nervous. Nervous, nervous, nervous. But I pushed myself and pushed myself, and I got over my nerves, and I focused, and I wrote a piece that I'm really proud of. Which just goes to show that even after years in this business, you can always challenge yourself and find new ways to raise the bar. It went so well that I wrote the next cover piece for American Way too.

And then, to top off this already awesome week, I'm also profiled in American Way! Squeee! Check out the interview they did of me about Time of My Life. It was soooo strange to be on the other side of the interview, but it was a lot of fun, and I'm thrilled with how it came out.

So tell me, what's your favorite part of your job? Have you ever tackled a project that you thought might be out of your league, and then proved to yourself that you could do it?

The Second Time Around

So So I am ONE WEEK away from publication (ahhhhhhhh!!!!!), and it's been an interesting contrast compared to the first time around. I was mulling this over this weekend, and at the risk of sounding a wee bit crude, your first time being published is a bit like your first time doing something else, ahem, if you know what I mean. It's exhilarating and nauseating and a little painful and and you're not sure what the hell you're doing and you want to call everyone you know and tell them about it. The second time? Well, you hope you're a smarter and a little better all-around. Know what I mean?

So, here's where I am. I am trying my very, very best to be fairly zen about the whole experience. Which, of course, I can't be, but I can be a little more zen than last time, though, really, that's not hard since I was a frenetic tornado the last time around. What you learn through your first experience is that so much of a book's success is out of your control. It's hard to understand this before you've been published. It's hard to recognize that even if you've written an amazing book or written a book that you think really should connect with audiences or written a book that your mom thinks should land you on Oprah, what really affects a book's success often has very little to do with what you've written.

Okay, wait, I'll take that back. Don't throw tomatoes. What I mean is that, of course, it helps if you write a universally-appealing, well-prosed, well-praised book. Of course. But plenty of mid-list authors have done just that - just ask them or look at their reviews - but that doesn't mean that they sold all that well. (This is a depressing fact. Consider how many books are in Barnes and Noble, and then consider how many of them you've actually heard of. The rest of them are considered mid-list: they sold decently, though not great, and no one's career took off because of them.) This is the stomach-churning reality that a second-time author understands. You can promote the hell out of your book, and it might not matter. You can tap-dance naked across the country, and it might not matter. You can send out emails and get small bites of press and beg everyone you know to tell everyone they know to buy the book, and it might not matter.

On the other hand, it might. But, again, this is what a second-time around author understands. It's not that I don't hope for all of the success in the world; of course I do. But I also understand that what matters now is left up to my publisher - saturating stores with the book, buying good co-op space, pushing the book into notable reviewers' hands - and the press - if a big-name magazine or paper runs a review, it will change the trajectory of both my career and the book. I don't have a whole lot to do with any of the above things.

So now, I'll try to breathe. I'll try not to check my Amazon numbers or wonder why my BN.com number shot sky-high this past weekend or search the web for reviews. I don't know if I'll really be able to be as zen as I'd like to be, but I also know that last time, all of my obsessing didn't do anything other than drive me bananas. We'll see how well I do...I'll keep you posted. :)

First time authors - how did you deal with your book's launch? Second-time (or more) authors - what did you do differently?

GCC Presents: Roberta Isleib and Asking for Murder

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with reading mysteries (often murder mysteries, which, hmmm, I have to check in with my parents about why they allowed that!), and from the sound of Roberta Isleib's new book, Asking for Murder, I think I'm going to take them back up. This one, the third in her Dr. Rebecca Butterman series, sounds soooo juicy. I'm posting the scoop below, and then be sure to read on as she answers my usual five questions. I really, really liked her story on how she found an agent because it shows that determination and grit can definitely pay off in our industry.

Here's the scoop:

Psychologist/advice columnist/sleuth Dr. Rebecca Butterman plunges into her third mystery in ASKING FOR MURDER by Dr. Roberta Isleib (Berkley Prime Crime, September 2008.) When Rebecca’s close friend and fellow therapist Annabelle Hart is found beaten and left for dead, Rebecca is determined to help search for answers. But this time, no one wants her help. Not Detective Meigs, who thinks the crime was either a botched robbery or the result of a relationship gone sour. And not Annabelle’s sister, who makes it clear that Rebecca isn’t welcome in family affairs.

