Domesticity and Karen Neches

Yes, yes, yes -- I know it's been a long time since I've posted. I'm not sure why. It's not like I haven't had the time (though I have been very busy). I just wasn't feeling bloggy, you know? Or rather, whenever I was feeling bloggy, I was in the midst of the thing I wanted to blog about. Once the moment was gone, the blog seemed to evaporate from my mind as well. Maybe I should take more pictures. . .

(See? One of the things I could have blogged about, but didn't, was knitting three matching hats for my cousin, her daughter, and LaLa. Cute, huh?)

In fact, now that I think about it, most of what I've been doing--besides writing fiction, of course--has been pretty domestic. We've completed our housey projects--a new kitchen backsplash (remarkably drama-free), a refinished bathtub (had to be redone three times. Your basic nightmare), and a new counter for our trashed bathroom vanity (the stone-guy we hired--and gave a rather large deposit to--disappeared for weeks with no word. Occasionally, he'd answer the phone, say casually, "Oh, of course, I'll be over to install it this afternoon!" and then disappear again. Finally, though, he actually came and, because I clung to his ankles so he couldn't leave the house, actually finished the job.) Needless to say, we are DONE renovating. Perhaps FOREVER.

I've also been cooking up a storm for the fam, for parties, for friends over for a impromptu dinners. In fact, I just took a banana bread out of the oven, which I whipped up to use three overripe bananas laying around the fruit bowl. I know! I mean, we all say, "Oh, those bananas are too ripe to eat. I should make a banana bread out of them." But does anybody actually do it? This is the first time in my life that I have. LaLa helped, which is why there is flour and banana gunk all over the kitchen right now. But it was twice as fun to bake it with her.

But it doesn't exactly make for scintillating blog material, see? But here's something that does! Karen Neches! Karen, otherwise known as Karin Gillespie, is not just an amazing novelist. She's the Girlfriend Cyber Circuit's official founder and Girlfriend wrangler. Without Karen/Karin, I wouldn't be a Girlfriend, and YOU would not have spent the past year or so reading interviews with all the amazing writers who've visited my blog. So (everyone), "Yay Karen!"

Especially because her new book, "Earthly Pleasures" sounds dreamy and delicious.

Here's the scoop:

Welcome to Heaven. Use your Wishberry to hustle up whatever you want. Have an online chat with God. Visit the attractions such as Retail Rapture, Wrath of God miniature golf and Nocturnal Theater, where nightly dreams are translated to film.

Your greeter might just be Skye Sebring who will advises her newly dead clients on what to expect now that they’re expired. “Heaven is like a Corona Beer commercial” she assures her charges. “It’s all about contentment.”

So different than Earth where chaos reigns. Unfortunately for Skye, she’s been chosen to live her first life. She’s required to attend Earth 101 classes, which teach all of the world’s greatest philosophies through five Beatle songs.

Skye has no interest in Earthly pursuits, until lawyer Ryan Blaine briefly becomes her client after a motorcycle accident. Just as they are getting to know each other, he is revived and sent back to Earth.

She follows his life via the TV channel “Earthly Pleasures” but discovers he has a wife as well as a big secret. Why then does he call a show for the lovelorn to talk about the lost love of his life?

In Earthly Pleasures (Simon and Schuster, February 2008, $14) great love can transcend the dimensions, narrowing the vast difference between Heaven and Earth.

Don't you love it? So clever and fun. No wonder most of the book's blurbs call it a treat! Speaking of, here is Karen herself, e-chatting with moi:

Elizabeth: You walk into a bookstore and make a beeline to. . .
a) chick lit
b) YA lit
c) lit-lit
d) biographies
e) a big stack of gossip mags and a cappuccino

Karen: f) The new release table. I like to see what’s coming out.

Elizabeth: Tell me about your childhood, part 1: When you were a teenager, what young adult novel a) saved b) changed c) okay, made a big wallop on your life?

Karen: Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume. I think it was the first book to talk candidly about periods and my friends and I were obsessed with getting ours. Back then, YA books were so bland and unrealistic.

Elizabeth: Tell me about your childhood, part 2: Where did you grow up and what kind of role does that setting play in the books you write?

Karen: I grew up in Minnesota and oddly enough I’ve never set a book there, maybe because it’s so homogenous. The South is my setting of choice.

Elizabeth: You've written both fiction and non. What do you do to shift gears when you move from one genre to the other?

Karen: I used to write a column for the newspaper. Every line had to count so it often took me all day. I much prefer fiction.

Elizabeth: What do you love about Skye, the star of "Earthly Pleasures?"

Karen: She’s a greeter in Heaven who is a little bit saucy. For instance when one of the newly dead gets freaked out, instead of talking them down, she sprays them with TIC (Tranquility in a Can.) She ends up falling in love with a mortal named Ryan who has a near death experience in her office and instead of giving up on this long-distance relationship, she goes for it.

Elizabeth: Finally, which Chick with Sticks are you? If you haven't read my book, please refer to this handy quiz.

Karen: I’m TAY.

Thanks, Karen!

And thanks to you readers for tuning in. I hope I'm out of my blog funk now and will be checking in more often!

xoxo

Elizabeth