Chicks, Drama, and the Lint Trap of Life

This title describes my novel The Chicken Club fairly well.  In its original form, it was titled No Hotter Fire and was double the word count that it now contains.  It was my learning curve as I worked with an editor for the first time.  Editing your work is serious business.  I would have to say, much more difficult than drafting the story itself.  It took several months and I had to dig in with everything I had to give, and then give some more in order to make this novel the best that it could be.    

There are so many elements you have to pay attention to:

·         Is the plot stimulating for your audience? 

·         Are the characters strong and appealing? 

·         Are the scenes filled with enough vivid prose to bring it to life around the characters? 

·         Do the characters converse through strong dialogue instead of living in their heads? 

·         Are you writing in first, second, or third person, and are you following the format correctly ? 

·         Are you following the latest rules applied to the written novel? 

·         Have you checked all spelling, punctuation and grammar? 

·         And the list goes on.

I am positive that during the editing phase, I reviewed and revised my stories a minimum of thirty times each.  Yes, my eyes glossed over and I continued to read what “should” have been on the page versus what “was” on the page.  You come up with tricks to help combat this problem, but it still means reading it over and over to attain a certain level of professionalism, not to mention personal contentment and satisfaction for a job well done. 

Getting back to the story of The Chicken Club, it is indeed a story about chicks (or chickens as they are referred to within the pages of this book).  It was written at the latter part of a ten year phase in my life in which I was divorced and raising two teenage boys on my own.  My friends and I often compared stories of living and dating in a world gone mad so it was befitting that some of those stories were amassed, enhanced, and applied so as to archive those moments for posterity’s sake.  Not all the scenes in this book originated from existing happenstances.  Those used however, were modified not only to protect the innocent but to make them more thoroughly entertaining for my audience.

The Chicken Club was my debut novel.  Renee and Angela are endearing characters that would go to the moon and back to protect their children, safeguard their friendship, and survive the dating world one man at time.  But more importantly, they know who they are and manage to convince a group of women that they are all strong and resilient and beautiful.  This story is full of humor and drama and reflects at times, the lint trap of life, but more than that, it’s a story about friendship at its core.  And what a friendship it is.