Get Your Chick Lit On! Guest Post by Liz Fichera

It's Friday! And guess what? I'm still editing. Oh yes. I've been in a deep dark cave for almost a month now, but I'm pleased that I may finally be emerging shortly. In the meantime, I'd like to thank all the wonderful authors I've had on my blog recently for pulling me through. And wine. And well... wine.

And today, I'm extra pleased to have Liz Fichera here, author of the upcoming novel Craving Perfect. It's a delightful read, and you can see my review here. Take it away, Liz!

It's always perplexed me why books written by women authors about family and relationships are often classified as chick lit while books written by men on the same topics often get literary fiction status. Additionally, literary fiction is sometimes described as character-focused while genre fiction is more plot-based. Not sure I buy that distinction either because I’ve read chick lit that is both plot-based and character-driven. Never mind the negative connotation of the label itself and the fact that books other than literary fiction are not reviewed in mainstream publications as widely, but I suppose that’s a topic for another day. Fair or not. It is what it is.

And you have to wonder if tags like chick lit were used to label books in the 19^th century whether novels like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre would still be considered classics today. Cut to present day and we all know that authors like Jennifer Weiner, Sophie Kinsella and Emily Giffin sell boatloads of books that can be classified in this genre. Clearly readers want these stories, when you see how they fly off the shelves whenever there’s a new release. In fact, readers demand them. Perhaps that’s why you see so many women of a certain age flocking to the Young Adult shelves today. We all know that it’s just not teenagers reading young adult novels anymore.

So, can you blame them?

Who doesn’t want to escape for a little while inside a great story and imagine those “what ifs”? For my tastes, a story has to press my emotional buttons to get me truly engaged and I can usually find that in chick lit. So call it chick lit. Call it lit chick. Call it x@3XB 8Lu. I don’t care! Just make these stories available. Boatloads of them.

So what’s your take? Do you care about labels when you purchase your books? Or are you more interested in the story?

About Liz:

Liz is an author from the American Southwest. She writes commercial fiction and young adult novels but mostly she writes stories about ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Her latest novel CRAVING PERFECT has been called chick lit, contemporary romance, and even contemporary romance fantasy. It releases on July 25 from Carina Press. She is also the author of CAPTIVE SPIRIT (2010) and HOOKED (Harlequin Teen, 2013). Don't hesitate to drop by her web site or blog to connect.

Chick Lit is Dead. Long Live... er, Women's Fiction?

I'd read it on blogs, but I dared not believe it was true. Chick lit is dead, they said. Utter the phrase at your own peril.

It couldn't be, I scoffed. But last weekend, my worst fears were confirmed. I heard it not once, not twice and more than thrice (love that word!): chick lit is dead.

Should I be worried? Well, I should clarify that the label 'chick lit' is dead, not the writing itself. Rom-coms or even women's fiction is a better tag for the kind of writing that once was labelled chick lit. The market is saturated with 30-something women drinking wine, scoffing blocks of cheese and bellowing out 'All By Myself', apparently. Time to move on to a new label which will come to mean... exactly the same thing?

See, I quite like the chick-lit label. You know exactly what you're getting: a bit of romance, a bit of wit and a fun-spirited, usually spunky heroine. Women's fiction, while nebulous enough to encompass just about anything, sets my teeth on edge. I mean, you don't have men's fiction, right? On the flip side, you do have dick lit, with thirty-something men drinking beer, scoffing kebabs and bellowing out, I dunno, Bon Jovi classics.

I'll get over my chick lit loss, eventually. I'll come to embrace 'rom-com', or the heady heights of the phrase 'light women's fiction.'

But oh, chick lit.

It was good while it lasted.

Is Chick Lit Easy to Write?

Is there one genre that's easier to write than others? Perhaps I'm wrong, but I think many people (not writers, generally) believe that writing chick lit is easy. The same likely holds true for YA, romance, children's books... and the list goes on.

I don't think that's the case. At all. (Insert vigorous head shaking.) Every genre has its rules that you must at least be aware of, if only to break them. With YA, I suspect writing in a voice that appeals to the younger generation is as difficult as putting on eyeliner without a mirror (it's hard. Try it). With chick lit, keeping the pace quick and light yet inserting just the right amount of depth can be a killer. And while I don't write children's books, I'm in awe how well-rounded stories are crafted in so few words.

It's not easy. Nothing about writing is easy. So there!

(I realise I'm preaching to the choir here, but I feel better for getting it off my chest!)

Hello, My Name is Talli and I'm Addicted to Chick Lit

It has taken me a long time to publicly confess to my chick lit addiction. I used to cower on the Tube in shame, hiding the curlicued covers of my chick lit novels. It felt wrong, somehow -- an admission that I liked reading about high heels and love triangles.

Well, guess what? I do like reading about high heels and love triangles. I enjoy tales about shopping, hunky men and office romances. I'm out and I'm proud.

And I love writing it even more. I tried my hand at serious women's fiction for awhile, but it felt laboured and forced. I can't tell you have much fun I'm having writing my current WIP, The Hating Game, about a man-eating woman who winds up on a dating game-show... only to be confronted with a string of her exes as contestants. In what other genre could I write about reality TV, mud-wrestling and the Isle of Wight? (I'll discuss my reality show addiction later...)

So, yes. I am addicted to chick lit novels, both writing and reading. And I'm not going to hide it any longer.