Working Girl Chick Lit Special Duo: Holly's Inbox Review & 100th Follower Book Giveaway

In honor of working women everywhere, to wrap up the month of May and to celebrate the 100+ followers who’ve joined my book blog, I’ve got a specially paired post today, starting with my review of Holly’s Inbox and read on for details of my 100^th follower contest! Read on…

Holly's Inbox by Holly Denham

Written under the pseudonym, Holly Denham, Bill Surie crafts an addictive novel full of gossip, scandal and all the office antics you could ever desire. Holly’s Inbox introduces readers to the world of one British receptionist and you won’t believe what goes on behind her desk. Told in a unique format, exclusively made up of emails between Holly, her coworkers, friends and family, you won’t miss a single juicy detail as there’s no one to censor Holly’s emails.

At the beginning of the novel, we meet Holly Denham who has just been hired as a receptionist at DK Huerst and Co., a banking company. Her first day is a nightmare, wrought with mean girls, tough tasks and frozen mice. Luckily by the end of the first month, Holly bonds with the other receptionist on the switchboard, Trish, which helps make the day go by much smoother, happier and faster. Still, an awful coworker, who they nickname Cruella, is out for Holly, constantly reporting her mistakes to management and looking for ways to get her in trouble. Things seem to be looking a little brighter when Holly starts dating a white collar business guy upstairs, James, but if old high school “pal”, Jennie, another coworker upstairs, can do anything about it, Holly’s relationship with him will be over before it even starts. To add fuel to the fire, Holly finds out an old flame of hers, Toby, will be starting work at DK Huerst and she couldn’t be more mortified. I was kept guessing til the very end what the big secret with Toby was and I think you won’t be disappointed.

Holly’s Inbox has a lot of the typical chick lit side stories going on, including the mean boss, Shella, the flamboyantly gay best friend, Jason, and the irresponsible, gorgeous, and very sexual best friend, Aisha. There’s a little something for everyone with other characters like a crazy Granny, an off-the-wall brother, Charlie and exotic animal lovers and friends, Alice and Matt. All in all, despite its common themes, Holly’s Inbox was able to maintain a mostly unpredictable story in the details of its plot and it was a really fun read. At 672 pages, it’s a little overwhelming to look at and a lot like carrying around a Bible, but with the email format, you’ll be amazed at how quick you can fly right through this novel. It was so good, I’m currently reading the sequel, Holly’s Inbox: Scandal in the City and it’s just as delicious. 

4/5 Stars

I read Holly’s Inbox as the book-of-the-month for my Goodreads’ group, the Chick Lit Book Club in honor of all the celebratory days and weeks in the month of May for working women. Some of the holidays celebrating women and their many careers included National Teacher Appreciation Month; National Health Administrator's, Nurses, Police & Emergency Medical Services Weeks; and Golfer's, Armed Forces & Memorial Day. Since I, too, am a working woman, juggling being a book blogger, a student and aspiring writer with my current day job as an administrative assistant, I thought what better theme to combine with my latest giveaway to celebrate my followers. I think most women these days, whether they work a traditional 9 to 5 job or do something else, are juggling many more tasks, activities, responsibilities and obligations than ever before. I don’t know about you, but reading chick lit novels has been one of my favorite releases and escapes from the reality of it all for some time. So in honor of working women, no matter what you might do, I have a fabulous collection of working girl chick lit novels to choose from in honor of my 100^th follower joining Lip Gloss and Literature. In the books below, you will get a taste of life working as a receptionist, image consultant, fashion assistant, psychologist, yoga instructor and a columnist. I hope you will find something from this list that you’ll like to try. See the links for my reviews.

***Working Girl Chick Lit 100^th Follower Contest***

1.      Open to followers Worldwide

2.      Must comment below with a valid email address where I can contact you if you win

3.      Must be a follower of Lip Gloss and Literature

4.      Winner will have their CHOICE of ONE of the below listed books.

5.      Contest will be open until June 8^th, 2011, 11:59PM.

6.      Winner will be chosen via Random.org and Announced Thursday, June 9^th, 2011.

7.      For extra entries: (Please post a separate comment and link to your blog or tweet.)

8.      Blog or Tweet about this contest (if you don’t have a blog or a Twitter account, you can post it on Goodreads, Book Blogs or another book related site.)

9.      Link to this giveaway on your blog.

10. Add this contest to another Sweeps or Giveaway Site.

11.   Follow me on Twitter or (at cgraceh)

12.  Follow my book reviews on Goodreads (cgraceh)

13.   Add a new comment for each extra entry.

Holly’s Inbox by Holly Denham

Love Struck by Chantel Simmons

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry

Tales from the Yoga Studio by Rain Mitchell

Everleigh in NYC by Cathleen Holst

A BiG THANK YOU to EVERYONE who's followed my blog, new followers and anyone who might follow int he future. As always, this contest is for YOU! If you ever have any questions, suggestions, comments or otherwise, please feel free to contact me at cgraceh at gmail dot com. Good luck, everyone!!!

