Tampa Tribune Review

DEBUT IS MORE THAN JUST A BEACH BOOK

By STEPHANIE BONNETT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 26, 2009

"Love or Something Like It," by Deirdre Shaw (Random House, $22)

Deirdre Shaw's debut novel may appear to be a quick-read romance at first glance. It is a quick read, and it is a romance, but the story's heroine, Lacey Brennan, is a charming and delightful character whose gentle humor and insight makes reading pure pleasure.

Lacey moves from Manhattan to Los Angeles for love. For Toby. Toby is working in the Hollywood entertainment industry, so the social life is different from anything Lacey has ever experienced, but she navigates it more or less successfully.

Then she loses her job. And Toby leaves her. She has the distinct "pleasure" of overhearing him talk to his mother about how Lacey never knew how to take care of him like a wife should. She realizes Toby was more likely looking for a mother than a wife, but it's a lesson learned too late.

Lacey confronts Toby: "While we were splitting up, I'd thought Toby was careless. Why had he married me, I asked him, if he was only going to turn around and leave a year later? He didn't understand my question and looked at me, blinking, for a moment. 'Well, I wanted to at the time,' he said, as if that explained everything."

Lacey's story - her short marriage, her divorce, her career upheaval and her evolution - is treated with humor and grace. It may be a little more involved than the standard beach novel, but well worth the effort.

Reading Between the Vines

Here are some of the members of the illustrious Washington, DC-based book club Reading Between the Vines. You can tell by their club's name that they are women you'd want to hang out with. One of their members, the lovely Katie McKnight, graciously invited me to talk with them by phone about LOVE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT, which was their book club pick for that session. A very cool group of women with incredibly perceptive questions. I hadn't realized that the book took Lacey through a period following 9-11 through the Bush years, when the country was feeling just as lost and confused as Lacey was, until the book club pointed it out to me. So that was pretty thrilling.

I have done this book club by phone thing a few times, and it's really fun. It's always so interesting to see what people think of Lacey and of the book, and I end up learning new things about her and about the story, which is weird but cool. If you have a book club let me know. I'd love to talk to your club by phone. Just email me at loveorsomething@gmail.com. And in the meantime, here's to READING BETWEEN THE VINES. Thanks again for having me.

LOVE -- good for the brain?

Health Magazine calls LOVE a page-turner, and suggests that reading it might help improve your memory. Who knew? I love it.

Three Great Memory Boosters for a Feel-Younger Summer

From Health magazine

Take advantage of summer’s extra leisure time to improve your memory with these new brain tricks:

1. Warm up to a new sport A recent study from Columbia University Medical Center links blood glucose levels that rise as we age to memory lapses. Try a fun summer sport, like beach volleyball or swimming, to help your body regulate blood sugar.

2. Grab a page-turner New research from the Mayo Clinic shows that reading decreases your risk of developing mild memory loss by 30 to 50 percent, so don’t forget to toss a great book in your beach bag. A few to check out: Jodi Picoult’s new novel, Handle With Care (Atria, 2009; $27.95), A Fortunate Age by Joanna Smith Rakoff (Scribner, 2009; $26), or Love or Something Like It by Deirdre Shaw (Random House, 2009; $22).

3. Order the iced coffee Chill with three cups of caffeinated java a day and you could lower your risk of developing dementia by up to 70 percent, according to a study from the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Houston Society

A mention of the Houston book signing and party was featured in the Houston Chronicle's Society page. I got a big kick out of this, because any time my dad has a photo of himself taken, by say a waiter or someone he doesn't know well, he'll say, "This is for the Chronicle, so make it good." I can see that some people believe him when he says this, so I was glad to be part of something that finally landed him in the newspapers.

Clifford Pugh, a reporter for the River Oaks Examiner, among other publications in Houston, was a guest at my book party. He is a lot of fun, he asked the best questions at the Q&A, and he generally gave my whole event a bit of joie de vivre that might have been missing had he not been there. He mentioned my event in his column, Cliff Notes, for The River Oaks Examiner, and he also included the photo that you see at left.

I did a reading last night at Warwick's Books in La Jolla, California with the fabulous author Janelle Brown. Her first novel, ALL WE EVER WANTED WAS EVERYTHING, came out with a huge splash last year, and has recently come out in paperback. Janelle and I carpooled, driving the two hours from L.A. to La Jolla together, despite having never met before I picked her up at her house yesterday afternoon. Luckily, we had a lot to talk about, and we got along famously, chatting the whole time, even while relaxing poolside at a hotel bar while killing time before the reading. "What if we had hated each other?" said Janelle at the end of the day. But we both agreed that because we had liked each other's books, we thought we would like each other. Funny how that works. One of the most wonderful things about having a book published has been meeting writers that I admire - and Janelle was definitely one of those writers.

