Book to TV Show: Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

January 23, 2014 Fictionella

Actress Lauren Graham's debut novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe, was adapted for television, and the pilot episode is under consideration at the CW. The working title of the show is Unfamous, and it is executive produced by Lauren Graham and Ellen DeGeneres.

Do you think the CW will order Unfamous to series? Did you read Someday, Someday, Maybe? Do you think it will make a good TV show?

It’s January 1995, and Franny Banks has just six months left of the three-year deadline she set for herself when she came to New York, dreaming of Broadway and doing “important” work. But all she has to show for her efforts so far is a part in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters, and a gig waiting tables at a comedy club. Her roommates―her best friend Jane, and Dan, an aspiring sci-fi writer―are supportive, yet Franny knows a two-person fan club doesn’t exactly count as success. Everyone tells her she needs a backup plan, and though she can almost picture moving back home and settling down with her perfectly nice ex-boyfriend, she’s not ready to give up on her goal of having a career like her idols Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep. Not just yet. But while she dreams of filling their shoes, in the meantime, she’d happily settle for a speaking part in almost anything—and finding a hair product combination that works.

Everything is riding on the upcoming showcase for her acting class, where she’ll finally have a chance to perform for people who could actually hire her. And she can’t let herself be distracted by James Franklin, a notorious flirt and the most successful actor in her class, even though he’s suddenly started paying attention. Meanwhile, her bank account is rapidly dwindling, her father wants her to come home, and her agent doesn’t return her calls. But for some reason, she keeps believing that she just might get what she came for.

Someday, Someday, Maybe is a story about hopes and dreams, being young in a city, and wanting something deeply, madly, desperately. It’s about finding love, finding yourself, and perhaps most difficult of all in New York City, finding an acting job.

Coming Soon: Must Love Dogs: New Leash on Life

January 14, 2014 Fictionella

Must Love Dogs: New Leash on Life is the sequel to Must Love Dogs, the USA Today bestselling novel and movie adaptation starring Diane Lane and John Cusack. It is the second book in the new Must Love Dogs series.

Life after divorce for Sarah Hurlihy used to consist of juggling her job as a preschool teacher with the demands of her interfering family. But after a rocky start, Sarah and John Anderson have shared six months of dating bliss. Now their relationship is basically on hold because Sarah's brother, Michael, and his dog, Mother Teresa, are staying with her. And John's new puppy, Horatio, hates Sarah. With a passion.

Michael hopes absence will, in fact, make his wife Phoebe's heart grow fonder. Sarah hopes she can do her sisterly duty and send Michael on his merry way before she ends up single again herself. John hopes Sarah and his puppy can work things out before it's too late. Sarah's bossy big sister, Carol, hopes both Michael and their father will start dating again.

When Phoebe packs up their daughters and heads home to Savannah, Georgia, Michael follows her from Marshbury, Massachusetts, and the Hurlihy clan tags along for reinforcement. Including Dad, who has finally upgraded his Smith Corona to a laptop and already has a date with a woman named Sugar Butt.

Expected publication date: February 10, 2014

Goodreads giveaway hosted by Claire Cook! Enter to win an autographed copy of Must Love Dogs: New Leash on Life! Winner will be chosen on February 2, 2014. Good luck!

Cover Reveal: Hard Hats and Doormats

November 11, 2013 Fictionella

Lexi Burke has always been a stickler for following rules and procedures. As a human resources manager for a leading Gulf Coast chemical company, it’s her job to make sure everyone else falls in line, too. But after losing out on a big promotion––because her boss sees her as too much of a yes-woman––Lexi adopts a new policy of following her heart instead of the fine print. And her heart knows what it wants: Jason Beaumont, a workplace crush who is off limits based on her previous protocol. While navigating a new romance and interoffice politics, Lexi must find the confidence to stand on her own or face a lifetime of following someone else’s orders. Who says nice girls have to finish last?

To celebrate the cover reveal for her debut novel, author Laura Chapman is sharing behind-the-scenes tidbits about the making of Hard Hats and Doormats here and on other blogs with her “Hard Hat Confessions.”

Visit Change the Word for more “Hard Hat Confessions.”

