November 21, 2005

Update: NaNoWriProMo


Some of you may have heard about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). For yours truly, November has been NaNoWriProMo (National Novel Writing Procrastination Month). It has also been NaNoWriProAnReONoMo (National Novel Writing Procrastination and Reading Other Novels Month) and NaNoWriProAnSitOnYoFatAssMo (National Novel Writing Procrastination and Sitting on Your Fat Ass Month).

Yes, instead of writing, I've been reading novels that have already been read and reviewed by everyone and their sister like Waiting to Exhale and Sex and the City. (I am unenthusiastic about Candace Bushnell, but after years of dissing her up and down the block for 4 Blondes, I figured I ought to read the book that made her famous so I can diss the woman in earnest.) And in twenty one days, I have only written 21,000 words on my unfinished, untitled novel(la). It is official: I suck.

So, in the interests of reaching that crazy-ass goal of 50,000 words by November 31, I'd better get to writing.

See you on December 1st.

P.S. Dang. Just checked the calendar. November only has 30 days. I am so behind!
Posted by sk :: 11/21/2005 :: 0 comments

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November 16, 2005

Review: Friday Night Chicas

In honor of my chicas who salsa-danced me into the ground last Friday, I picked up Friday Night Chicas, an anthology of Latina chick-lit stories. These four stories of Latina amigas out on the town were as fun and fast as a good salsa song - though considerably easier on the feet.

The first story, My Favorite Mistake by Mary Castillo is about an aspiring film producer named Isela who crashes a Hollywood party in search of a hot young director and instead winds up in the arms of the director's brother.

As an Angelena, you'd think I'd be happy to see my home city in print. But here's the thing. I hate fame-chasers. I have never had a soft spot in my heart for bright young things who come to L.A. in search of fame, fortune, and the next party. In my experience, those are exactly the sort of crass, grasping, superficial people who give this city a bad name.

So, while the writing was smooth, and Isela was a relatable character, my personal pet peeves once again prevented me from fully enjoying an otherwise light and breezy story.

The second story, Hearts are Wild describes hardworking lawyer Tori's night out in Miami with her four friends. Her friends treat her to a gambling cruise, and make her promise to leave her practical, boring side behind. Like My Favorite Mistake, Hearts are Wild is lite, frothy, stereotypical chick-lit complete with

• Label Whore Descriptions - it's not just a black handbag or a lacy bra, it's a Prada bag or a La Perla bra.
• Family Pressure to Marry - is there one heroine in all of Chicklitland who doesn't have a married sister, and a family who pressures her to be more like that sister?
• Unwarranted Insecurity - Denizens of Chicklitland always seem to be thin but worried about their weight, and successful, but worried about their jobs.
  

If none of these things bother you, you'll probably find Heart are Wild to be a fun, if forgettable, read. Overall, I liked it.

Revenge of the Fashion Goddess contained the most dreaded plotline of all - the high school reunion plot. After suffering through four years as the only Latina in her Chicago high school, Cali Montalvo shows up at her high school reunion intending to impress her former classmates with her status as a budding NY fashion designer, and to confront the popular girls who bullied her younger self. And, maybe she wants to see her high school crush, Rick Capaldi, again, too.

Revenge was my least favorite of the four stories because I have never been fond of high school reunion stories, and because [spoiler] Rick is still technically married when he and Cali hook up. I have no problems with author Berta Platas' writing style - just her plotting. In addition to the tried and tired high school reunion theme, and the dealbreaker spoilered above, the plot also includes a supposedly comedic case of mistaken identity. Revenge is too short a story to fit all those cliches.

The last story The More Things Change, by Sofia Quintero was the weightiest of the four contenders. Instead of centering on shopping and romance, The More Things Change tells the story of the reunion of four college friends who drifted apart. When they reunite to take one of their number out for a bachelorette party at a New York strip club, their actions in the present, and remembrances of the past interweave to show that, the more things change...well, you know.

