He's posted the entire backstory on his website here. And here's the music video, which I know you're going to love. Enjoy:
Ain't revenge sweet?!
For those of you who love the trash-tastic reality offerings on VH1 as much as I do, Christmas comes early this year!
I've been reading about this for a while, but now NY Mag has a whole article on it: Kal Penn has officially forsaken acting, for the time being, and has taken a position in the Obama administration.
Tell us about your most recent novel in 25 words or less.
This is a story of two next door neighbors on
When did you first begin writing?
I'm told that I was writing short stories as young as seven or eight-years old, and that I used to have to pay my older sister a quarter to read them. Turns out that she liked them so much, she'd end up giving me the money back, but I have very little recollection of any of this. Still, I do remember having a class clown mentality. Little did I know that some of my earliest material would be the notes I sent to my kids' teachers. They would always tell me that they couldn't wait for me to write to them to explain some mishap or issue because whatever I said would guarantee the laugh of the day (yay- gold star for me!). That inspired me to give comedy writing a try, and my first audience were the members of my local ORT chapter (supporting Jewish causes). They would all tell me how much they enjoyed my monthly columns and would try to guess who I was writing about (never expecting it might be them), and yet I was "fired". Seems I ruffled a few feathers with one column about the neighborhood, but it was the best thing that could have happened. I decided if I was going to be publicly shamed, I might as well get paid for the gig and that's when I started writing novels.
What are you working on right now?
I am so excited about the novel I'm working on right now. I have always loved exploring the mother-daughter relationship as I did my four novels, A LITTLE HELP FROM ABOVE (a dead mother), CLAIRE VOYANT (a stand-in mother), FATE AND MS. FORTUNE (a depressed mother) and DEAR NEIGHBOR, DROP DEAD (two very different mothers). But this story takes this mother-daughter bond to a whole new level of riviting interaction. Here is the story: Seventeen years after a deadbeat mom runs away to become a rockstar/drummer, a hit record makes her rich and gives her hope of reconnecting with her daughter, who is expecting her first baby. It's called BEAT IT! I am so in love with Grace (her mother named her after Grace Slick) and her take on life and love that I have a feeling I'm going to need a literary leash. She is taking me in way different directions than I envisioned. Go Grace!!!!
How do you fight writer’s block?
I'm one of the lucky ones who has never understood the concept of writer's block. I rarely experience it, maybe because I feed my muse M&Ms and chocolate chip cookies. She/he never leaves my side. Ideas generally pour out and the challenge is what to do with all them- figure out which ones are really good and insert here. But not all of this is luck.
I've developed some pretty nifty tricks to keep the ideas flowing, one of which is to do an astrological natal chart for my main characters. Basically I make up a birthdate, do their charts, and find out what they struggle with, what they enjoy, how they think, what worries them- then I turn on the "what if" part of my brain and voila, more ideas. What I love about this technique is that it helps me create three-dimensional characters who seem and speak real. The best compliment I get is when readers tell me how much they could relate. That's when I know I did my job!
Thanks so much for stopping by, Saralee! And thanks for giving away copies of your latest book!
To enter to win a signed copy of DEAR NEIGHBOR, DROP DEAD, just leave a comment at the bottom of this post. To get another entry, blog about it! OR, to get yet another entry, email five of your friends about this contest (and cc me on the email so that I can account for your extra entry- brenda[at]brendajanowitz[dot]com).
The lucky winners will be announced on July 22nd.
Tell us about your most recent novel in 25 words or less.
Joy McGuire, a seemingly normal person with a seemingly normal marriage, has a baby, after which point, nothing is normal again. Not her breasts or her belly or her heart or her marriage. It’s a hilarious, rueful, laugh-out-loud post partum tale about the grueling work of the first nine months of the first baby when change is an urgent necessity that you wish you could run away from.
When did you first begin writing?
I’ve written as long as I can remember. My first book (age 5), I wrote, illustrated and bound. It’s called Forest Dreams, not too bad for a first title.
Where do you find inspiration for your work?
In chocolate. And by being interested in humanity, in people, and in their stories. I love to look at strangers and imagine the whole world they live in that I know nothing about.
What are you reading right now?
I’m reading THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY. Very funny. I adore funny books. And funny religious books are especially hard to come by. As a minister, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate them.
Do a quick character study on yourself....
Now, I am a mother. I’m all mothered up and mothered in. My two are one and almost three. I spend my days with them. I’m fascinated by the world of mothering socially, academically, personally. Most of all, I love my children. I’m a book addict, a huge consumer of all things chocolate, a yoga teacher, a minister, have a tiny veggie garden, spend lots of time outside, prefer the country to the city, and walking to running. I will only run if something chases me.
