August 18, 2011

CLP Blog Tours: Guest Post Author Britney Bronte

PhotobucketThe True Confessions of a TV Psychic!

A sparkling romcom based on the true life adventures of Britney Bronte, hapless wannabe celebrity psychic.

Meet Britney, a girl with a pack of cards and almost no ambition, who finds herself jetset to stardom on psychic Television. Will she find fame? Inner meaning? True love?

Crazies and conmen, angels and aliens, predictions and porn, they're all to be found in this whistleblowing romp through the New Age. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll howl... but whatever you do, remember please, DO NOT LICK THE PHONES!



Today I have a the fabulous guest post by the author of Do Not Lick The Phones, Britney Bronte with me. Thanks Britney for stopping by!




Can Guys Write Chicklit?

Course they can. There, that was a short guest blog! More seriously, the requirements for a chicklit author have nothing to do with gender. It’s about personality. If there was a questionnaire entitled What Kind Of Novelist Are You it would only need one question; ‘What do you like to read?’ That’s the kind of stuff you should try to write, even if it’s just once in your whole life.When the Bronte sisters got their books published, they had to use male pseudonyms. Take Emily Bronte’s classic, Wuthering Heights. How would you define it? A gothic novel? A psychological horror? A family drama? Most would agree that it’s some kind of romance. But at the time, it was considered so brutal, so shocking, that a woman couldn’t possibly have written it.

Things have changed; now we must wrestle a perception that women can’t write anything else, that boys write the action stuff, girls write the weepies. Female writers have already put the boot into that idea in the fields of crime writing and murder mysteries, children’s fiction and fantasy, though perhaps we are still struggling against a popular sense of women writing ‘soft’ science fiction while anything with technical description comes down to men; boys with toys and all that. Anyone remember a comic called Misty? It was full of tingly spooky stories for girls…but they weren’t written by girls. The guys who wrote them went on to write for comics like 2000AD, all ray guns and axes.

Wherever stories come from is a strange place inside each of us, hard to define. Pink for girls and blue for boys has nothing to do with it. In Do Not Lick The Phones, my heroine will tell you that the book she detests most is John Grey’s best seller; Men are from Mars Women are from Venus. This book could almost be treated like a chicklit manual if you’re looking for easy clichés: Woman loves shoes and chocolates, Man can’t bear to ask for directions, that kind of thing. Like any stereotype, it can be funny, but it’s not real, so don’t let it limit your story. Whether you’re a member of the Women’s Institute/the Froufrou Club/the League of Crazy Catwomen , if you want to write a western or hard scifi or whatever, go for it. And guys, join the legions of men out there already writing chick lit and romance. Anybody, everybody, if it’s what you love, it’s the story you were meant to create. Write it and be proud.


You can find Britney on Twitter, Facebook, or on her website.


You can purchase her book on Amazon.

**All proceeds for Do Not Lick the Phones will be donated to helping the London communities get back on their feet.**





2 comments:

  1. Great topic! I have read a few chick lit from men, and actually really enjoyed it. I would recommend WAXED by Robert Rave!

    ReplyDelete
  2. sounds like a fun read! Interesting topic, I will have to try reading chicklit written by guys. I will be honest I usually avoid books written by guys.

    ReplyDelete

 
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