"Who does that fat girl think she is?"

That's the strange comment I've read on some reviews of my novel, ALL ABOUT VEE.  Perhaps not quite as harsh but certainly I've read comments that express that sentiment.

Why?  I always wonder.  Why would a reader be upset that my mc, Veronica May, a plus-size actress struggling in Hollywood, has confidence in herself?  Plenty of other characters in other books know they are good at something, whether it's acting or painting or sports. So what's the difference between them and Veronica?

Her size. 

There's an attitude among a lot of people that overweight women shouldn't be happy with themselves.  They should want to look thinner.  They should not like who they are.  They should feel inferior to others.  Many readers who pick up VEE expect that Veronica will be sad or have low self-esteem and that, over the course of the book, she will learn to love her body the way it is (or change it and then be happy and get the guy!). They don't expect that the problems she has in the book are ones that other people impose upon her.

I've often told readers how I came up with my story about Veronica and her friends, Val and Ginny, the original 800 page book that was called FAT GIRLS IN LA. I had been walking on my lunch hour in Beverly Hills and saw a lovely young woman waiting to cross the street.  The neighborhood was filled with agencies for film and TV and this girl was overweight.  I wondered if she was an actress looking for an agent - or maybe she was a model or a writer. I thought about who she might be, where she might have come from.

And I thought about being a fat girl in LA.  You can never be too thin in this town, no matter what your profession. Even if you're a writer and you're attractive and thin, they can promote you better than if you're not.  Everyone, it seems, wants to be thin here.  But what if you came from a town where no one cared?  What if you were really good at what you did but you also happened to be overweight?  Why should that matter?

Behold, the Vees were born.  Three plus-size gals from Arizona who were best friends and who wanted to make their lives more exciting so they moved to Hollywood.  Veronica was the actress and she got all the best roles in her small town - why shouldn't she be positive about her talent?  Why shouldn't she assume she could get roles here in LA? Ginny was the writer and Val was the model. They all suffered discrimination here.  Their friendship was tested.  Their self-confidence was challenged.

I think a lot of readers who have problems with Veronica's positive self-esteem have struggled with it themselves. They may want her to feel as they do and are disappointed that she likes herself the way she is.  They may have had people in their lives tell them they need to lose weight in order to be hired - or loved.  Make no mistake: Vee does not think she's the best at everything, that she's beautiful, that she should get every guy she meets.  That's the assumption readers place on her just because she's a good actress. She struggles too.  She just doesn't struggle with what you expect her to.

She's just like you.

Things I've Learned During Self-publishing (so far!)

1. First of all, the cool kids call it "indie" publishing and as we all know, when you stick the word "indie" in front of anything, its cachet is magnified a thousandfold.

2. Apparently, there was no Chapter 13 in my published novel, ALL ABOUT VEE.  Yes, it's true!  There's a Chapter 12 and a Chapter 14 but no 13.  This was due solely to human error (many humans' errors), not a superstition, although if it had been a superstition, that would have been pretty neat.

As we reformat the book to publish it as FAT GIRLS IN LA, I'm making changes, adding a little material here and there that I always wanted kept in.  So there will be a Chapter 13 in the new edition.

3. I only used one ellipsis in the entire novel of ALL ABOUT VEE.  Weird, huh?  An ellipsis is "..." Which I use all the time in my normal daily writing so it's truly bizarre there's only one in nearly 300 pages of text.

4. LOVE, MEG in Hungarian? Maybe!  When you're getting ready to re-launch, you need to regain control over all the material you own that's out there. Ninja Webmaster and I are always on the lookout for websites that have my ebooks listed so we can get them removed so we are constantly Googling, etc. But according to Goodreads, there was (or might have been) a Hungarian language version of MEG as an ebook and as a paperback.  They have ISBN numbers and everything!

New cover reveal: Vee's back!

...and she's bringing her friends!

Finally, we've got a little action going here on the blog.  It's been a long time percolating but we've got a brand new cover for the re-release of ALL ABOUT VEE, now titled FAT GIRLS IN LA, as I originally wanted it to be.  Check it out (thanks Ninja Webmaster for the redesign!):

We're all Fat Girls in LA - even the boys.

Vee will be released this month followed by...!  Nope!  Not gonna reveal that title yet!  You'll have to wait til December. Keep up to date with Vee and her friends on her Facebook page or her Twitter page and be one of the girls!

Upcoming books?

10, 9, 8, 7...

We're getting ready to launch.  Re-launch, that is.  My intrepid Ninja Webmaster is designing a brand new website and new book covers for the re-launch of 2 of my books plus several absolutely, never-seen-before new ones, including two sequels in my Fat Girls trilogy. Currently we are tweaking images and such - plus lots of technical stuff I don't know anything about.  We'll go to Amazon and other e-tailers online first but will hopefully have the books available for print as well. 

6, 5, 4...

And why am I doing this?  Well, first of all, I always felt like my novels, LOVE, MEG and ALL ABOUT VEE weren't given the opportunity to reach a wide audience.  Part of that was due to the very small marketing budget those books had- not my fault, not the books' faults, not the editor's or agent's fault. It's just the way traditional publishing works: only a select few books get the money spent on them. They are usually the ones whose authors received large advances so the publishers need to spend even more money on them to recoup that original outlay.  Those books are the ones which are expected to rake in the big bucks. 