The only place where her opinion matters is the therapist’s couch. Rebecca's agreed to see Annabelle’s patients while her friend is hospitalized, but it won’t be easy. Annabelle’s area of expertise is sandplay therapy, which Rebecca knows little about. While she studies the images in the patients’ sand trays and puzzles through Annabelle’s family secrets, another victim is murdered. With a killer on the loose, she can only hope the clues in the sand are buried within easy reach.

1) What's the backstory behind your book?
When I wrote the first book in the advice column mysteries, I gave Dr. Rebecca Butterman, my protagonist, a friend who conducts sandplay therapy. I can't remember why--I knew virtually nothing about interpreting sand trays! So when Rebecca's friend, Annabelle Hart, became a main focus of ASKING FOR MURDER, I had to do some research. I found a wonderful therapist in New Hampshire who walked me through the theory and practice of sandplay--it's fascinating!

2) It seems that a lot of readers confuse fiction with real life, assuming that a novel must be an autobiography of the author as well. How many elements of your real life are reflected in your book?
I am a clinical psychologist and I had a therapy practice in New Haven, very similar to that of my character. After that, our lives diverge! I'm married to a lovely man who isn't in the mental health business (thank goodness!) and we live near Rebecca Butterman's town. I would never investigate a murder--I'm a very big chicken. I love to eat, but Rebecca is a better cook than I am!

3) A lot of my blog readers are aspiring or new authors. How did you land your first book deal?
I studied Elizabeth Lyon's The Sell Your Novel Toolkit and Jeff Herman's Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents. I contacted agents who had interests like mine (mystery, sports, psychology), or who had some feature in their personal background that made me think we might connect. I hired an independent editor to give me fairly inexpensive but useful feedback on my manuscript-she directed me to several agents. I attended mystery conventions and talked with people there about the process. I attended the International Women's Writers Guild "Meet the Agents" forum in New York City. I groveled in front of everyone I even remotely knew connected with the publishing business. And I suffered through multiple rejections and shouldered gamely forward, my skin toughening by the hour. Finally an agent I'd met at IWWG called: Another agent had visited her office, seen my manuscript, and fallen in love with it. We're still working together!

4) I have a serious procrastination problem when it comes to tackling my fiction. What's your routine? How do you dive it? Do you have any rituals or necessary to-dos before or while you write?
I have a serious email addiction. If I'm on a deadline, the best thing I can do is to work offline. I set mini-goals about how many words have to get done before I can check for mail. It works!

5) Clearly, your book will be optioned for a multi-million dollar film deal!
Who would you cast as the leads, if you were given creative control?
I'd consider Sandra Bullock, Reese Witherspoon, and Meg Ryan as the three women friends. Probably Tom Hanks as the ex-husband...I'll take suggestions for Detective Meigs.

And The Winners Are...

Thanks once again to everyone who participated in this week's contest! I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed reading the posts, and I'm certain that I'm not alone in that.

So, without futher ado, here are the winners - I chose 'em from a big bowl in my kitchen last night. Please email me as soon as possible, and I'll get the books out to you right away!

Bloggers:
Mollywood
Amie Stuart
Amy Nathan
Kristen Dedeyn Kirk
KateAnon
Ramblin' Girl
Sandra Joseph

Non-Bloggers:
LLA
Eapple

Thanks again, guys! What fun this was. Maybe I'll do it again soon!

What If I Had Awesome Readers of This Blog?

You guys are so awesome! Your answers to my "what if" contest were/are so amazing: funny, ponderous, inspiring. I just wanted to let you all know how much I've enjoyed reading them and knowing (and understanding) that regardless of how different so many of our lives are, how divided we might be politically, how varied our romantic situations, incomes, family lives, extracurricular pursuits might be, how, really, many of us don't know each other beyond the internet...we're all in this together and we all share the same universal questions and beliefs and theories and answers that life in general throws our way.