I Heart Houston

My fabulous dad lives in Houston and many of his friends came to the reading there at Brazos Bookstore on May 12. Afterward, we had a party at Ninfa's, where there were long tables full of margaritas and quesadillas. It all felt very Texas. The women had lipstick on their teeth and called me darlin', and the men kept clapping on the shoulders and saying how proud my dad must be of me. While other places in the world seem more and more the same, Texas is truly its own world. I loved it. ( In the photo here, I'm pictured with Houston philanthropist and socialite Carolyn Farb, and her friend.)

PEOPLE Review

The book was reviewed in PEOPLE this week, which was really thrilling, and a big surprise. It got 3 1/2 stars out of 4. A lot of my friends and family have been emailing me to say they have seen it, which has been fun. It's a big relief, because I was afraid and semi-convinced that the book would appear and then disappear, which would be so sad. So at this point I feel really happy with how the book has been received. I was essentially holding my breath, and now I've been able to exhale a bit. So yay for PEOPLE.

Boston Globe Review

The book got a nice review in yesterday's Boston Globe. The first review in a newspaper.

"A thoughtful, well-written story about a young woman prevailing over a difficult past...wryly funny, refreshingly honest...Shaw writes convincingly, with insight and wisdom."
- The Boston Globe

Escaping...

Jay and I went to Sayulita, Mexico last week to get away. It's a smallish town right on the beach, just north of Puerto Vallarta. It was all about dirt roads, surfing, fish tacos, cervezas with lime, dogs wandering the streets, us wandering the streets, the main plaza where the kids (and adults) hang out and flirt, lovely people, fishing, sarongs, potholes, sand, flip flops, smiles, bright colored fabrics, hola!, sunburn, finally standing up on a surfboard, waiting for waves, wearing white to feel cool, the joy of showering after a day at the beach, the view from the house we rented, and not wanting to leave at the end.

It was the perfect escape right before the book comes out.

Some great writing advice from author Caroline Leavitt

"One of the biggest mistakes I see from novel writers is that they are trying to write for an audience, for an agent, for an editor or for the market. Uh uh uh. The job of a writer is to put truth--your particular truth--onto the page. You want to put the blood on the page, you want to dig deep into your soul and in a sense, the only person you should be writing for is you. Write the book you want to read. Make your novel a question that obsesses you personally and in writing it, dig deep and find the answer. When you concentrate so deeply on what is important to you, it will become universal--and then it will be important to others." -- Author Caroline Leavitt

Caroline Leavitt teaches, as I do, at the UCLA Extension Writers Program, and I found this quote from her under the "Writers Tips" section of the program's website. I haven't read her books, but I'm going to start with Girls in Trouble.

I think what this author says is very true, and I also think it's partly why it's so hard to move on to the next thing. You pour your heart and soul into something and when you're done, you feel drained. It's like, I don't know what else I have to give. What more do you want from me?

But I know I do have something else in me. It's just a matter of getting the strength up to figure it out, face it, and put it on the page.

I don't think blogging is my calling.

That pretty much says it all.

Library Journal Review of Love

The Library Journal Review of Love or Something Like It is in and it's nice. My last pre-pub review. Relief.

Shaw, Deirdre. Love or Something Like It. Random. Apr. 2009. c.256p. ISBN 978-1-4000-6770-1. $22. F

Lacey, a newspaper reporter in her late twenties, meets stand-up comic/TV writer Toby and moves from New York to Los Angeles to be with him. Things go downhill quickly after the two get married and Toby loses his job. Toby, who can't find work, becomes a perpetual couch potato and starts to question their marriage. Soon, Lacey is divorced and left to wonder what she is doing in L.A. She decides to stay and, in the process, has some success as a screenwriter and dates anyone and everyone in an attempt to forget Toby. She also examines how her relationships with her parents and brother may have contributed to the hasty demise of her marriage. It's not until Lacey decides to move back to New York that she meets someone in Los Angeles who gives her a chance at a more mature love than she had with Toby. This debut novel reads at times like connected short stories. The strong main character and vivid depictions of Hollywood life combine to create a worthwhile reading experience. Recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 12/08.]—Karen Core, Detroit P.L.

Brazos Bookstore

Jay and I went to Houston this weekend to visit my dad. We stopped in at Brazos Books because I'll be reading there on May 12. It's a gorgeous bookstore - wide aisles and good light and antique rugs, with so many great books everywhere you look. They don't just stock the regular old bestsellers. They have a whole range of funky and quirky titles. And they are so nice there, too. Here's a photo of my dad and me outside the store. (I am not pregnant - I had blouse issues.)

Seeing Stars

I can't tell you how nervous I was to get my "pre-pub" reviews. You get pre-publication reviews from three major places -- Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist. And I suppose Library Journal, too, though for some reason that seems less impoprtant. Your pre-pub reviews can't make or break your book, but they can definitely have an impact. If you get poor reviews before publication, then libraries are less likely to order your book, and booksellers are less likely to pay attention to it, and less likely to order it. But if you get a good review, everyone will likely give you a bit more attention. They'll at least consider ordering you. And if you get a starred review-- that's saying something. They don't give starred reviews to everyone - that's the whole point. Essentially, everyone likes to feel that there is a consensus that the book is decent. It makes them feel comfortable saying THEY think the book is decent. Also, it's easier for people to like something, to get behind something, if others have already gotten behind it. Human nature.