Then there are "small" books like mine - "quiet" books that don't have big high-concept hooks - that don't receive big advances, big marketing budgets and are expected to do nothing.  Publishers throw these books into the mix and let them flounder on their own. If they make any money, hurrah!  If not, they go out-of-print.  Well, how many do you think fall into the former category?  Not many is right.  Mine fell into the latter and they went OOP and now, I have the rights back.

Another reason why I'm putting my e-books out online is that the market has changed an awful lot since I first got published.  The books I wrote after MEG and VEE were also "quiet" without high concept hooks and since MEG and VEE did not flourish, no one wanted these.  I disagree - I think readers want them.  I think people are hungry for good stories, regardless of whether they have a hook or not.  As a reader myself, I enjoy good characters and solid stories that entertain me. I have a Kindle and I want to load it up with books.  I think there are a lot of people out there like me.  And my books are for them.

Sure, I'm also writing books that do have "concepts" that I hope traditional publishing will want to put out but if not, I am creating an avenue directly to readers and I'll get them out there one way or another.

3, 2, 1...

Here comes the 10th Annual West Hollywood Book Fair!

Whoo-hoo for Weho! As we say here in West Hollywood.  Once again, I'm very proud to be a part of this event, helping to coordinate some really cool things on the Teen Stage.  Let's take a look at some of the awesome things going on:

* "It Was a Dark & Stormy Night"--10:45am to 11:05am

YA Authors read A Wrinkle in Time

With those words, author Madeline L’Engle begins her extraordinary story of teenager Meg Murry who is about to embark on a journey to save her scientist father from the cold Universe with the help of three otherworldy beings.  YA writers Amy Koss (The Not-So-Great Depression), Sally Nemeth (The Heights, the Depths and Everything in Between), Leigh Purtill (All About Vee) and Carol Tanzman (Dancergirl) share the first chapter of this classic novel on the Teen Stage. And there's even a very special guest reader, Marg Helgenberger from CSI!

 

* "Extra, Extra, Blog all about it!"

One of the web's favorite bloggers, Chelsea Swiggett, aka The Page Flipper, who hosts the book blog, Coffee and Cliffhangers, will be interviewing 3 YA authors one-on-one, asking them all the questions you want to know about:

--Cecil Castellucci--11:15am to 11:30am

--Blake Nelson--12:50pm to 1:05pm

--Cherry Cheva--3:35pm  to 3:50pm

 

* "Lights! Camera! Coming Attractions!"--12:20pm to 12:40pm

Live book trailers on the Teen Stage preview new books from your favorite authors in Young Adult Lit.  Elise Allen (Populazzi), Allen Zadoff (My Life, The Theater and Other Tragedies), Claire LaZebnik (Epic Fail), and Carol Tanzman (Dancergirl) present their new books with the help of some amazing teens.  Singing?  Dancing? Acting?  Puppets?  You never know what you’ll get with these writers!

 

So mark your calendars now for the West Hollywood Book Fair. There's so much to do and see that you'll want to be there all day!

 

What: 10th Annual West Hollywood Book Fair

When: Sunday, Oct 2nd, 10AM-1PM

Where: San Vicente Blvd, between Melrose and Santa Monica Blvd

Cost: Free!!!

Rachel Olivier's "The G.O.D. Factor"

Rachel Olivier's novella, "The G.O.D. Factor," reminds me of some of my very favorite science fiction: a little Ray Bradbury, a little Isaac Asimov, a little Robert Heinlein. It all adds up to a really fun story with a main character you want to spend more time with.

Monica is part of a small crew on a ship in deep space. While she tends to the ship's controls, the rest of the crew (including the captain she crushes on as well as her ex-boyfriend) rests in their stasis chambers. All by herself, enjoying her solace yet a little bit lonely, Monica talks to her plants and to the ship's controls, completely unaware that someone is listening - the ship itself. She's shocked when the Artificial Intelligence that she'd thought had been turned off by the ship's engineer begins communicating with her. It calls itself G.O.D. - Galactic Orbital Dreadnaught - which is a holdover from a long ago war. Monica soon realizes G.O.D. doesn't want to be her friend; it wants to control her and the rest of the crew.

Monica is a clever and funny protagonist who would rather sleep in her flannel pjs on a sofa with a crocheted pillow than in her high tech stasis chamber. There is a sweetness to this story that much SF misses: even in the midst of the crisis, Monica can't help but admire the nude physique of the captain when she awakens him from deep sleep - and then she admonishes herself for doing so! I love the oh-so-low-tech methods she and the crew use to outsmart G.O.D.

The author told me she was thinking about fleshing the novella out more, perhaps examining the earlier relationship between Monica and her ex. I think this would be a great adventure in a larger story and would definitely enjoy reading more about the ship, the past war, and Monica herself.

The slim and easily portable paperback of "The G.O.D. Factor" can be purchased online at Sam's Dot Publishing.

Donate to a great cause and win books!

Donate and win me!

Over at TLC Auctions, Lauren of the blog Shooting Stars Mag and Kristi of the blog The Story Siren have combined forces to put together the ultimate book auction. All money raised through donations will go to help young Kaylea, who has leukemia, and Daniel, who lost his arm and has gone through over a dozen surgeries (very expensive!).

Read about it all here at their combined site, TLC Auctions. My book is up for auction now - donate between today and Sunday, 7/24, and you could win a signed copy of my novel, ALL ABOUT VEE. I will sign it to you personally (or to whomever you want to give it) and send it out with my very own hands.

My book auction here.

Thank you Lauren and Kristi for asking me to participate! I hope you raise all that you need and more!