After I hand in a book, I wander into bookstores, get a latte and look around. This week’s wandering resulted in purchases. No surprise there since post-writing is heavy reading time. A few of my book choices this time around came from seeing covers on MySpace and then seeing the books on the table. Yes, I am the marketing department’s dream. I see something more than once and decide it will be a violation of the Laws of the Universe not to purchase it.

My first purchase was Midori By Moonlight by Wendy Nelson Tokunaga

The story goes like this:

Midori Saito’s dream seems about to come true. Too independent for Japanese society, Midori is a young woman who has always felt like a stranger in her native land. So when she falls in love with Kevin, an American English teacher, she readily agrees to leave home and start a new life with him in San Francisco—as his fiancée. Kevin seems to be the perfect man. That is, until he dumps her for his blond ex-fiancée, whom Midori never even knew existed. With just a smattering of fractured English, not much cash, and a fiancée visa set to expire in 60 days, Midori realizes she’s in for quite a struggle. Unable to face the humiliation of telling her parents she’s been jilted, she decides to go it alone, surprising even herself as she proves she will do almost anything to hang on to her “American Dream.”

This sounded different and interesting. Still not sure if I love the cover but since it grabbed my attention, I’m thinking it works.

The second book (I really bought five but only two were MySpace related) is Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler: A Memoir by Wade Rouse. Honestly, I picked this one up because the cover and title made me think “chick lit” and the author is a guy. Then I realized this was a memoir on a subject often covered in fiction – covered to the point of beign overdone. But, this one came from reality which made it special. Decided I wanted to read a real experience…and I had this discount coupon so that the hardcover price did not phase me.

The book is described like this:

When Wade Rouse—a rural, public school graduate who grew up more Hee Haw than Dynasty—was hired as the director of publicity at the prestigious Tate Academy, he quickly discovered his real job was to make a few of the very pretty, very rich, very mean mommies of the elite students happy.

Following a year in the life of the super rich and super spoiled, Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler is hilarious, heartbreaking, and deliciously catty.

Thoughts?

Today is the day. It’s the final day of the The Seventy Days of Sweat Writing Challenge. To all who participated – congratulations on your hard work! To those who followed along and are toying with the idea of giving the Sweat Challenge a try, it’s not too late because we’re doing it again.

To wrap up this Challenge, go over and do your final check in. Get inspired by the successes – big and small – of the participants. Be amazed at the progress and work accomplished by some of your writing brethren. And, don’t get discouraged if you did not meet all of your goals. Trying does count for a great deal here and continuing to write is ultimate goal.

So, take a little break and then check back in on the Sweat Challenge on October 1st to read about the next round.

Am I the only one who didn’t know the new Borders site is up and running? In case you wanted to do a search for my books (well, I did…), I saved you the trouble. You get this page of book covers and then click from there.

The more places to buy books the better.

I just turned in a single title. This one will be out in November ‘08. Sounds far away but it’s really not in publishing land. At this point, my brain is in that mushy swiss cheese state. Not attractive.

While I gather my six brain cells together to form a sentence, I thought I’d pass on the information about the Four Hot Authors For Fall as set out in Entertainment Weekly. Alison already reviewed one of these books here which proves Alison is a woman in the know. The authors are:

*The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz – Described as: “The stunning story follows a Dominican ghetto nerd growing up fat and lonely in Patterson, N.J. (Díaz’ own hometown), struggling to beat the generations-long curse that has plagued his doomed family.”

*Before I Die by Jenny Downham – A debut novel about “…16-year-old Tessa, who is dying of leukemia and wants to cram a lifetime of experience…”

*Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam – “…a collection of 12 linked stories about aspiring physicians…”

*Heartsick by Chelsea Cain – “…a well-wrought thriller starring a deliciously creepy female serial killer.”

I have Heartsick. Not sure if I’m loving the others.