So thank you for posting! If you haven't yet posted and want to enter the contest, I'm closing it tonight, so add your "what if" moment in the below post, and I'll be back tomorrow to announce the winners! (Which I'll draw at random.)

Thanks, you guys! I've had so much fun reading each and every one of them.

Book Giveaway Bonanza!

So, on Friday, I received two big boxes of ToML...mine to do what I wished with. And what I wish is to give some of these suckers away! So, from today through Wednesday, I'm giving away SEVEN copies to bloggers and TWO copies to non-bloggers. Here's the deal:

To enter, you have to post your own "what if" moment below. What is one of your big life "what if" moments - those moments that you sometimes wonder that if you'd made a different choice, if your entire life wouldn't have taken on a different trajectory? This isn't a regret - it's just a "what if," and there's an important distinction! I have a lot of "what if" moments (and I think all parents out there do because it's so strange to consider how chance timing determined your future children and how different it might have been if, er, you hadn't chosen that exact moment to, um, do the deed, so to speak), but one of my biggies is "what if I hadn't joined the gym at which I met my husband?" (Yes, my husband and I met at the gym. Ugh! I know.) But I moved to a new 'hood, and had a choice of gyms, and opted for that one for no particular reason (actually, now that I think of it, I think I opted for it because I had an ex at the other gym - ha!), and one day, my husband crossed in front of me while I was on the stairmaster, and having just recovered from aforementioned ex, I saw stars. I stalked him (seriously) for several weeks straight until I finally shamelessly hit on him...and he all but blew me off. :) Anyhoo, when a clue finally entered his brain and he realized that I was making a play for him, he meandered up to me two weeks later and made small talk. And when he STILL didn't ask me out, I finally handed him my card and told him to call me.

(Yes, I've always had a brazen sense of overconfidence! LOL) But this is my what-if moment. What if I hadn't joined the gym? What if I hadn't worked up the nerve to talk to him? What if we had been on different work out schedules? Who knows where my life might have gone, but certainly, it wouldn't be the life I lead now.

So tell me, what is your what-if moment, and enter the contest! Just be sure to let me know if you have a blog or not. If you have a blog, the only rule of the contest is that I ask you to post something - a review if you have time to read it - a mention - something - the week that the book comes out.

Thanks! Good luck!

Do You Twitter?

So I'm trying to figure this twitter thing out - if it's worth it, what it actually does...why it makes me feel about 100 years old? Do any of you guys out there twitter? If so, why? Is it more valuable as a marketing tool than straight blogging? And is it more fun as a social network than Facebook?

I'm intrigued...but also baffled.

Yes, Reviews Do Matter

I posted this question a while back: do reviews actually matter or are book sales based on something else - co-op space at the front of the store (yes, definitely) and word-of-mouth (also, yes definitely). But I wasn't sure, really, if reviews mattered that much. In fact, I'd spoken to my team at RH, and they weren't sure so much either. No, let me amend that. They were certain that some reviews, such as in People or EW, mattered, as well as some of the other biggies, like O and Elle and the NY Times, but beyond that, no one felt strongly that a magazine review, for example, could make or break a book.

Well, it's been interesting. Because, as of now, reviews for Time of My Life certainly DO seem to have mattered. The book's pre-release sales are very strong, and I can only think this is due to the mentions in this month's magazines: Redbook, Cosmo, Family Circle and Hallmark. But what's interesting is that The Department had similar reviews - in Redbook, Cosmo and Marie Claire - but it didn't seem to sell nearly as well. (And let's hope that I'm not jinxing myself once the book actually comes out!) :) So I'm not really sure what the difference is. Maybe it's that reviews matter but only if it's a universal theme that really appeals to readers. Cancer is a tough sell, and maybe even the most glowing reviews in every magazine (short of perhaps, People, which can completely make or break a book) wouldn't have skyrocketed it to the best-seller list.

Maybe what matters is reviews, yes, but also something intangible - the excitement about a book that then spreads via both reviews and word of mouth and across the blogosphere and onward. I don't know. I'm just sort of rambling, spitting out what I'm thinking. It's sort of baffling, to be honest, and it leaves you both excited and nervous because really, who's to say how a book becomes a BIG book? Authors out there, do you know what I'm talking about? It's almost as if any book could become a big book, and certainly, yours has as much a chance as any, but you have to pinpoint that right mix of what people are looking for, as well as that right mix of publicity and awareness to make readers want to buy it.

