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New York, 8:14 AM
Sun Nov 8
22 posts in the last 24 hours

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  • posts about #chicklit more →

    Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?

    Is "New Chick Lit" Just A Different Kind Of Obnoxious?

    Cliches, Reinforced.

    Gertrude Stein: “Unreadable, Self-Indulgent And Excruciatingly Boring.”

    It's Such A Drag Dealing With Morons

    The Fun/Smart Divide: Why Books Are Candy-Coated

    Brand-Obsessed Chick Lit Makes Us Lose Our Breakfast (At Tiffany's)

    This Is Not Chick Lit: A Q&A With Writer Janelle Brown

    Blogging Towards Bethlehem
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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of momentsofabsurdity momentsofabsurdity
    09/12/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    My parents are Silicon Valley millionaires (not that much in cash, but certainly almost double that in home equity) who don't feel rich enough because they're surrounded by people with tens of millions.
     Reply
    momentsofabsurdity was starred momentsofabsurdity was unstarred
    Image of Feminista09 Feminista09
    09/12/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    Feminista is my book. (And you don't know how happy I was to see this because I STAY on Jezebel.) But "bitch lit" was a term Publisher's Weekly used in an early review and I encouraged my pub to jump on that because we needed a selling point for this book. A lot of pubs rejected it because they didn't know what to do with this kind of atypical chick lit character and I think my current publisher is still finding their footing with this.

    I think "bitch" only means what you're projecting onto it. And I think the same goes for Sydney, the heroine of FEMINISTA. Some women have said they hate her, some say they heart her...and I love that. Any visceral reaction aroused by a fictional character that was once just a figment of my imagination feels like a win for me.

    [thefeministafiles.blogspot.com]
     Reply
    casi nadie (loves MCC forever) promoted this comment Feminista09 was starred Feminista09 was unstarred
    Image of whynotshesaid whynotshesaid
    09/13/09

    @Feminista09: Hey, congratulations! I'm an aspiring author myself, and I am very impressed that you've gotten published and are getting attention for your writing. You give us unpublished, unwashed masses hope! :)
     Reply
    whynotshesaid was starred whynotshesaid was unstarred
    Image of Feminista09 Feminista09
    09/13/09

    @whynotshesaid: thank you! After reading the comments here, I was thinking about contacting Media Bistro to do a talk about this with other female writers. Would you be interested in that?
     Reply
    eatsshootsleaves approved this comment Feminista09 was starred Feminista09 was unstarred
    Image of Vivien Smith-Smythe-Smith Vivien Smith-Smythe-Smith
    09/12/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    I prefer to truncate 'chick lit' to 'clit'. This is because it makes me laugh. 'Blit' just doesn't have the same ring to it...
     Reply
    Vivien Smith-Smythe-Smith was starred Vivien Smith-Smythe-Smith was unstarred
    Image of whynotshesaid whynotshesaid
    09/12/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    I'll buy it, if only to tell publishing houses to put out more books featuring prickly heroines who think about more than shoes and marriage.
     Reply
    whynotshesaid was starred whynotshesaid was unstarred
    Image of BaileyMessalla BaileyMessalla
    09/12/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    Bitch lit? Who would want to date a girl who read those kind of books? I think this will only be popular with the hyper-brainy, fussy pants from the high-end colleges. No one who wants to get a date will spend much time with these things.
     Reply
    whynotshesaid promoted this comment BaileyMessalla was starred BaileyMessalla was unstarred
    Image of whynotshesaid whynotshesaid
    09/13/09

    @BaileyMessalla: Good thing I don't pick my reading material with potential suitors in mind.
     Reply
    whynotshesaid was starred whynotshesaid was unstarred
    Image of KATE! KATE!
    09/11/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    the reason i can't stand chick-lit is the unapologetic celebration of bourgeois lifestyles.

    this quote makes it sound like this sydney character might break the mold a bit, but if you read the plot summary on amazon all hopes and dreams for something different disappear. thirty-something single woman with a f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s magazine job in NYC needs to get married before her "eggs sour." im not going to waste my time/money reading this (its a recession, people!), but i would like to know how it ends. do her eggs sour, or does Mr. Big come through after all?
     Reply
    greengrey promoted this comment KATE! was starred KATE! was unstarred
    Image of bowleserised bowleserised
    09/11/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    If, in the last decade or two, you have had a book turned down by an editor or agent because the heroine is ""unsympathetic"", resubmit NOW!
     Reply
    bowleserised was starred bowleserised was unstarred
    Image of Feminista09 Feminista09
    09/11/09

    @bowleserised: YES! If you have a book with an "unlikable" heroine, dust that MS/proposal off this weekend and resubmit. That's what almost every publisher said about Sydney but the women who have read the book so far are connecting with it.

