Fairytale of New York: Download Your Happily Ever After

     If you follow my blog, you might know that I’m a sucker for a good happy ending. And for me, what comes to mind first when I think of those happily ever after moments? Fairy tales. What a wonderful surprise I came across today, then, when I opened up my Twitter page to find that Miranda Dickinson’s debut novel, Fairytale of New York is now available for FREE (no catch!) on select e-book websites.

     My personal favorite ebook site where I’ve found it and it's easy to read the books on my desktop or upload to my iPod Touch is Kobo Books.

     Read more about Miranda Dickinson on her web page at www.miranda-dickinson.com, follow her on her blog at http://www.coffeeandroses.blogspot.com/. Finally,catch the reviews on this and Miranda Dickinson's other novels a two more of my personal favorite web sites:

Goodreads:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6649757-fairytale-of-new-york

The Chick Lit Club:

http://chicklitclub.com/authorsd.html#mirandadickinson

The Wickedly Wicked Life of Women: From Classic Lit to Chick Lit

     While I’ve been working on a novel for NaNoWriMO, I’ve found myself doing research on evil mothers and evil women, in general in literature. What is it about fairy tales, fiction and chick lit that readers love a good female villain? Some people call them strong, diabolical or jealous and probably, most recently, “bitch” captures all these words into one modern meaning of the femme fatale. Just for fun, I thought I’d compile a liset of all the Evil Women who we love to hate (and some we’ve even grown to love) from Grimm’s Fairy Tales to contemporary Chick Lit:

Wicked Witch of the West - The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum

The Stepmother – Hansel & Gretel; Cinderella; Snow White all by Brothers Grimm

Maleficient – Sleeping Beauty by Phillip Margolin

Lady MacBeth – MacBeth by William Shakespeare

Goneril & Regan – King Lear by William Shakespeare

Nurse Ratched – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

Corinne Dollanganger – Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

Cruella de Vil ¬– 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith

Queen of Hearts – Alice in Wonderland ¬by Lewis Carroll

Miss Trunchbull – Matilda by Roald Dahl

Miranda Priestley – The Devil Wears of Prada by Lauren Weisberger*

Vivian Grant – Because She Can by Bridie Clark*

Mrs. X –The Nanny Diaries & The Nanny Returns by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus*

Sidra DeSimon – How to Sleep with a Movie Star by Kristin Harmel*

*Chick Lit “Evil at Work” characters adapted from the Chick Lit Club, Retrieved at http://chicklitclub.com/top10evilatwork.html on November 19, 2010

     Fascinated by the concept of the evil female villain, myself, I am working on adding my own femme fatale to the growing list of chick lit antagonists. Taking key components from many varieties of the story of Cinderella and modern elements of chick lit and contemporary fiction, I hope one day Ms. Marguerite of The Cinderella Complex will one day make it on one of the lists. She is an evil woman, not unlike the evil stepmothers of preceding literature who antagonizes my leading heroine at every step of her journey to independence.

Who did I forget? Let me know. I’d love to hear it! Post your favorite evil women from chick lit or anywhere in the media.

See Jane Write: 30 Days of Plotting, Typing, Writing and NaNoWriMo-ing?

I'm taking a little break (I'm sure you may have noticed) from writing in my blog. Be sure to check out any of the past book reviews, links, blog posts or any of the great sister sites I love to read and follow on the right.

Wish me luck....This is my very first year attempting to NaNoWriMo. That's 30 Days and Nights of Writing and writing and writing...and, you get it. Hence, the break from my blog. I'm trying to write a rough (very rough) draft of a chick lit manuscript by November 30. It's a race against the clock as I up my word count. Goal: 50,000 and a completed (NOT finished) novel in the chick lit fiction genre.

Here I am at Day 15, halfway there and I miss blogging so I just thought I'd check in.  I might not be blogging but I'm still reading, writing, listening to, dreaming and breathing chick lit (Okay that might be going a little too far!) So check back December 1st (okay, maybe December 2nd to give my little typing fingers a rest!) for more Chick Lit Reviews and Blog Posts, Ideas and Thoughts on Writing, Fun Links for all the Chick Lit you wanna know.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a great offer I found on Twitter today. If any of you have dreams of writing, check out this great link from Women on Writing to get three FREE ebook copies of these helpful books on writing: http://womensmemoirs.com/free-ebooks/:

“Writing in Five: Prompts to Get You Moving”

“Journaling Essentials: Everything You Need to Know to Start and Keep a Journal”

 “Top 10 Reasons to Write Your Memoir” (Bonus: Extra Writing Prompts)

Don't Forget MAY 2011 is CHICK LIT INTERNATIONAL MONTH joining the United States' Chick Lit is Not Dead, Australia's Chick Lit Club and Britain's Novelicious....."Because Every Woman Deserves Her Happy Ending"...

I Heart Hollywood: Chick Lit Goes to the Movies

          Ah, Chick Flicks + Chick Lit Ficiton = some really good movie watching!! Helen Fielding brought Chick Lit to the big screen in 2001 with a cinematized Bridget Jones. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger’s was a huge hit in 2006 with an even bigger cast. In the summer of 2010 Julia Roberts stole the scene in Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love.

          Go to the Screen Scene at the Chick Lit Club for all the latest in gossip, rumors and in-production chick lit flicks based on the chick lit novels you loved and adored! One of my favorites I’ve been looking forward to ever since reading it back in December 2009 is none other than Emily Giffin’s Something Borrowed. Ginner Goodwin and Kate Hudson star as best friends who are sleeping with the same guy who’s supposed to be getting married to one of them in this book-made-into-movie slated for release some time in 2011. Other favorites still awaiting production, screen writing or that have just been rumored to be picked up and dusted off their library shelves and reformatted for the big screen include Sophie Kinsella’s Can You Keep a Secret and The Undomestic Goddess, Enchanted, Inc by Shanna Swendson (one of my personal series faves about a girl in NY who discovers magic is real but that she is immune to it), another story about the “other woman”, Jane Fallon’s Getting Rid of Matthew, politico-daughter and chick lit author, Kristin Gire might see her first novel Sammy Hill in big lights, Lauren Conrad’s LA Candy – I can’t wait to see who will play Jane Roberts if LC is determined to stay behind-the-scenes -, Beth Harbison’s debut Shoe Addicts Anonymous which depicts the lives of four young woman who meet at the intersection of their passion for well-made, high-heeled footwear and so many more.

          If you are a fan of chick lit, now is a great time to hit the movies. What movie are you waiting for to come out most?? What chick lit book would you like to see turned into a movie? If you could choose the cast for any chick lit book made into a Hollywood premiere, who would you choose and why?