Thanks so much for stopping by, Samantha! Now, on to the Fourth of July barbecues and fireworks! I hope that everyone has a great weekend! See you all next week.
Tell us about your most recent novel in 25 words or less.
Old money in the New South, romantic confusion, legal entanglements, and the unbreakable bonds among four women – and a man. Penelope Cameron May’s last wishes set off a riveting story of secrets, suspicion, motherhood, wifehood and sisterhood.
When did you first begin writing?
I was 26. I didn’t publish my first piece until 41 and my first book until 49.
What are you reading right now?
I just finished Maria Doria Russell’s Dreamers of the Day, which I loved. That woman can write. If you’ve not read THE SPARROW, CHILDREN of GOD, or THREAD of GRACE, do not delay!
How do you fight writer’s block?
I force myself into a routine of staring at an empty screen for two hours each morning. Usually I get bored enough to come up with something. The beginning of each book is always the hardest. And I think it’s John Mcphee who said writer’s block is simply another way of saying you’ve not finished your research.
What is your favorite part of writing?
When I finally realize what’s going to happen and I get into the flow. Least favorite? When I can’t figure out what’s going to happen and I sit there thinking I’ll never, ever in a million years, write another word.
What tips would you offer to aspiring writers?
Write at least one bad page a day or sit in front of your computer for at least one hour a day, trying to write.
SUCH great advice. I really agree with all of that wholeheartedly!
Thanks so much for coming by, Sheila! I don't know about the rest of you, but this sounds like exactly what my beach bag needs! So, what are you waiting for? Run out and grab your copy today!!!
When I was a boy, I wanted to be a pro football quarterback. As a teen, my obsession was basketball and the Boston Celtics. In college (when I realized I’d stopped growing and wouldn’t be 6’9”), my interests turned to hockey. So naturally, now that I’m getting a novel published, my chosen genre is…chick lit.
Pardon?
Actually, chick lit and I go back a long way. I read my first chick lit novel when I was in college. I was taking an English Lit survey class, and we were reading Dickens and Joyce and Orwell, among others. Then the professor, a rather staid gentleman, assigned the chick lit novel, unabashedly praising it as one of the best books ever written. Of course, he didn’t use the term “chick lit”; he called it by another name.
Pride and Prejudice.
Yes, that one.
Maybe you’ve read it. Or seen the movie with Keira Knightley (my wife could watch it daily). Or the miniseries with Colin Firth. Or read Helen Fielding’s modern take: Bridget Jones’s Diary. The connection between chick lit and Austen is inescapable. Google the two: 130,000 results.
It seems that Ms. Austen tapped into something both universal and timeless in her delightful novel: romance, fashion, and Love, and the silly things it makes us say and do and feel. In a nutshell, that’s what P and P is about. And, as far as I can tell, that’s what chick lit is about.
Now, I’ve only written one book in the genre, so I’m no expert. There are many other far more talented and insightful (and attractive) practitioners—I won’t name names, but you know these good ladies’ names—and they would be far more qualified to tell you what it is and isn’t.
As for me, I just wanted to write a story about a guy who starts off with his own pride and prejudice about the genre, about the people who read it, and about life itself. He’s not a bad guy; he just has a blind spot. Okay, blind spots. And huge ones.
But in the end, he just wants what every single woman in every single chick lit novel wants: To love, and be loved.
Come to think of it, that’s what we all want, isn’t it? I know I do. And thanks to my wife Robin, I have it.
I’m not sure how women who enjoy chick lit (or women in general) will take to my novel. They may think that it’s making fun of them. If you stop reading after page forty, I can see how you’d think that. But if you hang in there, I think you’ll find that the book is saying something else, entirely.
After all, that’s my name on the cover of a chick lit novel.
And I couldn’t be more proud.
Thanks so much for stopping by, Dan! That post totally makes me want to read your book again!
To enter to win a copy of MS. TAKEN IDENTITY, just leave a comment at the bottom of this post. To get another entry, blog about it! OR, to get yet another entry, email five of your friends about this contest (and cc me on the email so that I can account for your extra entry- brenda[at]brendajanowitz[dot]com).
The lucky winners will be announced on July 6th.
Happy Father's Day! I think you all know how I feel about my dad. If you didn't get a chance to check out my New York Post piece about my dad, just click here!
With all of our talk here about Chase Crawford and the casting of Footloose, we've been totally disregarding our other Gossip Girl hotties.
Sunday, June 14th
1pm - 5pm
Paramus Public Library
116 East Century Road
Hop on over to Drey's Library today. I'll be doing an interview and then giving away a copy of JACK WITH A TWIST to one lucky winner!