Every now and then you want to read a book about a wedding. It can be a runaway bride romance or a former-boyfriend-steals-away-his-ex-before-she-can-get-married story or a matchmaking tale or something similar. To satisfy those cravings, I give you the following books I discovered through MySpace:

Once Smitten, Twice Shy by Lori Wilde. You see this cover and know there’s a bride in there somewhere, right? This is book #2 in her Wedding Veil Wishes series. The back cover goes like this:

Wedding videographer Tish Gallagher is at the end of her rope. Her business is about to go bust. She’s just spent her last buck on nonreturnable (but oh so fabulous) shoes. And her most sustainable relationship is with a pint of Haagen Dazs. So she makes a wish on the lucky wedding veil to get out of debt…and sees the man she never stopped loving, her ex-husband, secret service agent Shane Tremont. Sure, their chemistry was off-the-charts sizzling hot, but their clashes were legendary, and no amount of longing will change that.

When her dream job of recording the first daughter’s wedding appears out of the blue, Tish knows it’s her only shot to get out of the red. Just one teensy glitch: Shane is the groom. From the moment they see each other, she knows nothing’s changed–the same old black magic is still between them, as irresistible and potent as ever. But he’s promised to another and Tish has been burned before. Will she always be…ONCE SMITTEN, TWICE SHY?

Next up is a book to which all women can relate: Bad Bridesmaid: Bachelorette Brawls and Taffeta Tantrums–Tales from the Front Lines by Siri Agrell. If nothing else, check out Agrell’s website.

The publisher describes the book this way:

I just can’t have any negative energy around my wedding.” This is what Siri Agrell’s best friend told her just before kicking her out of the wedding that Agrell had spent many months—and dollars—preparing for. Her offense? It’s not that she slept with the groom, or even the best man. She didn’t get drunk at the shower. She didn’t buy the cheapest casserole dish on the registry.

Now she’s putting all that experience and fan mail to good use: like no other book on the market, Bad Bridesmaid is a hilarious tale of weddings gone wild, full of anecdotes and advice from women worldwide, and the perfect gift to get former, current, and future bridesmaids ready for action (or therapy). It’s time to give the bridesmaid back her voice, her independence, and the natural waistline that has long been hidden under layers of responsibility and badly constructed tulle!

What do you think – interesting or just guaranteed to give you tafetta flashbacks?

Taking a break from my deadline to let you know…

For those thinking of entering the Brava Novella Contest or who just want to get to know an editor or who are looking for something to do today, Kensington editor Kate Duffy (my editor) is answering questions over at the Fog City Divas Blog.

Also, remember that your Brava Novella Contest entries are due soon. You have plenty of time, but get moving. And, if you miss Kate Duffy at Fog City Divas today, keep in mind that she’s always available to answer questions on the Brava Authors Message Boards.

A guy lies about his book being nonfiction, ticks off Oprah, becomes the poster boy for scandal, and is considered a literary disgrace by most of the publishing and reading world. So, naturally, he gets a new book deal:

James Frey’s BRIGHT SHINY MORNING, to Jonathan Burnham at Harper, for publication in summer 2008, by Eric Simonoff at Janklow & Nesbit (NA).

The Wall Street Journal describes the book like this:

The new book is set in contemporary Los Angeles and tracks the lives of various characters from different backgrounds. These include a male movie star, a Mexican maid, and a homeless man from Venice Beach. Mr. Frey has lived in Southern California and worked as a screenwriter.

There’s an interesting lesson about morality in there somewhere.

I was paging through the newest Sundance catalog. Found something odd…well, something I thought qualified as odd.

You can buy packages of books. I don’t mean specialty books, though the catalog does have those. I mean bundles of books that seemed to have been put together in a “these are books other people should see you reading” sort of way. For example, the As The Sun Wanes & Leaves Fall Reading Collection includes, among others, White Teeth by Zadie Smith and Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. So, for about $100 (plus shipping) you get a bundle of books someone picked for you to read (or display in your house).

Am I the only one who finds this a little strange? Don’t get me wrong, if Sundance ever does a romance novel pack (which it won’t), I want to be in it. I guess I just always assumed people could pick out their own books. Maybe this is an “in case you missed these” thing. No idea.

