Guest Blogger, Margo Candela

Photo by Alex Ben Parks

I’d like to welcome author Margo Candela as the special guest blogger here today at Thoughts in Progress on her virtual blog tour with WOW! Women On Writing.

Margo is touring with her fourth novel GOODBYE TO ALL THAT. Her book about the life of a movie producer's assistant out of control life will have you laughing, cheering and booing as Raquel tries to fall in love, create a star, and play marital counselor--all while stuck in bumper to bumper LA traffic. Thanks to Margo and WOW! Women On Writing  I have one copy of GOODBYE TO ALL THAT to give away to one lucky person who comments on this post between now and 8 p.m. (EST) on Wednesday, Sept. 8. Be sure to include your e-mail address with your comments if it’s not included in your profile.
 
Margo stops by today to talk about how chick lit hasn’t ruined her life. She plans to stop back by during the day to answer any questions you might have or respond to your comments.

Once out of college, when I finally had the time and money to read what I wanted, I picked up a copy of Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary before a weekend trip with my boyfriend. Up until then I had been reading books like The English Patient

and Marriage Shock: the Transformation of Women into Wives. I came back from that trip hooked on chick lit and engaged (despite having read Marriage Shock).
 
It wasn’t until a few years later, after the dotcom boom went bust and I found myself at home with a newborn, that I seriously considered writing a novel. It might have been the lack of sleep, both from nursing and constant reading, but I really thought I could give it an honest go.
 
I wasn’t living the typical chick lit life—there were no mimosa filled brunches, sizzling romantic triangles and most of my bosses weren’t that bad. I wasn’t teetering around Manhattan in too high heels or jetting off to Capri with a playboy boyfriend. What resonated with me were the stories of young women taking charge of their lives, with sometimes disastrous but highly entertaining results.
 
By that time I started to think about what my novel would be about, I’d read tons of chick lit, everything Helen Fielding, Sophie Kinsella, Jennifer Weiner and more. There was a

formula (gal with job wants better job and guy to go with it) and a certain tone (breezy, funny, nothing too heavy) and the covers screamed “read me while eating ice cream.”
 
This, I decided, was the writing world for me. My son started pre-school in the fall of 2003 and I came to an agreement with my husband. I’d spent three years raising the kid full-time which earned me three years to get my writing career underway. I made that deadline, signing my first book contract in early 2006, and have seen my book covers go from blah to great and my writing style grow up along with the genre.
 
Stories have gone beyond shopping, losing weight and happy endings don’t always have to be about landing a great job or bagging a guy.  As someone who writes it and hopes to continue to do so, I can honestly say chick lit changed my life. 
 
Margo, thanks so much for guest blogging here today. I’d say chick lit has changed your life, but in a very good way.

For a little background on Margo. When she’s not writing, Margo vacuums. It’s her secret solution to writer’s block and when she hits the Times bestseller list Margo dreams of buying a Dyson DC 25 Animal. And shoes. Ask her the about the black heels on the cover of GOODBYE TO ALL THAT. For more information on Margo, check her website: http://www.margocandela.com/ and her blog:     http://margocandela.blogspot.com/

Here’s a brief synopsis of GOODBYE TO ALL THAT: “Raquel Azorian is Hollywood’s invisible woman. She stands in the shining light of young starlets giving their careers nudges, her memos help boss Bert create money-making productions, and her practicality keeps her quirky family co-existing peacefully. Amazingly, no one notices. But then Raquel decides she deserves a chance to be the star. Why can’t she have the gorgeous boyfriend? Why can’t she tell the VPs to deal with their own snafus and grab a little power for herself? Why can’t she stop being the middleman in countless family dramas? When Raquel takes off her invisibility cloak everyone in Hollywood notices! Don’t miss it.”