Laura Chapman found a way to mix her love of romance and humor as a women’s fiction author and blogger. A 2008 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Laura studied journalism, English, and history. She traveled across the United States as a writer/photographer before settling into a career in communications. She also maintains Change the Word, a blog devoted to promoting women’s fiction and documenting her experiences as a writer. Born and raised in Nebraska – in a city, not on a farm – she is a devoted fan of football, British period drama, writing in bars, and her cats, Jane and Bingley. Hard Hats and Doormats is her debut novel. Connect with Laura at her website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

Coming Soon: American Honey

October 12, 2013 Fictionella

I am thrilled to announce my second novel, American Honey. It will be published by my small press, Bloomwood Books, very soon! If you've read my debut novel, True Love Way, my novelette Cupid On Deck, and/or my short story in the Sunlounger anthology, you'll notice that American Honey is a departure from my previous work. The characters are much younger, and it's the first time my main characters originate from somewhere other than the West Coast. It's my first story set in the South. I'm really excited to share it with you! I've been working on it for over two years. I think American Honey is best described as a cross between the Disney Channel series Austin & Ally and ABC’s Nashville.

Book Description

After graduating high school, Olivia “Ollie” McKenna leaves her small town roots in Summerville, Georgia, to pursue her dream of becoming a professional singer. With her best friend and older sister in tow, wholesome Ollie travels to the big city to compete in singing contest Atlanta Idol. There she meets nineteen-year-old Jack Bradley, a fellow country singer who quickly becomes a close friend. The connection between them is magnetic and an opportunity to sing together could change their lives forever. But what about Ollie’s mama’s fear of the music business? She’s been burned by the lures of the bright lights before and doesn’t want Ollie anywhere near that world. And Ollie’s growing feelings for Jack as more than just a pal could ruin everything. Despite her own doubts, Ollie is determined to win. Can she make her dream come true or will she return to her hometown empty-handed and brokenhearted?

New Releases: October 2013

October 9, 2013 Fictionella

Ellie Redford has a husband, a job, and a home. According to the rest of the world, it’s baby o’clock already. Shame life doesn't come with a recipe… Ellie knows that starting a family with lovely husband Pete would be an amazing adventure. Pete would make a brilliant dad, and she’d have an excuse to eat shed loads of Cherry Bakewell. But Ellie’s bestie would rather she was up at 3 a.m. with a bottle of Malibu, not formula. And with redundancies looming, Ellie’s boss isn’t exactly going to throw her a shower if she disappears for a year, with pay. While Ellie juggles her feelings (and everyone else’s) as competently as a drunken clown, she finds herself signing up for a baking class, alongside the young, free, and sizzling hot Joe. As they work buns and shape tarts, is there more to their friendship than a shared appreciation of Paul Hollywood? Ellie’s soufflés may be rising, but her personal life is one big soggy mess. If she doesn't make a decision soon, she may just lose everything that matters to her. Maybe it's time to take off the pinny and face up to the truth: there’s more to life than cupcakes.

Bridget faces a few rather pressing questions: What do you do when your girlfriend’s sixtieth birthday party is the same day as your boyfriend’s thirtieth? Is it better to die of Botox or die of loneliness because you’re so wrinkly? Is it wrong to lie about your age when online dating? Is it morally wrong to have a blow-dry when one of your children has head lice? Is it normal to be too vain to put on your reading glasses when checking your toy boy for head lice? Does the Dalai Lama actually tweet or is it his assistant? Is it normal to get fewer followers the more you tweet? Is technology now the fifth element? Or is that wood? If you put lip plumper on your hands do you get plump hands? Is sleeping with someone after two dates and six weeks of texting the same as getting married after two meetings and six months of letter writing in Jane Austen’s day? Pondering these and other modern dilemmas, Bridget Jones stumbles through the challenges of loss, single motherhood, tweeting, texting, technology, and rediscovering her sexuality in—Warning! Bad, outdated phrase approaching!—middle age.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Summer Rental comes a novella that celebrates love, the holidays, and antiques. Christmas is coming, but Savannah antique dealer Weezie Foley is doubly distracted—both by her upcoming wedding to her longtime love, chef Daniel Stipanek, and also by the fact that her best friend and maid-of-honor BeBe Loudermilk is due to give birth any day—and is still adamantly refusing to marry her live-in-love Harry. Readers have come to love these characters in Mary Kay Andrews’ three previous Savannah novels: Savannah Blues, Savannah Breeze, and Blue Christmas. Christmas Bliss offers Andrews’ fans the best of many things: familiar characters, a new novella for Christmas, and a celebration of Mary Kay Andrews’ own favorite pastime - antiquing.

