Guest Post: Mari Mancusi

Welcome to my second stop on the CLP Blog Tour for Love At 11 by Mari Mancusi. Today I have a great guest post from the author herself. After taking a look at her other novels, I was really interested to know why she decided to write chick lit and how she found writing it after writing YA, paranormal, and so on. What follows is her thoughts on that. I hope you all enjoy it!

I’ve always loved the supernatural—even from a young age—so it’s probably not surprising that when I started writing, I found myself penning tales of the extraordinary. My very first published book, A Connecticut Fashionista in King Arthur’s Court, was a time travel about a 21st century fashion editor who ends up reliving Arthurian legend. Later I did the Blood Coven Vampire series, which is a Buffy’esque vampire tale—heavy on the parody of books like Twilight.

But no matter what the time period or the supernatural element, my voice has remained the same. First person, snarky narrator, very grounded in our world—even as she experiences some pretty fantastical things. In short—I have a chick lit voice and I’m not afraid to use it!

So with Love at 11, it wasn’t as much of a stretch as it might seem. Sure, I couldn’t bring on a vampire to bite the executive producer when she started to become a pain in the neck. But just like Kat in King Arthur’s Court, Maddy is also a bit of a fish out of water, struggling to find her place in a very foreign world. And let me tell you from experience, at times a TV newsroom isn’t much less barbaric than a medieval castle.

It was refreshing, in fact, to tell a real story. A story close to my heart. In fact, I was literally assigned the “Cosmetics that Kill” story Maddy is supposed to be working on throughout the novel at my own TV station in Boston. I remember being so freaking frustrated at the ridiculous sensationalism we were pumping out every day. I just wanted to do some real journalism for once. But since I couldn’t quit—instead I poured out that frustration into a book. It was therapeutic to say the least. And ended up being one of the books I’m most proud of writing.

So while I still do love delving into the supernatural and exploring things that go bump in the night—there’s just something about getting real. And I’d love to do it again someday!