Author Archives: Malena Lott

About Malena Lott

Admin is founder Malena Lott, avid book reader, blogger, brand & marketing consultant, girlfriend wrangler, wife and mommy of three. She's also the author of several novels: The Stork Reality, Dating da Vinci, Fixer Upper and her first novella, Life's A Beach (coming Memorial weekend, 2011.)

Cupcake Anniversary!

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by Malena Lott
I secretly hate that expression, “Time flies,” likely because it’s cliche, and the nickname phrase of “time flies when you’re having fun,” which is even more cliche (but true!) and is probably a good thing versus, “life is slow when it sucks,” which doesn’t have the same ring to it at all. My new magic trick is getting time to slow down by staying in the present moment. I know, right? Get me a show in Vegas already.

So, yeah, time flying? UFO speed, baby. Or, you know, busy bee fast. Buzz Books USA is one year old on Valentine’s Day! I know it’s a little birthday, but it means we’ve cut our teeth in birthing stories into this world. (Forgive me I’ve been in cradleville re-birthing The Stork Reality: Secrets from the Underbelly, out March 1st) so everything in my life is a metaphor for birth these days.

Time flew not just because it was “fun” experimenting with publishing last year with Fixer Upper and then my first novella, Life’s a Beach and then the multi-author project Sleigh Ride. It flew despite the many curse words and fits and frustrations that came along with the whole process. And I’ll likely continue to do those things, but this time I have company! With a Buzz Books team and new lifeblood on Book End Babes, we really are living the motto of Buzz Books to celebrate stories.

A couple of ways you can celebrate with us:
1. Enter our birthday giveaway of a Kindle by liking the Buzz Books Facebook page
2. Enjoy 10% off creative services if you’ve been needing a bit of an undo to your image (through our parent company Athena).
3. Share stories of pregnancy and motherhood by signing up to blog once for the StorkRealityBook ode to motherhood blog (The good, the bad, the smelly.) E-mail malenalott (at) me (dot) com for the skinny.
4. Pitch Buzz Books for publishing consideration.
5. Send interesting authors our way for FIVE IN THE HIVE Q&As here on Book End Babes and possible guests on our The Hive with Buzz Books weekly story podcast – now available on iTunes, blogtalkradio and malenalott.com.

And my story rec of the week? THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Greene, which was a BEB top pick in January and turned me into a puddle of tears over the weekend. Sweet Jesus that man can write. I’m all for story craft books, but if you need to learn more about characters and dialogue, by all means, read and study that book. The storytelling is so vivid I felt like a watched a movie.

New! New! New!

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by Malena Lott

Sorry. I couldn’t help myself with that headline. Blame on my daily life as a marketer and advertiser. I’m always looking for the sparkly object to promote to my client’s target market. In the case of Book End Babes, we do have a lot of new on the horizon. You may have seen some tweets asking for more bookettes and book dudes. We’re switching to a once a month post per blogger format and leaving some spaces open for author guest posts. We’re also going to restructure the site and fold it neatly into the fold of the Athena Institute properties – my branding, creative and multimedia firm I founded in 2006.

It just makes sense that with the wild west of publishing these days I’d mesh my worlds. I hope that readers and authors will love what we’re doing. The indie multimedia division, Buzz Books USA, is going strong, with the recent announcement of new team members (publicist Cyndy Hoenig, senior editor Mari Farthing and communications manager Dani Stone) and writing contracts for new authors in several categories.

In addition to providing blogging opportunities for authors, we’ll also be adding advertising space and creative services for writers and businesses. I’m going to be honest and say all the “badvertising” I see being offered on the Internet made me want to offer a higher quality solution. Branding matters.

You’ll also be seeing more multimedia in the way of workshops, videos and podcasts. The Hive with Buzz Books just completed our first interview with film critic Phil Bacharach. You can listen to it here and will be able to get a feed through iTunes. Next week our guest is our own film to books bookette Michelle Langston who is a film publicist.

Yet the mission of BEB remains unchanged – get people reading. Talk about great books. Inspire new ideas and thinking. Reading makes us more empathetic, smarter and not quite so bitchy. Hey, it’s science! I’m going “behind the scenes” at BEB, but I’ll be posting once a month and relishing in getting to be a part of this savvy book community. Dani is taking the reins at BEB and long-time bookette Heather Dearly (and new Buzz Books author) will be the co-editor. Heather will handling our 4 monthly Top Picks. I know they’ll catch me when I fall, which I’m eternally grateful for. :)

I’ll leave you with a bookish gift – a free promo that ends Monday for my short story, Snowflakes and Stones, available on the Kindle. It’s from the winter anthology, Sleigh Ride. I’d love to hear what you think.