If you're on Long Island, I'd love to see you! I'll be reading at the Summer Gazebo Reading Series on Monday, June 29th. If you're around, grab a lawn chair and meet me there!
Hi, Brenda, and thanks for the opportunity to guest-blog! I was going to riff for a while here about preppy fashion—a major theme in Mating Rituals of the North American WASP. But as it happens, my random musings have crystallized into a serious question, and the question is this:
What should I wear to my reading?
I thought I'd ask you because of all the reading outfits I've seen, the retro-chic frock you wore to read from Jack With a Twist last summer is hands-down the cutest. I remember it being buttercup-colored to coordinate with your book cover.
The choice was impressive. It has stuck in my mind as I prepare for a reading of WASP later this month.
The problem is, though, that my book is pink and green, and I look hideous in pink and green. In fact, I look hideous in all preppy fashion—the grosgrain, the madras, the seersucker. This is likely because, though I am the daughter of a Rhode Island WASP, my mother ditched her conservative togs the minute I was born and she and my father struck out for Southern California, where everyone was drinking sangria while sporting dresses with airbrushed rainbows and Indian tunics with little round mirrors sewn in. This was the eclectic fashion of my formative years, and though I'm hardly wearing it now, I'm more comfortable in it—or in something black and New Yorkish—than in anything embroidered with tiny ducks.
So my question, to you and your readers, is, how important is it to look the part during a reading? If I wear a WASPy wardrobe, will it look cute, or costumey? Do I go with my slinky vintage black dress (possibly designed by Versace before he was Versace), or do I do Lilly Pulitzer (adorable, but not me)?
Please advise. And you're all invited to my reading, at Barnes & Noble, 82nd and Broadway, on June 17 to see what I chose.

Tell us about your most recent novel in 25 words or less.
In Over Her Head is the adventure of a woman who's afraid of the ocean and a Merman.
When did you first begin writing?
I was always telling stories - even before I could write, my imaginary friend
Where do you find inspiration for your work?
I love all things fairy tale, especially Disney. I was working on a twist to fairy tales and wanted to do one on The Little Mermaid. To make it my own, I made the guy the mer. Voila, Reel was born.
What are you working on right now?
I'm editing the next two books in the series, Wild Blue Under which comes out in November, and Catch of a Lifetime for February 2010, as well as working on a proposal for the next books in the series.
What are you reading right now?
Linda Wisdom's series about 13 witches. They're a hoot.
How do you fight writer’s block?
I can't afford to have writer's block, but if I do, I find picking up another book helps unlock the creativity. There's something freeing about seeing that another person has pushed through it and made it work.
If your book were to become a movie, who would you cast?
I'd love Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson or Sandra Bullock, but if not them, Zac Efron and Anne Hathaway could do a great job.
What is your favorite part of writing?
I love when the story flows out of my fingers and it just takes off without me having to work for it. Least favorite? When it's not working and you have to push through it to get it to work.
What tips would you offer to aspiring writers?
Keep writing and put your work out there for people to critique. Enter contests. Join a critique group. Get feedback and be open to criticism and look at your work from their point of view. Work on craft. Divorce yourself from the emotion attached to it once it's written and be willing to look at the feedback with an eye to make it better. And don't stop writing. Don't give up. The one way to ensure you won't get published is to give up.
How do you usually begin your stories—with a character or with a plot?
Usually I get a line, whether it's dialogue or the opening line, or a situation. Every story begins differently for me, and I write each one differently. One can be written linear, another with a bunch of scenes that I tie together, yet another with the beginning and the end then filling in the middle. Different characters = different story = different manner in writing it.
Do a quick character study on yourself:
A quick character study? Ha. Okay, here ya go: I'm half Irish and half Italian. I'll be your best friend, but don't tick me off. Favorite color is purple, favorite gem is a tie between amethyst and diamonds, love animals, hate spiders. Terrified of what's in the ocean (seeing JAWS at a young age was a mistake).
Thanks so much for stopping by, Judi! We just know your books will make a huge splash! (Sorry, I just can't stop with the puns.....)
Yes, I know I'm early in the Father's Day wishes, but today I've got a first person essay in the New York Post about my dad!
Okay, so yes, I admit, it doesn't have quite the same ring as asking you to meet me in St. Louis, but I'm thrilled nonetheless to announce that I'll be appearing at the Books NJ 2009 book festival. It's a fabulous new event being hosted in New Jersey that celebrates writers and writing.
Books NJ 2009
Sunday, June 14th
1pm - 5pm
Paramus Public Library
116 East Century Road
So, at the start of the season, I professed my confusion over the thousand and one mysteries posed on LOST which were never answered. A few of you wrote to tell me that those questions had, in fact, been answered, but I remained dubious. And, um, still totally confused.