Jennifer Weiner, July 20-24

[Mary_Lewis]

Hi Jennifer.

I'll be reviewing BFF at my blog, Virtual Wordsmith. I have a question, and I'll try to avoid a spoiler here.

The ending seemed to be wrapped up very cleanly.  With everything that had happened up to that point, I had expected the characters to have a much harder time extricating themselves from their messes.  Was there a reason the book concluded so neatly?

Mary

[Bethanne]

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Mary_Lewis wrote:

Hi Jennifer.

I'll be reviewing BFF at my blog, Virtual Wordsmith. I have a question, and I'll try to avoid a spoiler here.

The ending seemed to be wrapped up very cleanly.  With everything that had happened up to that point, I had expected the characters to have a much harder time extricating themselves from their messes.  Was there a reason the book concluded so neatly?

Mary

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Thanks for returning to the question of the ending, Mary_Lewis. I'm going to let Jen answer your question -- and then let Jen go and have a quiet evening! She's been terrific, hanging out with us for two hours... 

[lissad29]

Hi Jennifer, I had two questions.  Is Certain Girls the last we will hear from Cannie?  Any possiblities of her life making to our movie theaters oneday??  I relate to the women in your book, especially Cannie.  I think you are a fabulous and talented writer.  I own them all!!. 

Melissa

[Bethanne]

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lissad29 wrote:

Hi Jennifer, I had two questions.  Is Certain Girls the last we will hear from Cannie?  Any possiblities of her life making to our movie theaters oneday??  I relate to the women in your book, especially Cannie.  I think you are a fabulous and talented writer.  I own them all!!. 

Melissa

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Hi Lissad29! I thought a previous question would be our last, tonight -- but very glad you're here. Definitely look forward to hearing Jen's answer! 

[Mary_Lewis]

I would have been back sooner, but I was having a hell of a time logging back in.

[Bethanne]

I want to thank all of tonight's live chat participants -- but I especially want to thank Jennifer Weiner, our smart, funny, generous and glamorous star author. 

Please check back on Center Stage for future live author chats; these events depend on tour schedules, so times can vary.

Happy reading, everyone!

Bethanne 

[bookchickdi]

What is chick-lit? Well, I'll tell you, for ten years I ran an annual used book sale that drew over 100,000 books to be sorted. Since I sorted all of the books myself, and Romance/Chick Lit was our biggest category, there was a certain look to those books that would get classified there. 

Harlequin books, of course, but the more modern chick-lit books would have the bright colored pink, blue, green, orange covers with script writing. All of those immediately screamed "chick-lit", but the books by Jennifer, Dorothea Benton Frank, Nora Roberts, Maeve Binchy- those I categorized as fiction, the same place I would put James Patterson and Michael Connelly.

It was clear that publishers (marketers?) wanted the 'chick-lit' books to have an identifiable look that would draw their intended audience eyes right away. 

[Jennifer-Weiner]

I don't know that I agree about the clean resolution -- one character is single, when I think the expectation is that she would have found a guy, and the other main character ends up in a family configuration that will leave her with a lifetime of explaining to do.

What I wanted to do was to bring all of my three main players to a place that felt like happiness, even if it wasn't the traditional first comes love, then comes marriage definition. I don't want things to feel too tidy, but I do want them to feel good (for me as the author and for the characters as people...because, by the end of a year together, they do feel very real to me). 

[LisaSteinke]

For us, Chick lit is anything that is a fun, sassy read with relatable women characters. We all have so much going on, it's nice to give our brain a vacation and lose ourselves in the enertaining world of Cannie Shapiro and other heroines like her.

In fact, we have a whole site devoted to it!

http://chicklitisnotdead.com/

[serviceKP]

That's a nice theme.  Wouldn't it be nice if everyone could have a best friend or so throughout life?   I'll put this on my wish list and when things settle down here, enjoy seeing how nice t would be to have a very good personal friend.

[NYBeachgal]

Bethanne, are we still able to post questions or has the chat with Jennifer officially ended after Tuesday night?  Thanks!

[Paul_Hochman]

Jennifer is with us all week, so please ask away!

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NYBeachgal wrote:

Bethanne, are we still able to post questions or has the chat with Jennifer officially ended after Tuesday night?  Thanks!

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[Bethanne]

Everyone, do keep posting questions! Jennifer is still here (and so am I!). Jen is on tour right now, so her schedule is pretty crowded, but she will get to all questions posted this week.

The Tuesday live chat was a lot of fun, but I'm sure we all still have things to ask about all of Jennifer Weiner's books. Yesterday, I went shopping in a local bookstore and saw LITTLE EARTHQUAKES on the shelf and thought "Hmmm, it might be time to re-read that one!"

So, Jen, here's my question for you today: Now that you've had a second child, will you be writing a new novel about motherhood any time in the near future?

Bethanne 

[Bethanne]

New bulletin: Jennifer Weiner is in LA today and will be checking in with us in about an hour -- so get those questions in if you have them.

Another one from me: Jen, have you ever considered publishing a memoir? Why or why not?

Bethanne 

[dhaupt]

Hi Jennifer, I'll bet you'll be glad to get back home even though the tour is good for the book. I finally picked up my copy and will be reading it over the weekend.

Thank You so much for talking to all of us here this week it's been really fun!!!