Stay tuned for our trumpets and ‘tinis, announcing our new look and new book bloggers.

Real babes read books. (gals and guys!)

xo,
Malena

Calling All Book Clubs

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by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

I know there are book clubs out there made up of kids or teens. And I’m sure that, somewhere, there are groups of men discussing the latest Jonathan Franzen novel. Still, the evidence suggests that the overwhelming majority of book discussion groups are composed of 10-12 women – I know I read that statistic somewhere at some point – who meet monthly to discuss the kinds of books women love most over wine and cheese or coffee and brownies.

I’ve had 23 books published since 2003, the first of which was The Thin Pink Line, a dark comedy for adults about a woman who fakes an entire pregnancy. Several more adult novels followed, both comedic and serious, but in recent years most of my energy has gone into young adult fiction and children’s books. Now, for the first time in over three years, I have something – two somethings, actually – that I hope your books clubs will consider when looking for something lighter and quirkier but still discussable to take you through the aftermath of holiday craziness.

The first is THE BRO-MAGNET, available in ebook only at this point but perfect for the six million people who received e-readers for the holidays. Here’s the description: Women have been known to lament, “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.” For Johnny Smith, the problem is, “Always a Best Man, never a groom.” At age 33, housepainter Johnny has been Best Man eight times. The ultimate man’s man, Johnny loves the Mets, the Jets, his weekly poker game, and the hula girl lamp that hangs over his basement pool table. Johnny has the instant affection of nearly every man he meets, but one thing he doesn’t have is a woman to share his life with, and he wants that desperately. When Johnny meets District Attorney Helen Troy, he decides to renounce his bro-magnet ways in order to impress her. With the aid and advice of his friends and family, soon he’s transforming his wardrobe, buying throw pillows, ditching the hula girl lamp, getting a cat and even changing his name to the more mature-sounding John. And through it all, he’s pretending to have no interest in sports, which Helen claims to abhor. As things heat up with Helen, the questions arise: Will Johnny finally get the girl? And, if he’s successful in that pursuit, who will he be now that he’s no longer really himself?

The second, LITTLE WOMEN AND ME, is for all those fans of the Louisa May Alcott story of the March sisters, in both book and film, who, like me, think one or two things could be changed to make it even better. And here’s the description for that one: Emily is sick and tired of being a middle sister. So when she gets an assignment to describe what she’d change about a classic novel, Emily pounces on Little Women. After all, if she can’t change things in her own family, maybe she can bring a little justice to the March sisters. (Kill off Beth? Have cute Laurie wind up with Amy instead of Jo? What was Louisa May Alcott thinking?!) But when Emily gets mysteriously transported into the 1860s world of the book, she discovers that righting fictional wrongs won’t be easy. And after being immersed in a time and place so different from her own, it may be Emily-not the four March sisters-who undergoes the most surprising change of all.

Thanks for your consideration! If you do read one or both books, and enjoy them, please tell the world! And if you don’t, maybe tell a few less people. Oh, and you can always write me, since you’ll know exactly who to blame.

Cheers, and Happy New Year!

Lauren Baratz-Logsted
www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com

Early Review: The Bungalow by Sarah Jio

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by Malena Lott

Raised by my grandparents, my sisters and I had the pleasure of hearing many World War II stories from my grandfather, a tall, handsome man with wavy hair who spent his early adulthood in the Navy, making great friends and great memories while traveling around the world. He talked about the ship, about how he got that ginormous anchor tattoo on his arm and rarely about any actual fighting. (Thankfully.)

When we read a book, we can’t fully set aside our own history. Instead, we merge our own understanding about the world with the one in the book and I was pleased to get to travel back in time to experience the war through the characters.

That was my starting point with The Bungalow by Sarah Jio, her sophomore novel set in World War II, following the life of a young nurse.

From the publisher:
A sweeping World War II saga of thwarted love, murder, and a long-lost painting.

In the summer of 1942, twenty-one-year-old Anne Calloway, newly engaged, sets off to serve in the Army Nurse Corps on the Pacific island of Bora-Bora. More exhilarated by the adventure of a lifetime than she ever was by her predictable fiancé, she is drawn to a mysterious soldier named Westry, and their friendship soon blossoms into hues as deep as the hibiscus flowers native to the island. Under the thatched roof of an abandoned beach bungalow, the two share a private world-until they witness a gruesome crime, Westry is suddenly redeployed, and the idyll vanishes into the winds of war.