Winner Announced: The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry

     Thank you so much to FSB Media group for offering Lip Gloss & Literature a copy of Brunonia Barry’s second novel, The Map of True Places, to giveaway to our readers!! As always, a huge thank you to everyone who participated in the contest and continues to follow along with my posts! Using Random.org, a winner was generated this morning based on those who commented on the post for the book review. Without further delay….the winner was….#4:

Congratulations to Audra!!!

Please email me your contact info for where you would like to have the book mailed to you at cgraceh at gmail dot com.

If you’re still eager to learn more about The Map of True Places or Brunonia Barry, in general, please read my review or her fantastic guest post on the process of writing.

**For everyone who participated (and anyone who didn’t), please stay tuned for ANOTHER Special Contest. I am so excited that you all have helped me reach my 100^th follower (and still counting) and I want to celebrate you in a big way. Stay tuned this weekend for more details when I announce my 100^th Follower Contest.**

Star Book Review and Contest: The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry

The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry takes readers and listeners on a psychological journey through the eyes of Zee. Zee was born and raised on the North Shore of Massachusetts, frequenting the towns of Salem and Marblehead. Zee is the product of the estranged marriage between her Parkinsonian-afflicted father, Finch, and her late mother, Maureen, who suffered from bipolar disorder. As you might imagine, Zee’s parents, especially the death of Maureen, have greatly affected Zee’s sense of self her entire life. Although she’s a well-respected psychological counselor in Boston today, Zee, at one time, had given in to her inner rebel and had an obsessive passion for stealing boats. She was very good at it, careful to always cover up her tracks, but like all things in life, her bad behavior eventually caught up with her and it was time for Zee to face the music, so to speak. In The Map of True Places, we find Zee at yet another crossroads in her life, dealing with the death of a client and the progressive illness of her father, and once again, Zee must grapple with a hard reality and learn to grow from her experiences.

          I would not consider The Map of True Places to be a traditional chick lit novel, but with its overarching theme of self-growth, I would classify it as women’s fiction. Like many novels of this genre, we meet our heroine at a place in her life where she is essentially backed into a corner or hitting rock bottom, as some might call it. Zee is faced with several difficult dilemmas that upon first glance seem to be rooted in various dramas involving her family, love relationships, and career. However, upon more careful inspection (and a lot of introspection), Zee realizes that she must do a lot of soul-searching before she can even begin to contemplate any of her outward problems. Zee embarks on a journey of self-exploration, learning that you can nerve be too old to grow.

          I enjoyed the set up of Zee’s character and the back and forth between the past and present during the opening prologue and first two parts of the novel. For me, it became harder to pay attention to the audio during Zee’s scenes with her father, Finch and his partner, Melville; but I must say the intertwining characters and intersecting storylines was very intriguing and worth your full attention during the entirety of the audio. As a psychology graduate student I especially loved the sneak peak I was given into the world of counseling as well as the deeper exploration of characters. I think this novel also hit so close to home with me because I am from Massachusetts and could picture the places Zee visited.

The Map of True Places takes risks that other novels do not, approaching the often taboo and difficult subjects of bipolar disorder, homosexuality and suicide. Brunonia Barry proves her talent as an artist of words, crafting articulate chapters and dividing the book into several sections. She is also the bestselling author of The Lace Reader. This was my first listen to narrator, Alyssa Bresnahan, who succeeds in creating a lovable heroine in Zee and fulfilling her duties as a variety of other, memorable friends and family.

3 STARS

For more information on Brunonia Barry, check out her web site at http://www.brunoniabarry.com/.

She also hosts two sites specifically for her bestselling novel, the Lace Reader, a story about a woman who can foretell the future in patterns of lace, and The Map of True Places. Visit http://www.lacereader.com/ and http://themapoftrueplaces.com/ for the book trailers, information on where to buy and more.

If you want to learn about the writing process and how Brunonia Barry was able to accomplish writing such a complex and popular novel, please check out the guest post she did at Lip Gloss and Literature back in April:

To WIN your very OWN COPY of THE MAP OF TRUE PLACES BY BRUNONIA BARRY, simply enter below.

You need not be a follower or re-publish this contest. Comment and be sure to include an email address where I might be able to reach you should you be the winner of one (1) paperback copy of The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry.

Open to US/CANADA RESIDENTS ONLY. This contest will be active today through next Wednesday, May 25. The winner will be chosen at random via Random.org and announced the next day. A big thank you to Anna at FSB Media for providing a copy of The Map of True Places to the winner at Lip Gloss and Literature. Comment today to enter!! GOOD LUCK!!