I just got around to reading the Sunday paper. Kind of sorry I did. The front page of Sunday’s Business section of the San Diego Union Tribune included a story about a vanity publisher. Very frustrating stuff. Frustrating because these unpublished folks were paying this “publisher” $5,700 to get their books in print. This was a scam – of course!!! If you pay someone to publish your book, you are not published. Sorry, but you’re not. Publishers pay you and not vice versa. Really, isn’t that obvious?

For those considering going this route – stop. Also know the following from the article: “publisher” Ed Johnson praised the manuscripts, made all sorts of promises and took the money. Sound familiar? After giving hope, this guy ignored his wannabee authors. One scammed writer’s experience went like this:

…he was promised a preliminary copy of his book for editing review within a month, but several months passed before he received a copy that was riddled with hundreds of misspellings and editing errors.

He complained, but didn’t get his calls returned. Incensed, Wallace drove from Colorado to San Diego in January 2003 to confront Johnson, and was shocked to learn the firm was nothing more than a bedroom-size office in a converted motel.

A woman who worked for this supposed publisher said:

Karstens, a former Martell employee, said Johnson purposely deceived potential clients about the scale of his one-room operation. He used pseudonyms when answering the telephone or in correspondence to potential clients to “make it seem like he had a staff.”

Karstens also said Johnson instructed her to tell clients who telephoned him that he was “on the other side of the building” so they’d think the company was housed in a large facility.

Karstens said she was hired as an office manager. But Johnson soon had her editing manuscripts, a job for which she had no qualifications, she said.

Yeah, the office manager was editing the manuscripts. Not exactly what you want for your $5,700, is it? I know the drive to be published can be extreme. I do. Still, use your common sense and don’t get scammed. Try to get a legitimate publisher interested in your work, accept that it can be a long process and understand that maybe, just maybe, it’s not meant to be.

I’ll end with a quote from Victoria Strauss of Wirter Beware because she says it better than I ever could:

Vanity publishers don’t look for quality – they publish anyone who will pay, according to industry experts. And while they often promise to market and distribute books, such efforts are usually nominal to nonexistent because the firms make their money from the authors, not on book sales…

Uh-huh. What she said.

When the book Forget About It by Caprice Crane arrived in my mailbox, I got excited. The cover is this cool green cover. Loved the bandaid. Liked the idea of a contemporary romantic comedy. Problem was this book deadline of September 15th. Makes it kind of tough to do much other than writing. So, I asked for someone to read and review this one. Rachael stepped up…and did a fabulous job! Here’s her review:

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Jordan Landau wants a do-over. Her life is crap. She’s 25 and has a boyfriend, but he’s a cheater! She has a family but all they do is criticize her. She has a great job but her boss steals all her ideas and takes credit for them. Jordan’s life is going nowhere fast.

After getting into an accident, she realizes this is her opportunity to start over! Jordan decides to FAKE having amnesia and become the assertive person she’s always wanted to be. This will give her the opportunity to dump her cheating boyfriend and stand up to her family and boss.

While faking amnesia, Jordan learns a lot about herself and others that she didn’t know before. Such as how people will lie to your face and try to take advantage of you when they think you have amnesia! Well no one is going to take advantage of the new and improved Jordan. Everything is working out and she couldn’t be happier. Faking amnesia even brings an interesting new man into her life. Out with the old and in with the new! Will Jordan be able to fool everyone with her amnesia or will her lies catch up with her?

FORGET ABOUT IT is a hilarious, fresh new story that will keep you reading all night. I enjoyed the first person narrative which gave the reader a closer look into Jordan’s life and thoughts. The subject matter of the story is so different from any other chick lit book that I’ve read. It was very original and so funny at times. I could see this book turning into a movie. The characters are loveable and will have you rooting for Jordan to have her happy ending. I devoured and inhaled this book in two sittings and would definitely recommend it to fans of romantic comedies.

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What do you think?

Thanks again, Rachael!