A timeless story of enduring passion, The Bungalow chronicles Anne’s determination to discover the truth about the twin losses-of life, and of love-that have haunted her for seventy years.

Jio is a beautiful writer, painting a vivid picture of Bora Bora and the war itself. The isolation and danger work in harmony with the romantic aspect of the book – the gorgeous island, the young couple in love, and the bungalow itself.

As a writer, I admire how Jio was able to incorporate believable plot twists and a murder mystery into the romantic tale of a nurse and the soldier she falls in love with, though the book would have been just as enjoyable without it. To be sure, the romance is center stage, but it’s Jio’s ability to give us a realistic picture of how things were handled during that time in history – even more so matters of the heart – that makes the book a standout for me.

The conflict works well – both Anne being engaged back home and the murder mystery itself. The sub-plot about the mysterious painting from the Bungalow and the grand-daughter’s research into an artist of a sculpture at her university provide a link from the past to the present and ultimately to the novel’s feel-good conclusion.

To learn more about Sarah Jio and to watch her book trailer, visit her website at www.sarahjio.com. The book will be released on December 27th.

Tribute Books Seeing YA Submissions

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Since a lot of our readers are also aspiring authors, we agreed to do a Q&A with an independent publisher, Tribute Books, looking for new Young Adult submissions. Joining us is Nicole Langan with Tribute. Read on, babes!

Tribute owner Nicole Langan

1. Is there a particular young adult genre you are most interested in pubbing?

Our preference is for damn good writing, the particular topic is secondary in importance. However, books written with a series in mind or those that delve into the paranormal will have a slight edge.

2. What do you see as Tribute Books’ niche in the industry – especially with so many indie presses starting up?

What sets us apart is our one-on-one interaction with our authors. We go the extra mile in doing everything we can to promote our titles on a daily basis even years after a book’s initial release. I’m a believer in doing what you love and working with like-minded people, when it’s at all possible.

I am a big believer in the power of social media. I even conduct monthly blog tours for outside publishers and authors in order to help them increase the online presence of a book. Book bloggers are a powerful force in the book industry. With more and more book stores closing and book review columns being cut from major newspapers, readers are depending on bloggers to help them find the books they want to read. They are turning to the internet as a reference point to fill this information gap.

In my opinion, social networking is the bread and butter of any author’s promotional efforts. Without it, it’s like trying to paddle upstream without a canoe. Readers want to connect with the person who wrote the book. They crave interaction with an author. Nothing beats getting a writer to comment on a blogger’s book review post or getting a personalized thank you tweet from your favorite author. The days of authors being isolated from their fans is over. They’re now able to build an online following and receive instant feedback for their work. They have the opportunity to take part in creating their own literary community.

We try to keep an active online presence with our web site (http://www.tribute-books.com/), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Archbald-PA/Tribute-Books/171628704176), Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/TributeBooks) and blog (http://tributebooks.blogspot.com/). We’d love to have anyone who loves young adult literature to join us for the ride.

3. If you are publishing twelve authors, one per month, do you plan on serializing any authors’ work and how would you deal with a series?

My preference is actually to work with authors interested in developing an on-going series. In terms of timing the releases of multiple installments, it will depend on how much of the saga is ready to be published upon submission. If everything is fine-tuned and ready to go, then I would have no problem consecutively issuing one ebook per month of the series. If it is still in development, I would insist on establishing deadlines to line up the future publication dates of the remaining installments.

4. What are you NOT looking for in submissions – style, plots, etc.

In terms of the quality of work that will be submitted, I am NOT looking for an inundation of poorly written, poorly edited manuscripts. I am looking for Microsoft Word documents with a maximum of 350 pages of text with no photos, charts, illustrations, graphs, etc. I am open-minded when it comes to the specifics of style, plot, etc. I’m more concerned with the quality of writing and the author’s established platform.

5. What do you think it will take for indie publishers to be successful in 2012 and what will make them stand out in the crowd?

In terms of Tribute Books, my hope is that we are able to recruit some talented writers of well-written, well-crafted stories in order to develop an eager fan base for the titles we publish. We want readers to be excited about the ebooks we produce. Young adult authors have the most devoted fan followings out there, and we’d like to introduce that audience to a whole new host of talent.

More info:
Email: info@tribute-books.com
Web Site: www.tribute-books.com