    [thefeministafiles.blogspot.com]
     Reply
    bowleserised promoted this comment Feminista09 was starred Feminista09 was unstarred
    Image of bowleserised bowleserised
    09/12/09

    @Feminista09: Yep, it was a standard rejection, because marketing always feared that lady readers couldn't cope with a heroine like, er, Scarlett O'Hara.
     Reply
    bowleserised was starred bowleserised was unstarred
    Image of rixatrix rixatrix
    09/11/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    Chick lit seems so out of date now.

    Maybe that's true, but I can't be the only one who cringed the whole way through the "chick lit" trend, can I? It seemed out of date at the onset, the way we singled out a whole genre of books as fluffy enough for women and only women. How condescending. Even "young adult" books have a more respectable genre name than "chick lit." Every time I hear that phrase I feel like I'm getting felt up in an elevator by some dude with a bad mustache and half a clove cigarette dangling from his mouth.
     Reply
    tailfeather promoted this comment rixatrix was starred rixatrix was unstarred
    Image of singingcircusdog singingcircusdog
    09/11/09

    @rixatrix: You and I are in complete agreement. I felt vaguely insulted every time I saw one of those (instantly identifiable) chick lit novels in a bookstore.
     Reply
    maybeimamazed02 promoted this comment singingcircusdog was starred singingcircusdog was unstarred
    Image of maybeimamazed02 maybeimamazed02
    09/11/09

    @rixatrix: Funny you mention YA--I actually turned to reading it (and writing it) in my early twenties when I got SO SICK of chick lit. YA's actually an amazing genre--the one good thing about the Twilight franchise is that it's sort of legitimized it to the mainstream world.
     Reply
    maybeimamazed02 was starred maybeimamazed02 was unstarred
    Image of Treeless Treeless
    09/11/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    I am in support of Bitch Lit--what it represents, anyway, rather than the semantic unfairness of descriptions of more realistic and complex characters as bitches. Although . . . I've seen better, funnier wordplay in Jezebel comments than in that sample from Feminista. (By which I mean to say: get writing.)
     Reply
    maybeimamazed02 promoted this comment Treeless was starred Treeless was unstarred
    Image of maybeimamazed02 maybeimamazed02
    09/11/09

    @Treeless: Working on it, believe me! :)
     Reply
    maybeimamazed02 was starred maybeimamazed02 was unstarred
    Image of LadyFabulous LadyFabulous
    09/11/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    Chick Lit, Bitch Lit... are all recently written/published books with women as the main characters categorized this way? Can't it just be Lit?
     Reply
    LadyFabulous was starred LadyFabulous was unstarred
    Image of sleepeatread sleepeatread
    09/11/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    Chick Lit IS Bitch Lit!

    My favorite "chick lit" is Jennifer Weiner.
     Reply
    thesciencegirl promoted this comment sleepeatread was starred sleepeatread was unstarred
    Image of thesciencegirl thesciencegirl
    09/11/09

    @sleepeatread: I love her books!
     Reply
    thesciencegirl was starred thesciencegirl was unstarred
    Image of maybeimamazed02 maybeimamazed02
    09/11/09

    @sleepeatread: I heard her speak a couple months ago, and it was like stand-up comedy. Love her books too.
     Reply
    maybeimamazed02 was starred maybeimamazed02 was unstarred
    Image of whynotshesaid whynotshesaid
    09/12/09

