Randomize ME

DISENGAGED is the story of L.A. accountant Allie Zenet who is thrilled when her perfect-on-paper boyfriend proposes, but whose doubts overtake her as she plans the wedding.

The inspiration for this book was my own life – I absolutely despised planning my wedding. Like Allie, I would’ve much preferred to elope. But that is where the similarities to my own life end. My mother is nothing like Allie’s mother, my mother-in-law is nothing like Allie’s mother-in-law-to-be, my husband is nothing like Allie’s fiancé, and the only plot point in the book that even remotely resembles one from my own life is that my mother really did buy her dress for my wedding before I bought my own.

My favorite part to write was a scene at Allie and her fiance’s engagement party. This is when their families meet for the first time and they are very different in every way. The conflict was organic and I was able to write a really fun almost-but-not-quite-over-the-top scene. Hopefully it was fun for the readers to read too.

A close runner-up is a scene that comes later in the book when Allie discovers something about her fiance. I can’t describe the scene without giving too much away, but what she discovers about her fiance is a very unique character trait. It was a lot of fun to write and many readers have commented about it, so I think it was fun for them to read too.

I do have a day job (although part-time these days)–I’m an entertainment lawyer. It affects my writing process mainly in the time it takes. Time I spend lawyering is time I can’t spend writing. Then again, I do like those steady paychecks 🙂 It also affects my writing in that sometimes I set books in the entertainment world or have characters who work in entertainment who venture off to other settings (e.g., “How I Learned to Love the Walrus” — a Hollywood publicist goes to Alaska to work on a walrus documentary).

I’m almost finished with my new book entitled VLAD ALL OVER. I call this book gothic chick lit because although it is chick lit, it contains gothic elements as well. Think Sex and the City meets Jane Eyre. Here’s a blurb:

When L.A. schoolteacher Gwen Andersen is offered a summer job as a nanny, her instincts tell her to run the other way. She likes Isabella Romanescu, the little girl she’s been asked to care for – it’s her father Alexander she doesn’t entirely trust. And the idea of spending six weeks at the Romanescu’s isolated estate in Transylvania, the land of Dracula and the Vlad the Impaler, leaves her quaking in her tennis shoes. But what scares Gwen even more is the balance in her checking account, so reluctantly, she accepts the job.

Once in Transylvania Gwen realizes she should’ve listened to her instincts . . . because now her life will never be the same.

Elle Lothlorien
Talli Roland
Sophie Kinsella