A Book to Buy: There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble

I've met all kinds of interesting people. But there is one claim-to-fame that stands above them all. My friend, Laurie Notaro.

Back in the early 90s, I was working at The Duck and Decanter and every day I had a 30-minute lunch break. I looked forward to the first week of every month so I could read the latest column by Laurie in Java Magazine and Planet Magazine. Laurie was among the first of the first-person humor writers, post-Erma. Her tales of daily life, made me cry with laughter. I became addicted.

A couple years later I got a job at the Republic and I was selected to help launch a weekly entertainment guide. I organized a poetry reading to help promote it and came up with the idea of having a panel of local celebrity judges to critque the contestants (pre-Simon, thank you very much!!). Honestly? I only hatched the plan to give me a legitimate excuse to contact Laurie and meet her. She said yes to being on the panel, and after that she ended up having a weekly column in our entertainment guide, and eventually as a full-time writer on staff too. We lunch everyday together!

It was always her dream to take her collection of essays and compile them into a book. She pitched the concept to dozens of agents and editors and got rejected gobs of times. No one would give her the credit or repsect she deserved. So she took a brand new credit card and self-published The Idiot Girls Action Adventure Club.

The book went up for sale on Amazon, a big-time agent saw it and scored her a six-figure deal with Random House. I know because I was sitting next to her when she got the call. The book was rereleased and landed on the NY times best seller list. She went on to write a series of other books that have done just as well.

Today is the release of Laurie's latest book, There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble (Paperback). For this one, she told me she was going to write a fiction book. Around this time last year, she wrote an outline, wrote the book in a matter of months and wham! It's on sale today! I expect it will also end up on the best seller list, like her others.

Laurie is an example of knowing you are worthy of something great, and not giving up, even when all the odds are stacked against you. The best part of all of this? Not only can I say: "I knew her when...", but I can also say she is one of my best friends. And I know she will think I'm a total geek for this post, but I don't care. Laurie, I love you. Rock on, girlfriend!

From Publishers Weekly
Humorist Notaro (The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club, etc.) transitions to fiction with a comic mix of wife lit and smalltown suspense. When Maye Roberts's husband, Charlie, gets a tenure-track job at prestigious Spaulding University, childless, 30-something Maye leaves her tight-knit group of friends and job as a Phoenix reporter to move to the school's eponymous Washington State burg. While Charlie fits in easily, Maye, after a faculty dinner run-in with Dean Spaulding's wife, Rowena, feels lonely and bored. When she learns about the Sewer Pipe Queen pageant, a local tradition that guarantees the winner a town full of friends, she enters with her singing dog, inflaming Rowena further. As tensions thicken, Maye's rather notorious pageant sponsor, Ruby, may hold the key to Rowena's continuing rage and to the decades-old incident that sparked it. Though some of the plot falls flat, Notaro makes Maye's perspective strong enough to hold the story together, and the book is filled with the same winningly acerbic riffs that drive Notaro's popular essays. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Buy the book.
See Laurie on tour.
Be her MySpace friend (tell her I sent you!).
Visit her web site.
Join her Yahoo group.
Felicidades,
Kathy :-)

INTERVIEW: Novelist Mary Castillo

Mary Castillo, Berta Platas, Lynda Sandoval and Sofia Quintero are my new heroines!

These lovely ladies are the co-authors of the new anthology, Names I Call My Sister ($13.95, Avon Trade, paperback)



If you've been read my blog throughout the years, you know it's my wildest dream to be a published fiction author someday. These ladies had that wild dream too - and now they are living it! They each have their own book careers (Google their names!!) and have come together for this NEW title that hits bookshelves today!

I sent an email this weekend to Mary asking if she'd answer some questions for my blog. It was a super quick turnaround, and she came through. Although, she is a fan of Wonder Woman, so I'm not surprised!

Please, buy a copy of this book and enjoy the interview too!

How did the book come about?
MARY: I got the idea at a wedding while listening to a conversation at a neighboring table! When I came up with my sisters, Dori and Sela, I knew the story didn't lend itself to a full novel. So I thought why not create the framework of sisterly stories and ask my author buddies if they'd like to create an anthology.

Dori and Sela? Please spill!
My story is "Till Death Do Us Part" and it's about Dori and Sela Orihuela, aka "those wild Orihuela girls." Even though they're adults, they can't shake their reputations. When they decide to compete for the tall, dark and handsome hottie at the bar, they realize their saintly sister-in-law may not be all that seems.

Do you craft, do you like to make anything?
Cooking is my craft. One of my favorite times of the day is to walk about of my office and into the kitchen and get all of my ingredients prepped for dinner. Working with my hands - smelling the food, hearing it sizzle and tasting it as a I go along - helps me transition out of my makebelieve world into the present.

How does cooking compare to writing?
I spend more time prepping to write a story or cook a dish than I do writing or cooking! Some stories take longer than others and the same goes for some dishes.

Why should people buy this book today?
First, you get four stories in one book. How's that for a deal? Also, if you've never read me but you love Lynda's work, than you also get to try new authors. Also, these stories are about women who win. In "Till Death Do Us Part", Dori wrestles with her past: her pre-ordained role in her family, her former love and her ties to her sister. I won't give away the ending but...

What is your next project?
I'm really excited about my next book, Switchcraft because it's very different from my other work. Think about this: If you switched lives with your best friend, would you clean out her messy life (including the losers she has been dating)? Or would you sneak a peek at her hottie husband just because you always wondered... That's the premise of Switchcraft when best friends, Nely and Aggie accidentally switch bodies at a New Age retreat. It
comes out October 1st.


I'm loving it just because ithas the word "craft" in the title! Do you have an easy cooking tip you'd like to share?
If you buy fresh herbs from the store - or clip some from your garden - store the extra in a glass of water with some plastic wrap drapped over the top. Keep them in the fridge for up to a week. If you don't use them and they're okay, grind them up into a pesto or chimichurri that you can freeze.
Felicidades,
Kathy :-)