Hmmm. It's interesting fodder. At least for me. :) As far as whether or not reviews matter, I'll be honest: I read commercial books, so I do read the reviews in both People and EW, oh, and also in Elle. Other than that - well, maybe in Glamour too - I'm not too easily swayed. What about you guys? (I know that there are some literary types on here who definitely pore over the NY Times Book Review, right?)

I'm Storked!

Yes, two posts in one day! I wanted to put up a note about one of Glamour's blogs called Storked, which has a shout-out to Time of My Life today, but also is a great place for moms-to-be or moms who want a little commiseration. (What? Like you don't occasionally need to commiserate? Come on!) :)

While you're there, click on Vitamin G, which is a blog run by my pal, Sarah Jio. Sarah was a freelance writer just like so many of us (actually, she still is!, I don't know why I wrote that in the past tense), and landed the fabu job of running the blog...which is sort like a freelancing home-run: all the perks of freelancing but with a steady stream of assignments from one of the best magazines out there. Anyway, Vitamin G is the place to head for all sorts of health-related news, tips, ideas and articles, so be sure to check it out and add it to your favorites! The beauty of these blogs is that they're updated several times a day, so whenever you're ready to procrastinate, there's something new there to be read. :)

I've been a Glamour subscriber for literally over a decade (yikes, I'm old), and I love that I can get a dose of their sharp writing and fresh wit on a daily basis.

(Now don't forget to keep reading to today's other post...and then scroll back up to click on Storked and Vitamin G!)

If You Fire Up a Pack of Writers...

...this is what they can accomplish.

As a follow-up to last week's post about Lori Hall Steele, I am THRILLED to say that since we started our "everyone give $25" campaign, we have raised over $17,000!!!! (This includes a $5000 grant that she received from ASJA.) Not only will this provide peace of mind for Lori that she can stop focusing on losing her house and start focusing on her health, but it will also start to help pay her medical bills. And we're not done yet: this is part of a larger initiative to help her with her bills.

All of this goes to show that even if you don't know Lori, even if you've never been affected by such perilous circumstances, even if you've never been in debt or been in poor health or wondered how you would cope if tragedy strikes, as a freelancer, you are part of a larger community who will help cushion the fall if you take one. Often times, it doesn't feel this way. We lead, in many ways, solitary existences: we don't have office buddies, we don't have support staffs. We have ourselves, our ideas, and our computers. We can measure our success against others, but really, we hope to measure our success against ourselves, and in the grand scheme of of things, it's easy to feel pretty small, a blip sitting alone in your home office, wondering if this is an endless uphill battle.

But what Lori's situation has shown us, I hope, is that we're not alone, we're not isolated blips surrounded by the melancholy of our own shadows. We are, in many ways, in this together - an idea that I've long espoused here on Ask Allison - and I'm truly grateful to all of you who have contributed questions, blog comments, support for my books, and especially, to Lori's cause. If you ever feel like this career is too lonely or too isolating, consider what we've all done for her (and she for us), and know that you really are part of something bigger, even if it doesn't feel this way every moment of every day.

Is an Agent Worth It?

Question of the day: I am seeking representation for my first novel. I have three agents considering it, and in the meantime have discovered that "a friend of a friend" has a connection with a large publisher in my genre. Based on my friend's recommendation, the person with the connection has offered to make an introduction. Not currently having an agent to guide me through these waters, I'm a little nervous. Any advice? I don’t want to pass up an opportunity, but also don’t want to do anything that might jeopardize getting an agent. Thanks very much.

Congratulations on all of your success thus far! It sounds like you have several lines in the water, and that's always the best place to be.