Although I wouldn't describe The More Things Change as "my style" of story, I found its focus on the complexities female friendship to be a welcome relief after the whirlwind romances presented in the other three stories. The More Things Change was an interesting read, if not always a fun one. I liked Quintero's choice of subject, and I'll probably look around for more of her work in the future.

Overall, Friday Night Chicas is a good book to check out of the library. The short story format goes fast, and the four stories are all amusing, if a little light for my tastes. Those who expect to find more depth or spice in Latina chick lit than is commonly found in the gringa variety will be sorely disappointed. If anything, Friday Night Chicas proves that no matter how you season it, most chick lit is pretty much the same.

Posted by sk :: 11/16/2005 :: 0 comments

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November 14, 2005

Review: Naked Brunch by Sparkle Hayter

The Also by Sparkle Hayter page near the front of Bandit Queen Boogie informed me that there was one book by the author which I had yet to read. Yesterday I was quite pleased to find the cleverly named and as-yet-unread-by-yours-truly Naked Brunch on the shelf at the Central Library. And today, the review.

I have often said "Free makes everything better." Free in this case, made Naked Brunch good, even though I'd expected better. If I had shelled out some of my hard-earned cash money for this novel, I might be less inclined to focus on the good and more inclined to point out how this book did not deliver the one thing I have come to expect from Sparkle Hayter without fail: the Funny.

Hayter's apparent foray into the muddied and over-crowded waters of the paranormal chicklit sub-sub genre delivers the wacky characters, witty writing, breakneck pacing and deliciously twisty plots that have made all of her other books so memorable. Unfortunately, Naked Brunch did not induce the standard 3-5 gigglefests that usually prompt my husband to look up from his book of serious, useful nonfiction and ask me what is so funny.

Naked Brunch is the story of mild-mannered, downtrodden New York legal secretary, Annie Engle. Like many a mild mannered, downtrodden New York chick-lit heroine, Annie has been bullied by her boss, taken for granted by her "friends," and dumped by the boyfriend she helped put through legal school in favor of a richer, prettier, blonder woman. So far, so familiar.

But don't get discouraged. Things get unfamiliar pretty fast in this book, and though there is a strong romantic thread and a mostly happy ending, any book that has the heroine vomit up a human eyeball midway through can never, truly, be chick-lit. In addition to the lack of a fetish for designer shoes, the other things that makes Annie different from her chick-lit cousins are the recurring dreams Annie has that she is a wolf running through a snowy field.

When the vegetarian Annie wakes one morning to find her window broken in, blood on her face, and raw meat lodged between her teeth she begins to suspect that her full-moon dream was no dream at all. An evil executive from the megalithic corporation for which Annie works has been found dead and half eaten in front of a restaurant called "Carnivore" in the Meatpacking district.
The "Mad Dog Murders" make front page news, everyone from a dim-bulb aging reporter, to a psychotic psychiatrist specializing in Lycanthrpopic Metamorphic Disorder, to a rogue werewolf, to the police and the Mayor's special task force are on Annie's trail.

Hayter handles the supernatural element of her story superbly. Some authors engage in long, boring discussions of rules for their supernatural elements, while others confuse the reader by providing no structure at all. Hayter gives you just enough information to keep you from getting confused, and encourages a healthy suspension of disbelief by keeping the plot moving swiftly from beat to beat and the narrative bounding from one crazy character to the next.

Hayter also does an excellent job sketching her wide, colorful cast of secondary characters quickly and efficiently. They really leap off the page, and I never once got any of them confused. Perhaps she did the job too well, though, because by the middle of the book I found myself far more interested the B plot concerning comically clueless anchorman Sam Deverell's attempts at "reporting" on the Mad Dog Murders than I was in the characters that actually committed those murders.

The C plot, which concerned a gossip columnist and Annie's shallow friends' attempts to become famous within a year, was less compelling and highly predictable. Still, as she has in other books, Hayter seamlessly wove the disparate strands of story together for a mostly satisfying, if somewhat predictable conclusion.