Special Guest Post with Brunonia Barry, Author of The Map of True Places

I just started to listen to The Map of True Places, via Amazon’s Audible application on my iPod and I’m so glad I downloaded it. I have only listened to about 20 minutes of it, including the prologue and a bit of chapter one, and I am hooked! Maybe because I can relate to the main character Zee, who hails from Massachusetts, just north of Boston (like the author, herself) and her profession as a psychologist also mirrors my education background. When one of the author’s representatives over at FSB Media offered me an article from Brunonia Barry on the subject of her writing, you can imagine my delight. As you may know, I have been diligently working on my own novel, my first chick lit work of fiction and I am a bit of a stickler for organization. Like Ms. Barry describes in her article, she too, organizes her story before putting pen to paper. I found her process to be very interesting and reassuring, especially for a new writer, like me, who can easily get “stuck” in the mess in the middle. Read on and be on the look out for a future post on Lip Gloss and literature when I review the unabridged audio of The Map of True Places and offer a fabulous giveaway for the paperback version of Brunonia Barry’s book.!

The Mess in the Middle

By Brunonia Barry,

Author of The Map of True Places

One year into a two-year book deadline, I have reached page 165 in my manuscript. So far, my characters have obediently done everything I've asked of them, but today something changed. This morning, they couldn't seem to take a step without tripping over their feet. So they decided to stand still. I couldn't make them go forward, and I couldn't make them go back. When I asked what the problem was, they told me they were confused.

I'd be panicked about this situation except that I've been here before. Twice. And even more if you count the screenplays I wrote when I lived in LA or the books I've written for ‘tweens. While I don't like it, I have come to expect that there are times when characters just won't move.

For me, this always happens in the same place, maybe not always on page 165 but some place close to it. It's always in the middle of the book. "What was it you wanted me to do?" seems to be the question my characters ask, and when I tell them, they become skeptical. Since I trust characters over plot every time, I tend to listen when a character tells me "I wouldn't do that kind of thing." And the middle of the book is always where they seem to doubt their motivation.

There's a name for this. It's called the mess in the middle. It's an expression I first heard when I was enrolled in one of Robert McKee's screenwriting workshops. I was writing a comedy called Sluts, a sort of West Coast Sex in the City with an edge, when my characters refused the adventures I was trying to send them on and threatened to infect me with a case of writer's block if I persisted in giving them directions. They were angry with me, and who could blame them? As a relatively new writer, I was lost and confused.

Confusion, in itself, doesn't bother me. I honor it as part of the writing process, a byproduct of communing with the muse. It is a frequent ailment, but not a serious one. Unfortunately, the mess in the middle is a different illness. If left unchecked, it can be fatal. I'm willing to wager that this midpoint is where most writers abandon their projects. I know it has been true for me. I have several unfinished manuscripts sitting in drawers, including that screenplay. One day, knowing what I know now, I may open the drawer and dust off those stories. Meanwhile, I'll tell you exactly what the mess in the middle is, and what you can do about it.

I'm sure you've heard that old story about the mountain. You are climbing a tree lined mountain trail in an effort to see the view from the top. You've been walking for quite a while. About halfway up, you realize that you don't have any idea where you are. You can no longer see the bottom of the mountain, and you cannot yet see the top. You begin to panic. If it were up to you, you'd just quit, but you can't. You're halfway up the side of a mountain for God's sake.

So what do you do? If you've prepared for the hike, you've been smart enough to bring a map. Though it's an exercise in blind faith, you have no choice but to follow it.

In writing, my map is my step outline. Though I write free form for quite a while when I'm starting a project, I am not a pantser. I believe very strongly in outlines. Once I've captured the voice of the characters and know them well enough to ask that first what if question that propels them forward, it is time to create a step outline.

My outline is simple enough. It contains only the major steps of the story. Sometimes it's a sentence or paragraph, sometimes a list of bullet points. I spend more time on it that any other aspect of my writing, because it's the only tool that allows me to see the big picture. It particularly helps with pacing and with the progression of character changes. If I follow it, I seldom get into trouble.

The problem is, sometimes I don't follow it. I am moving along so fast, and the story is going so well, that I just keep writing. This is exactly what I discovered this morning when I went back to look at my outline. A few days ago, I was writing so furiously that I skipped a step, and, as a result, my characters missed an important turn. If they had reached the impasse immediately, I might have spotted my omission. Unfortunately, the dead end hadn't come until the following chapter, several turns later.

If I hadn't taken the time to create my map, I might never have found my mistake. The manuscript might have ended up in that drawer with my screenplay. Luckily, with my step outline and just a bit of work, I was able to get my characters back on track. They are now happily moving forward.

How are your story maps constructed? Do you outline? Have you experienced the mess in the middle?

As originally published on "Writer Unboxed"

© 2011 Brunonia Barry, author of The Map of True Places

Author Bio

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Brunonia Barry, lives in Salem with her husband and their beloved golden retriever, Byzantium.

Barry is the first American Writer to win the Woman's International Fiction Festival's 2009 Baccante Award (for The Lace Reader). Her second novel, The Map of True Places is out now.

For more information please visit http://www.brunoniabarry.com/, and follow the author on Facebook and Twitter

A sincere thank you to Anna Suknov at FSB Media for providing a text copy of Brunonia Barry’s article. Sign up for email alerts on Lip Gloss & Literature to be informed when the Audio Review and Contest to Win your OWN Copy of The Map of True Places goes live!!