Doin' a little Dustin'

A big THANK YOU to Cortney & Theresa for hosting the

To save time, I am combining the three posts into one. Blurb, Excerpt, and What I learned...I loved my first novel! A shame no one else did =)

Blurb...
JACKS AND JILLS AND JEZEBELS is shameless chick lit. A bar hopping, bachelorette party adventure about eight close friends, the boys they torment, and the joints they frequent all rolled into one hilarious, eye popping night! (based on my rip roaring twenties)

I was so excited I drew us!

Here is an excerpt...

Jamie floated in and announced, “I had the best time! We had a picnic lunch then went rollerblading in the park. He is such a hunk!” She plopped down beside Brenda on the bed, jostling her. Yet another annoyance.

“Who was it again?” Brenda asked. She turned to Jamie and added, “You’ve got something in your hair. Did you fall?” She reached up and pulled out a blade of grass from her wavy, waist-length, brown hair.

“Oh, thanks. No I didn’t fall…” Jamie said with a giggle as she felt her hair to check for more debris. “It was Alex,” she informed her. “You remember, from the gym?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s right,” she replied. But she knew quite well who she had been out with. Brenda met Alex first and had been talking to him when Jamie swooped in. She was always extra bouncy in front of the guys at the gym and his attention had been lost to her. She was so aggravating! Brenda decided to ruffle her feathers and asked, “But what about Scott?”

Jamie wavered for a moment. Just the mention of his name gave her butterflies. She’d had a serious crush on her work buddy since he started waiting tables with her two months ago. She shooed the air and declared, “Scott and I are friends. I like him but we don’t have a relationship or anything. We are both too busy to settle down right now. We’re just casual.” She tried to seem laid back about it, but in her heart she wished she could call him her boyfriend. Little did she know that everyone else was aware of how she felt, except Scott of course. He was almost as dim-witted as she was. She got up to look in the mirror and appreciated her reflection. She noticed she had gotten some sun on her face and smiled at herself.

“Oh. I guess that’s cool,” Brenda acknowledged. She grinned slyly to herself, Scott’s been busy with me, you little ditz. She was tired of Jamie being too flirty with every guy she dated or even showed interest in. It was time to see how she liked it.

Yes, I know. So many writing errors. No crits necessary. I cringed at the head hopping and unnecessary dialog tags, etc. But this section gives a taste of the many conflicts. This old WIP was so fun to write because it flowed so easily and brings back those carefree days - we didn't even have cell phones yet! I even started a sequel! I will probably come back to it one day...

What I learned...
I still can't believe I queried this! After learning more about the craft, I started to edit. Then I realized Chick Lit was on the outs. It still has a place, but it sure isn't hot! So I thought I would rewrite it as Women's Fiction, from one point of view, a girl making life changing decisions after discovering the shallowness of the party life. I also learned that you shouldn't base a whole book on people you know - it could come back to haunt you if it got published. Ah well. Still might come back to it =)

So whatever happened to your first book? Or are you still working on it?