    @sleepeatread: I love her. Good In Bed both made me laugh and cry. That NEVER happens.
     Reply
    whynotshesaid was starred whynotshesaid was unstarred
    Image of ZemarSea Urchin ZemarSea Urchin
    09/11/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    Variety. I love my trashy romance novels but it is hell trying to find something fun or interesting to read. Right now the aisles are filled with vampire, vampire hunter, dragon princes, werewolves, more vampires, and more vampires. Almost 40 percent of the novels are pararomance. Then there is the same old same old; the taming of the shrew, the "librian" type, the ones where she has to be taught to be a woman by some man or the questionbly virginal heriones. Gah! I read Lori Foster/ L.L. Foster but even some of hers can go a little off.You know who I liked Susan Johnson. She did three books with real, witty, fun characters: HOt Pink, Hot Spot, and HOt Legs. I'd like more of those types.
    [www.susanjohnsonauthor.com]
    [www.susanjohnsonauthor.com]
    [www.susanjohnsonauthor.com]
     Reply
    greengrey promoted this comment ZemarSea Urchin was starred ZemarSea Urchin was unstarred
    Image of greengrey greengrey
    09/11/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    I could see this being bearable. I find a mean as sin bitch who relies on herself (not some ass in a suit) to get her material trinkets much more interesting than some quicky gal who is at the end of her financial rope and finds some rich guy (imagine that!) who saves her.
    Problem is, not many people find a mean as sin bitch to be a sympathetic character.
     Reply
    greengrey was starred greengrey was unstarred
    Image of ZemarSea Urchin ZemarSea Urchin
    09/11/09

    @greengrey: Only because mean as sin bitches are rarely written with flare. I consider myself a "bitch" as do others but damnit I am funny and a whole lot of fun. Rom lit needs to have more humor and humanity in the herione. A little life.
     Reply
    greengrey promoted this comment ZemarSea Urchin was starred ZemarSea Urchin was unstarred
    Image of greengrey greengrey
    09/11/09

    @ZemarSea Urchin: Agreed. A "bitch" doesn't need to be cold/uptight. Give us some witty/sarcastic bitches!!
     Reply
    greengrey was starred greengrey was unstarred
    Image of ZemarSea Urchin ZemarSea Urchin
    09/11/09

    @greengrey: Just like us Jezzies.
     Reply
    ZemarSea Urchin was starred ZemarSea Urchin was unstarred
    Image of LowClassInk LowClassInk
    09/11/09

    @greengrey: But under that definition, aren't the "Sex and the City" women "sin bitches" too? And people seem to like them plenty.
     Reply
    greengrey promoted this comment LowClassInk was starred LowClassInk was unstarred
    Image of greengrey greengrey
    09/11/09

    @LowClassInk: Maybe in the first couple seasons. Not so much Carrie or Charlotte. I could watch "Samantha and Miranda take Manhattan"! They were the cool ones.
    Especially Miranda.
     Reply
    greengrey was starred greengrey was unstarred
    Image of echoparkgal echoparkgal
    09/11/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    I want great feminist science fiction or fantasy writing. I'm so over paranormal slutfi - If I see one more story about a leather-clad independent investigator with a heart of gold that falls for some Alpha beast and uses her extraordinary unique powers to save the world from evil...I'm going to explode! And not with orgasmic pulsing either!
     Reply
    Devonna promoted this comment echoparkgal was starred echoparkgal was unstarred
    Image of cookie.monstress cookie.monstress
    09/11/09

    @echoparkgal: Jeanette Winterson, margaret atwood, madeleine l'engle
     Reply
    whynotshesaid promoted this comment cookie.monstress was starred cookie.monstress was unstarred
    Image of whynotshesaid whynotshesaid
    09/12/09

    @cookie.monstress: Marge Piercy, Sheri Tepper, Octavia E. Butler.
     Reply
    whynotshesaid was starred whynotshesaid was unstarred
    Image of thatsrealbutter thatsrealbutter
    09/11/09

    In reply to Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
    i'm just gonna go hide in the corner with my new Lorrie Moore
     Reply
    NellMood promoted this comment thatsrealbutter was starred thatsrealbutter was unstarred
    Image of NellMood NellMood
    09/11/09

    @thatsrealbutter: We're in the same corner.
     Reply
    NellMood was starred NellMood was unstarred
    Image of whynotshesaid whynotshesaid
    09/12/09

    @thatsrealbutter: I am dying for that to come out in paperback so I can read it. (I don't do hardcover, they don't fit in my purse.) I read an excerpt in the New Yorker and adored it.
     Reply
    whynotshesaid was starred whynotshesaid was unstarred
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