My very specific advice, in this situation, is to take advantage of the introduction because, hey, it's not going to hurt you to know more well-connected people in the business, but at the same time, keep very actively pursuing an agent. Here's why: even if this publishing house does make you an offer, you should have an agent in your corner to look over the contract, renegotiate the terms and yes, take it to other houses. Because why would you settle for one offer when you could have multiple offers? Further, the chances of this actually panning out with this house aren't so, so high. That's not meant to be disparaging, it's just honest: the vetting process at publishers is tough - a lot of people have to read your ms and nearly all of them not only have to like it, but agree that it can be marketed and sell to whatever demographic they deem fit, and it's not easy. So even if the editor at this house loves it, that doesn't mean that it will sail all the way through to an offer.

So why not keep working at it from all ends? (That's what she said. Er, sorry! I couldn't help myself: I'm dying for The Office to return!) A good agent will do more for you than just take your ms out to editors and houses. A good agent will protect you from bad offers, make better ones for you, steer you toward editors who will be good matches, advocate on your behalf on everything from good cover art to more in-store co-op, and everything in between. And yes, of course, you can take this offer to an agent once you have it in your lap, but in the meantime, I'd keep plugging away. It's always better to have more options than fewer, right?

Readers, what say you? Would you advise her differently?

Getting the Most Bang for Your Buck

So today I'm over at Writer Unboxed talking about why I decided not to hire an outside publicist for Time of My Life, but did decide to shell out some cash in other areas.

Check it out here.

And in the meantime, I got a few advance copies of TOML yesterday and snapped a moment for posterity!

On a more sober note, I'm also posting about the plight of a fellow freelance writer, Lori Hall Steele. One of the scariest things about venturing out into the freelance world, as many of you know, is that you often go out there without a net. If you're single, you might not have health insurance; if you haven't had the chance to stow away enough savings, you might risk financial uncertainty. There are a lot of wonderful things about being a freelance writer, but this lack of safety net isn't one of them.

Lori is a member of the group, Freelance Success, which I've raved about here, and to which I owe the success of much of my early freelance career. It's a community where, even when folks barely recognize a name on the forum or know that another writer might snag one of their assignments, they are still supportive, encouraging and will likely become among your closest friends. So now, all of us at from FLX are rallying to Lori's support. Here's why:

First, start by reading Lori's Washington Post essay here. It's heartbreaking. A year ago, Lori's feet stop working. Next, the paralysis spread to her arms and legs, and she was confined to a wheelchair. From there, her arms abandoned her, and thus, there went her freelance career, the means she used to support both herself and her 7-year old son. Now, within the span of 1-year, the doctors, who initially believed this to be Lyme's Disease, have diagnosed her with ALS, and Lori is paralyzed and on a ventilator. (Yes, I told you this was sobering.) Her insurance company is denying her requests to pay her medical bills, and these bills are expected to soar to well over $100,000. More pressingly, she is going to lose her home imminently because she can't afford to pay her mortgage.

So, because we are part of her community, and because her plight is also our plight, we FLXers are raising a rallying cry. Every one of us with a blog is posting about her situation and hoping that if you have any spare change to donate, that you'll consider offering a small sum to Lori. Because so many freelance writers could be in her position, and because, just because I'm sitting here on my laptop with my mortgage comfortably paid, doesn't mean that I can't feel my friend's pain. Everyone at FLX who can afford to do so is donating $25 (or more), and while I know that these are taxing times for a lot of people, if her story in any way resonated with you, I hope you'll consider helping her out as well. (Other fundraising efforts, such as maxing out at the ASJA fund, are also underway.) So if you find that you can skip some small indulgence and instead offer it to Lori, please click on this link and donate what you can via paypal.

Here's some words from her essay:

“I tell him I’ll always be here for him, one way or another. Always always always. Just like my mother is here for me. Just like I was there when he was 3. It is an impossible promise, a gamble with his trust. I secretly pray I don’t let him down, not on this.”

Thanks all! And thanks for allowing me to post this.