I feel a little bad saying that I didn't like this book as much as other books by Hayter. She set a high bar for herself, and deviated from what I wanted and expected when I went in search of the book. I have a feeling that if anyone else had written this book, I'd be raving about it instead of damning it with faint praise. Here are the facts: I devoured it in about 3.5 hours, and while it didn't have the requisite number of gigglefest moments, it was still fast, witty, amusing and well-written.

Posted by sk :: 11/14/2005 :: 0 comments

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November 05, 2005

Update: New Site Design

After months of mediocre site design, I finally found a template I like. Maybe this will motivate me to get out and start promoting this site.

What do you think of my pin-up girl? I wish I could say she looked just like me, but aside from the brown skin, curly hair and looong legs we don't look that much alike. She's cute, huh? The graphic and template came from Caz's template page. Thanks Caz!

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November 03, 2005

Review: Addicted by Zane

Thanks to Nervous, I was raring to get my hands on another novel by Zane. After all the good things I'd heard about Addicted I figured it would be even better than Nervous. I was wrong.

Don't misunderestimate me, I still read that book cover-to-cover in one sitting - it was more addictive than a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips, or those crunchy, spicy Cheetos, which, I swear, must be fortified with your daily USDA recommended allotment of crack, because no sooner do I open a bag than they're gone and I find myself sitting on my couch sucking the last bits of orange powder out from under my fingernails.

But my disgusting junkfood habits aside, this book just wasn't as good. It was like regular Cheetos, instead of extra spicy, and it weighed me down when I was through. I tried to figure out the difference between the two books, and all I could come up with was guilt. Not my guilt - trashy novels are calorie free - but the characters' guilt.

The main character and narrator is Zoe, a beautiful, successful mother of three with a thriving career and a seemingly perfect marriage. But sexfiend Zoe's beloved husband and childhood sweethart, Jason, has never satisfied her in bed. So all of a sudden, Zoe cracks and embarks on a series of affairs with three people who all just happen to be batshit crazy. Zoe feels terrible about cheating, but she is addicted and therefore can't help herself.

And therein lies the difference between Nervous and Addicted. Where Nervous's Jude was an unrepentant nymphomaniac hedonist bitch, Addicted's Zoe is just a sad, guilty little addict - not unlike yours truly after a spicy Cheeto binge. Added to that is the way the book punishes Zoe for her sins. Just when you think she's done been punished enough for three cheating sex addicts, the book heaps more shit on her head. I don't know about you, but suffering isn't my thing. While I relish the soapoperatic plot twists of Addicted, I could do without the downer attitude.

The other thing I didn't like about this book was the ambivalent-to-negative attitude toward lesbian experimentation. This may sound weird coming from me since girl-on-girl action isn't my thing, but it seems like Zane threw a female into the three-bean salad of Zoe's lovers just for titillation (I admit it: pun intended). Where Zoe recounts her interactions with her male lovers in intimate detail, her foray into same-team play comes as an after-the-fact, lite-on-the-details mention, and is bordered by protestations of how she just doesn't like girls. Everyone has a right to their likes and dislikes, but from a plotting standpoint, if you aren't going to respect the Lesbians or the bi girls, why invite them in to play? That's just not polite.

The writing in this book was, as I noted in my review of Nervous spare but effective. Zane doesn't waste a lot of time on flowery descriptions, but her to-the-point prose sets the stage and sketches the characters well enough to tell a good yarn. The characters aren't especially deep, but, hey, this isn't Dickens. I just appreciate that their dialog is so natural.

Which brings me to Zane's greatest contribution to her field: style. As with Nervous, her language is contemporary and never awkward. She uses words that you hear every day - some of which may offend the faint of heart. But if you're faint of heart, why the hell are you reading Zane? - and she uses them to good effect.

Writing dirty is a tightrope walk with "silly" on one side and "sleazy" on the other. Zane skips along that thin divide like one of those twisty little Québécois chicks from Cirque du Soleil. She brings the heat without devolving into sleaze or camp. Zane makes writing good smut look easy.

As I said earlier, this book is a great read, and, like it's title, addictive. I didn't like it as much as Nervous, but then, maybe I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for my first Zane novel.

Posted by sk :: 11/03/2005 :: 0 comments

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