My first pre-pub review was from Publishers Weekly (11/03/08). The waiting was hideous. All this work, and who knew what the world was going to think of it. They could trash it, say it was so so, say it was boring, not well written, that I had no idea what I was doing and I should pack it in right now. I knew the review was coming out on Monday morning in November so that Sunday night I went online to see if I could find it. I couldn't see it without registering for a free trial. I did that and clicked on fiction reviews. My heart was beating fast as I waited for the page to load. And there it was -- I saw my author photo, which was a nice surprise, and the opening words "Bright and promising...." and then I nearly passed out. The words were swimming. At the end if it said: "Shaw’s first novel unfolds easily, with well-crafted prose and vivid detail... a great young-in-L.A. novel." All I felt was huge relief. If Publishers Weekly thought it was okay, then at least my agent and my editor and I weren't crazy.

A few months later, we got the Kirkus review (1/15/09). It was also pretty nice, though not as nice as PW. It summed it up this way: "Rises above the downbeat first half to offer a believable, honest and observant portrait of a woman who gets what she wants only after giving up what she thought she needed." I felt okay about it. At least they hadn't trashed it. My publicist said that Kirkus is known to be "cranky" so I got the feeling it could have been much worse and I had escaped something.

Then today came the Booklist review (03/01/09), which was the best of the bunch. It was a starred review, which was pretty thrilling:

"Shaw’s piercingly insightful first novel depicts a woman in her thirties redefining her life....Shaw’s graceful prose and razor-sharp observations—at one point, Lacey observes her brother is “like a house burning down before our eyes”—make this absorbing debut a true standout."

At this point, I am glad the pre-pub process is pretty much over. I feel relieved. Now on to the real reviews which will come out - if anyone decides to review me - in April, when the book comes out, or a few weeks or months afterward. I may sound relatively calm and pulled together now, but talk to me when those come out.

Would You Like to Buy a Book?

It's awkward to try to sell your own book. But you have to do it. That's what everyone - EVERYONE - says. "You're the book's best advocate." "Don't let anyone else do it for you." "You only have one shot and then it's done." So of course you try to get out there and contact people and push your book. In a polite, non-salesmany way. Still, you feel like an asshole sometimes. Or I do anyway. You have to send out emails to blogs, and readings, and festivals, and stuff like that. Would you care to review my book? Would you care to have me grace your festival? You've never heard of me because the book isn't out yet, but would you like to feature me? Luckily you're not supposed to contact book editors or bookstores or magazine editors. I mean, not really, anyway. Because that can come off as TOO pushy, tacky perhaps. So my lovely and amazing publicist does that. Still, sometimes even that is hard. You go back and forth between not wanting to "sell" your book and wanting to push it on every poor soul you pass on the street. You want to contact ever editor on the face of the earth. You want to send them balloons, a cake, a diamond ring, whatever it takes to get them to pay attention to you. You want to stand in the street with a cardboard sign around your neck, or become one of those twirling dervishes on street corners who try to get you to go into Radio Shack or Verizon. You will do anything to give your book a chance at success. Yes, it's like having a baby and wanting it to thrive. And as with a baby, survival depends largely on you. So anyway, do you want to buy a book?

The new book cover

This is the new cover for my novel, which will be published by Random House on April 14. The book follows Lacey Brennan, a 30-something woman forced to redefine love, family and career after her young marriage falters. It takes place over five years, and she goes through a lot, but the story has a happy ending, which I wrote the summer before last while living in a sublet apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Every day I sat at this dark wooden dining table in a straight backed wooden dining chair and wrote with the air conditioning on full blast and music on in the background, four stories up from the ground, and I didn't talk to anyone and I didn't leave the apartment (except to get lunch) until 6 pm, when I'd go to yoga around the corner. It was a strange time because I was missing Los Angeles, and when I did leave to get lunch or take a walk, I'd walk around with my Ipod on, listening to songs about L.A. and missing it, but sort of enjoying the missing. I wore that Ipod everywhere. I didn't feel I was really present in New York. I felt like a voyeur, but not in a bad way. The whole experience helped my writing because I was in my own zone -- it was something like being on my own writers' retreat in New York City. I was living alone and not really socializing and I'd been doing that all summer, just holing up and writing, because almost no one knew I was back in New York and I didn't really tell anyone.

The day I wrote the ending, I'd been writing all day, and I had this concept for the ending that had been building in my mind, so even though I wasn't done with the novel, I decided to try to write the ending scene. So I began, and I wrote the ending paragraph in this sort of dream state, the kind of state you're lucky to get into and always want to get into when you're writing, when the words flow like they should, and then I sat back and I read it again and again and I edited it again and again and when I was satisfied I printed it out and I read it and I thought, Holy Shit, I just wrote the ending of my novel. And, it works. It's a good ending for the book. It felt momentous, and it changed everything to have an ending that I was so pleased with. After that I felt like I could write the rest, like I could fill in the blanks, like I could do it, so I could get to that ending.