Author Sara Pierce is slowly drowning in Windsor, a city where water will seemingly not stay put long enough to form puddles. While living with her germophobic best friend Angie and dealing with her online gaming-addicted boyfriend Dan, Sara finds herself obsessively writing and rewriting her own story in order to gain some sense of control over her life. Shallow Enough to Walk Through is a portrait of the artist as a young woman trapped in a world she never imagined would end up this way. Marissa Reaume’s debut is a novel that makes and unmakes itself at the same time, as strikethroughs and compulsive editorial injections take us into the mind of a young writer struggling to finally come into her own.

Not only do Southerners talk slowly, but sometimes the whole language is hard to understand. No one realizes that more than Memphis belle Leelee Satterfield. Since she debuted in Whistlin’ Dixie in a Nor’easter, Leelee has entertained tens of thousands of readers. Watching her tackle life and love in Vermont was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to antics, charades, mischief, and romance. Now that she’s back in Memphis, and starting a new relationship with Peter, the Yankee chef from her New England inn, you’d think she’d sit back and enjoy her newly crafted life back home in Dixie. But that just wouldn’t be as much fun. Opening up a new restaurant with Peter isn’t as easy as she had anticipated, especially when it comes to the differences between the North and the South. When Leelee’s ex-husband, Baker, returns unexpectedly, everything else goes haywire. Throw her three crazy best friends into the mix; Riley, her meddlesome next-door neighbor who sells Pampered Chef for a living; and Kissie, Leelee’s beloved second mother who claims Riley sits on her “last raw nerve,” and you have the perfect recipe for a sassy, Southern delicacy. Whether among maple trees in Vermont or magnolia-filled Memphis, Leelee’s charm, heart, and laughter will delight readers in any climate.

Darby Quinn has a bone to pick with Cinderella. Burned one too many times by ex-boyfriends, Darby has lost all belief in the happily-ever-after that the fairy-tale princess promised her. She's sworn off love, Prince Charmings, and happy endings, and she's happy about it. Really. Or at least she was…until she met Jake, her gorgeous neighbor and the manager of her favorite restaurant. But Darby has rules about dating, ones she's culled from her years spent with so-called “princes,” and starting something with Jake would break all of them. Charming, fun, and unwilling to give up on her, Jake doesn’t fit any of the profiles Darby has created from her case studies of ex-princes-gone-bad. Finally presented with her own Prince Charming, can Darby take a chance on a happily-ever-after? Cinderella Screwed Me Over proves that sometimes the perfect love, like a perfect pair of shoes, is just within your grasp.

Tough talking, ball busting, TV talk show host Tanya Travis is at the top of her game. For fifteen years, she has steered The Truth With Tanya Travis to be a ratings winner, solving the problems of Britain's great drug taking, shagging, DNA testing unwashed. But underneath the designer exterior, Tanya's life isn't so rosy. She is hounded by the press, who are desperate to prove her boyfriend's infidelity, and her closest relationships are with her crazy Brooklyn agent and her sweet faced (but foul mouthed) cleaner. When reality TV show Celebrity Spa Trek comes knocking, Tanya turns them down flat, believing that her image and credentials as the Darling of Daytime raise her above participating. However, she may be forced to re-think when her carefully constructed life starts to come apart at the seams. With her relationship in crisis, her career on the line, and her finances in dire straits, she may have to join the desperate gaggle of C-List wannabes trekking round Nepal after all.

Holidays on this Massachusetts island are nothing short of magical, and the season’s wonderful traditions are much loved by Nicole Somerset, new to Nantucket and recently married to a handsome former attorney. Their home is already full of enticing scents of pine, baking spices, and homemade pie. But the warm, festive mood is soon tempered by Nicole’s chilly stepdaughter, Kennedy, who arrives without a hint of holiday spirit. Determined to keep her stepmother at arm’s length—or, better yet, out of the picture altogether—Kennedy schemes to sabotage Nicole’s holiday preparations. Nicole, however, is not about to let anyone or anything tarnish her first Christmas with her new husband.