Happy Thanksgiving
Did you have a good Thanksgiving? We certainly did. I think I need a week off to recover from this week. My mother came on Monday and we cooked nonstop Tuesday and Wednesday. We did take time off to go visit our psychic and both received excellent forecasts for the immediate future. Of course, I was thankful for that. My brothers both came (from Denver and Dallas) so it was wonderful to see them. On Wednesday night, we went to see Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, which was lots of fun. He was at Rose Hall at the Time Warner Center, a gorgeous new theater. To my surprise, Frankie can still belt 'em out, including those "is that really a man" falsetta notes. Fans literally stormed the stage when he sang Sherry. The ushers were alarmed because they weren't used to fans going nuts at such a la-di-da venue, but since most of the stormers were over fifty, there was no danger. Our friends, Jan and Bob, whom we met on our our cruise this summer came for Thanksgiving and spent the weekend. Mark and I had a great time showing them around the city. On Friday and Saturday nights, we went to Sweet Rhythm to see our friend, Lezlie Harrison, who was singing for the first time there. She was excellent. Lezlie has sung at parties at our house, but I'd never seen her perform at a jazz club. The woman is absolutely mesmerizing. Jan and Bob left today, so we've been trying to put the house back in order. We had hidden all our junk for Thanksgiving, but now we can take it out and let it clutter our home once again. I'm looking forward to going back to my boring but comfortable routine, starting tomorrow.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
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posted by Karen Quinn : 5:19 PM
Great review for Wife in the Fast Lane
I'm very excited to report that Wife in the Fast Lane got a great review in Publisher's Weekly. This is thrilling because they didn't give Ivy such a good review and I was so bummed about that. When that review came out, it was like the time Schuyler took the Stamford Binet IQ test and I found out she was not a genius. I was shocked and dismayed. When Publisher's Weekly gave Ivy a marginal review, I couldn't believe it - my baby wasn't a genius. I've decided that it all depends on who gets the assignment. The Publisher's Weekly review is an important one because the booksellers read those and it can affect their orders. So YAY me on my good review. Here it is:
Wife in the Fast Lane
Karen Quinn. Touchstone, $14 paper (488p) ISBN 978-0-7432-9396-9
Quinn (The Ivy Chronicles) spins a delightful story about the unsinkable Christy Hayes, a former Olympic gold medalist turned successful entrepreneur whose comfy life is about to hit a bumpy patch. Founder and CEO of athletic shoe company Baby G, Christy lands an ideal husband, Michael Drummond, a wealthy media mogul who's survived a bad marriage. Things are swell until Christy's housekeeper and confidant dies, leaving behind her precocious 11-year-old granddaughter, Renata Ruiz, whom Christy takes in. Michael, however, wants nothing to do with another child, as his daughter despises him. Just when the domestic scene is looking bleak, Christy is ousted from the top spot at Baby G, contretemps erupt at the private school Christy sends Renata to (Christy and the head of the PTA have a history), and another of Christy's antagonists sets her sights on Michael. Christy's battles to save her marriage and public image provide pages of good reading, though the plot hinges on a string of coincidences, and Michael's revulsion toward parenting feels forced. Still, Quinn's sharp portrayal of shady corporate dealings and shadier private school shenanigans is good fun up to its happy ending. (Mar.)
Monday, November 20, 2006
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posted by Karen Quinn : 6:48 PM
A lovely day
This has been a busy week of writing, soliciting prizes for my contest, and shopping. Lord have mercy, did I go on a retail bender today! It was so much fun and I bought the cutest outfits. I don't know what came over me. First, I met my screenwriter, who I absolutely adore, for lunch . We went to a new Greek place which was delish. Boy did the studio assign the right screenwriter to adapt my book. We think so much alike and we really do enjoy each other's company. Plus she has great doctor recommendations for any kind of medical specialist you could ever want. It is important to know people who know things like that. She also has amazing taxi karma - she can conjure a taxi out of nowhere when one can't be found. Plus we have daughters the same age and both of our youngest kids go to the same school. How lucky am I to even know my screenwriter (most authors never meet the screenwriters), much less adore her? So, after lunch, she mentioned to me how wonderful body butter from the Body Shop was. So I went in and bought two tins of it (in olive oil and pomogranate flavors - I'm anxious to try them both). Then I happened to walk past my favorite shop and ducked in (BIG MISTAKE) and bought a cool black sweater and three very sexy tops. After buying all these clothes, what was I to do but get my nails done (Schuyler joined me for some mother-daughter bonding). It was one of those very girly days I love so much. Little writing got done. Oh well. There's always next week.
Meanwhile, I've been soliciting prizes for my contest (which starts January 2) and I've gotten some wonderful things - gold jewelry, bath products, books, panty of month club, accessories, gorgeous evening bags, makeup, beautiful scarves, chocolate - OMG - what an amazing contest this will be. You must enter it! BUT one company I solicited thought someone was using my name to scam them into giving a thief free prizes. Apparently someone pretended to be Jessica Simpson's assistant and got all these businesses to give her free stuff for Jessica (but not really). This particular bad girl is going to jail. The company really thought that's what was going on. Frankly, you'd have to be a pretty dumb scam artist to use my name to get free stuff. I mean, who has ever heard of me???? I'm about as famous as Hester Brown - ever heard of her? I thought not. She wrote The Little Lady Agency, a book I randomly chose from my bookshelf to make the point. I suppose I should be honored to think that someone in the world thought that I had a name worthy of using to steal stuff. But alas, I don't. My solicitation was for real. And the company was so sweet. They contacted me at my web site to warn me about the possible scam. Honestly, people are so nice. I hope they participate in the contest after all that.
Friday, November 10, 2006
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posted by Karen Quinn : 9:38 PM
Mama Gena
I had the most wonderful weekend at my second Mama Gena's School of Womanly Arts Mastery class. Mama Gena is spreading the word about the pleasure revolution for women and it is the most fun you could ever have with your clothes on (and in fact, sometimes our clothes are not on). The class is participatory; it is empowering in the way that women's lib was to ladies of yore, but there's a lot more fun, dancing, kissing, and sex involved. Seriously, the homework assignment Saturday night was to get a strange man to kiss you. Many of the women in class were quite successful at it, thank you very much. I was not, but I didn't try. I'm somewhat of a slacker when it comes to homework. Yesterday we learned about massive extended orgasms for women. I have a book to read where I'll learn more. This is homework I will be doing. Anyway, if you're intrigued, check out her web site at http://www.mamagenas.com/ . I'm having a blast taking the class and would love to take it again in the Spring. In fact, 30% of the women in class have taken the program before. The women in the program are incredibly wonderful and inspiring (and they're from all over the world). I feel like this will be a life changing experience for me.
Besides my Mama Gena program, I've been writing with a goal of getting twenty pages a week. So my new book is slowly taking shape. That's been fun. And, I've been busy creating the coolest contest we're going to roll out in January in anticipation of Wife in the Fast Lane coming out. I've been soliciting prizes for the contest and I'm getting some great loot so I hope you will participate. It'll give you a chance to show your creative side by expressing your experience of life in the fast lane through video or the written word. Stay tuned.
Monday, November 06, 2006
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posted by Karen Quinn : 10:16 PM
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