GCC Presents: Joanne Rendell and The Professors' Wives' Club

I love Joanne Rendell, an author friend who is also a busy mom and can commiserate with all of the juggling that we working moms do, and I also love the premise of her book, The Professors' Wives Club, which I picked up at Barnes and Noble last week. The premise reminded me a bit of Sex and the City for the academia set: strong friendships, strong women, life crises, life re-evaluations. Check out the description below, and then read on for words of wisdom from Jo herself. (I love her even more for copping to her Facebook addiction!) :)

In her new novel THE PROFESSORS’ WIVES’ CLUB, NYU faculty wife Joanne Rendell tells of four professors’ wives who risk everything to save a beloved faculty garden.

With its iron gate and high fence laced with honeysuckle, Manhattan University’s garden offers faculty wives Mary, Sofia, Ashleigh, and Hannah a much needed refuge. Each of them carries a scandalous secret that could upset their lives, destroy their families, and rock the prestigious university to its very core.

When a ruthless Dean tries to demolish the garden, the four women are thrown together in a fight which enrages and unites them. The wives are an indomitable force. While doing battle with the ambitious dean, they expose the dark underbelly of academia – and find the courage to stand up for their own dreams, passions, and lives.

1) What’s the backstory behind your book?
The initial inspiration The Professors' Wives' Club came amid a rather giggly, wine-soaked evening with one of my girlfriends who, like me, is a professor’s wife. After our usual catch-up, the cabernet began to flow and we found ourselves gossiping about other faculty wives. We talked about a wife planning a boob job; another pregnant with her fifth child. The best piece of gossip came last, however: a professor’s wife who’d just run off with one of her husband’s grad students.

The next morning I started to hammer out my first ideas for the novel. As I typed, the more I realized what intriguing characters professors’ wives would make. Even if they aren’t professors themselves (which many are), most professors’ wives are deeply connected and invested in the university where their husband or partner works. Like my friend and me, they live in faculty housing, they go to the campus gym, often their kids go to the same daycare. Yet these women often have little power when it comes to university decisions.

I liked the idea of pitting these seemingly powerless women against a dean who, in his little kingdom of the university, has so much power.

2) It seems that a lot of readers confuse fiction with real life, assuming that a novel must be an autobiography of the author as well. How many elements of your real life are reflected in your book?

Well, I’m a professor's wife and my husband teaches at NYU which looks a lot like the Manhattan U., the university in my novel. Real life and real people sneak into the book, therefore. But they’re always heavily disguised, and I’m not telling exactly where. My husband likes his job at the university too much!

3) A lot of my blog readers are aspiring or new authors. How did you land your first book deal?
I was working on a writing project with a friend and through this friend I met my (now) agent. Almost as an aside, I mentioned to my agent the idea for a novel called The Professors’ Wives’ Club. I remember her looking me dead in the eye and saying, “Write it, it will sell.” So I did and, yep, it sold! Two publishers were interested in the book and there was an auction, which was all very exciting (especially because I was visiting family in Europe at the time and thus I received a flurry of phone calls in the middle of the night!). The Professors’ Wives' Club sold to New American Library in the end, and I’ve had a great experience working with them. They will be publishing my second book next summer (2009).

4) I have a serious procrastination problem when it comes to tackling my fiction. What’s your routine? How do you dive it? Do you have any rituals or necessary to-dos before or while you write?
Me too! I try hard not to check my emails or idle away time reading Facebook profiles of people I barely know, but somehow the ping of the email or the glow of the Facebook icon always lure me in. In the end, though, I know my writing time is limited. I write when my five year old son sleeps late in the morning. If I don’t write when he’s in the land of nod, then nothing gets done! So, after satisfying me email/Facebook urges, I unplug the internet cable and write for a couple of hours. I have to admit my best writing times have been at our little ramshackle cabin in upstate New York. We have no internet connection, and it's amazing how much I’ve been able to write there. In fact, I wrote nearly half of my second book last summer while at the cabin.

5) Clearly, your book will be optioned for a multi-million dollar film deal! Who would you cast as the leads, if you were given creative control?
I would cast Susan Sarandon as Mary. Mary is the wife of the ruthless dean in the book and she’s also been on the receiving end of his violent temper. However, she is not some weak, shrinking violet of a woman. She is a successful writer and popular and commanding professor of writing at the university. I think Sarandon would capture these often very real contradictions and show how it is possible to be caught in an abusive marriage even if you are strong and successful woman.

Sofia would have to be played by someone like Selma Hayek. Sofia is a firecracker! She’s feisty and fun, but also sensitive, smart, and intensely loyal. Hayek, I think, could play this beautifully.

Hannah is an artist who’s stuck in a lukewarm marriage to a man who cannot seem to get over the fact his wife is no longer a fashion model. He loves her for her beauty and she wants him to see beyond that. I think Keira Knightley would make a great Hannah.

Finally, my character Ashleigh – who’s been hiding from her senator father the fact that she’s in a relationship with a woman – could be played by someone like Julia Stiles. Stiles was great in Mona Lisa Smile playing a young Wellesley woman who is trying to please those around her and quashing her own desires in the process. I see Ashleigh as a similar kind of role.

Finding Fabu Editors

Question of the day: I'm curious if you have any recommendations on young, hip editors as well, possibly those specializing in the chick-lit genre?

I don't have any specific editors whose names I'd feel comfortable passing along, but the good news is that this info is pretty easy to come by. The best place to start - if you're willing to shell out $20 - is Publishers Marketplace. Type in the name of books that you like and see who edited them. Whether or not they're young and hip by definition, they probably like books like the one I'm guessing you've written. If you don't want to pay for PM (and I think it's an invaluable resource, btw), check out the acknowledgment pages of books you like: nearly every time, an author will thank their editor.

Once you have that info, feel free to google 'em. Yeah, yeah, this might sound stalkery (and it is), but you'd be amazed what you can learn from google. At the very least, you might find out what year she graduated from college, and at the very best, I dunno, maybe you'll glean some insights from her Facebook page.

But. All of that said, I do want to issue a slight warning: yes, there are probably some intangibles that you can discover to see if you'd click with an editor, but, not to be too cliche about things, you can't always judge a book by its cover. By that I mean that just because an editor isn't "young and hip," by your definition, doesn't mean that she won't kick ass as an editor or won't be interested in your chick lit book. Some young/hip editors only read highly literary works while some older-skewing ones adore the lighter fare. So I'm just saying. Sure, go google, go find the editor whom you think you'd want to hang with (and yes, this can also be important, I'm not denying that), but remember that this isn't everything.

Readers: how important is it that you and your editor are friends? That you like her/him outside of just work?

Landing Your Very First Job

Question of the day: I'm still in college, but graduating soon with my degree in Creative Writing. All I've ever wanted to do was write, and my plan has been to start small with submitting stories and trying my best to get published, then work my way from there. Right now I write for my college's newspaper and have been published by them several times. My post-graduation plan is to try finding a full-time job in publishing and write when I can. My main question is, in your opinion, is that the right course I should take, or rather, what do you think the best course might be when my main goal is to just write? Of course I need a job, which I have, but I want to get into the editing field. I would love to edit stories and such, so I guess I'm wondering what options someone like me has at this point in time.

I think that it sounds like you have an excellent plan and also, an excellent background. I started in PR after college, so maybe some others here can chime in who went right into magazines, but from everything I know, you're on the right track.

I've been asked before from new grads if there's a chance if they can make it right away in the freelancing world, and the cold, hard truth is that I think it would be very difficult. There are so many established writers who are also circling around the same magazines that there is just very little chance that an editor will send a lucrative assignment, as a newbie, your way.

So instead, go out, get that editing job, hone your skills even more, collect great clips (which it sounds like you're already doing), and pull together a great portfolio. In addition to building both your writing and that portfolio, you'll also meet a ton of other up-and-coming editors - you'll all move to and from different magazines, go to the same parties, run in the same circles. And these contacts will prove invaluable once you're ready to head out on your own. I think - and this is just an educated guess - that editors who start at magazines and leave to freelance probably have a much easier time breaking in and staying in the game than total outsiders.

So I think that you're definitely on the right track. Keep at it! Remember that things snowball in this industry, and while you might be chomping at the bit to write, write, write, (or at least get paid for that writing!), all good things come to those who wait. And from the sound of it, good things are headed your way!

Anyone out there get a magazine gig right out of college? Want to chime in with advice for our reader?