Melissa Senate

WELCOME TO MY WEBSITE

I'm the author of seven novels, including my debut, SEE JANE DATE (which Newsweek called "cheeky," and my latest, QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE MARRYING, reviewed so lovingly by Romantic Times Bookclub magazine: "Senate broaches heavy topics of single motherhood, abandonment and true love, and does so with a flourish of witty, complicated and realistic characters, subtle humor and emergent relationships. 4 1/2 stars.” (Thank you, RT!)

My next novel, THE SECRET OF JOY, which will be published by Pocket Books in November, is about 28-year-old New Yorker Rebecca Strand who discovers she has a 26-year-old half-sister she never knew existed. Off she goes to a small coastal town in Maine to find her. She doesn't exactly receive the warmest welcome–except by the loveable, quirky locals…and a sexy carpenter named Theo. Says one of my favorite authors, Claire LaZebnik, "The Secret of Joy is a warm hug of a book. Insightful, wise, and romantic, it's as inviting as the small-town life it depicts." (I just love that blurb!) For more info, check out my Books page. 

My next novel for teens, THE MOSTS, about a group of high school misfits who ask Most Popular to help them not make the Not list, will be published by Delacorte in May 2010. 

Scroll down for my blog, which is updated often with random musings and book recommendations.  The comments are under attack by spam, so feel free to email me with any questions/comments at melissasenate at yahoo.com (use @ symbol and write as all one word–always trying to stay one step ahead of the spammers!)

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This week, my darling boy is on vacation from both school and camp, so it's all mom all the time, which means no time to read (I fall into bed an exhausted heap very soon after he does). But, but, but, come Monday, when he's off making macaroni eyepatches and playing freeze tag, I'll be taking some time from my writing schedule to read this novel by a very talented member of the Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit.

EVERYONE SHE LOVED by Sheila Curran

 A wise and triumphant novel about four women who've come of age together only to discover that — when it comes to the essentials — life's little instruction book will always need revising.

Penelope Cameron, loving mother, devoted wife and generous philanthropist, has convinced her husband and four closest friends to sign an outlandish pact. If Penelope should die before her two daughters are eighteen, her husband will not remarry without the permission of Penelope's sister and three college roommates. For years, this contract gathers dust until the unthinkable happens. Suddenly, everyone she loved must find their way in a world without Penelope.

For Lucy Vargas, Penelope's best friend, and a second mother to her daughters, nothing seems more natural than to welcome them into a home that had once belonged to their family, a lovely, sprawling bed-and-breakfast on the beach. This bequest was only one of the many ways in which Penelope had supported Lucy's career as a painter, declaring her talent too important to squander. But now, in the wake of a disaster that only lovable, worrisome Penelope could have predicted, Lucy has put her work on hold as she and Penelope's husband, Joey, blindly grasp at anything that will keep the girls from sinking under the weight of their grief.

With the help of family and friends, the children slowly build new lives. But just when things start to come together, the fragile serenity they have gained is suddenly threatened from within, and the unbreakable bonds they share seem likely to dissolve after all.

In this entertaining and uplifting novel, Sheila Curran explores the faith one woman placed in her dearest friends, the care she took to protect her family and the many ways in which romantic entanglements will confound and confuse even the most determined of planners. A story about growing up and moving on, about the sacrifices people make for one another and the timeless legacy of love, Everyone She Loved is, above all, about the abiding strength of friendship.

"Curran is a beautiful writer, both witty and evocative, and she knows how to keep a reader riveted. I was up way past my bedtime, unable to stop turning pages. I had to know what happened to this family. Read this book, then pass it on to your dearest friend. She'll thank you." — Joshilyn Jackson, bestselling author of Gods in Alabama and Between, Georgia

Cannot wait to read this book! For more information, visit Sheila Curran's website (click above on her name). 

What is the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit, you ask? It's a group of varied and diverse female authors (from chick lit to mystery to literary to romance and more) who blog about each other's must-read new novels.  Such as Judi Fennell's IN OVER HER HEAD. That is some hot cover.

Here's the scoop: When Erica Peck, one terrified-of-the-ocean marina owner, finds herself at the bottom of the sea conversing with a Mer man named Reel, she thinks she's died and gone to her own version of Hell. When the Oceanic Council demands she and Reel retrieve a lost cache of diamonds from the resident sea monster in return for their lives, she knows she's died and gone to Hell.When they escape the monster and end up on a deserted island, she amends her opinion - she's died and gone to Heaven. But when Reel sacrifices himself to allow her to return to her world, she realizes that, Heaven or Hell, with Reel, she's In Over Her Head.

"A wondrous, undersea adventure–molten moments, waves of sensuality, ripples of emotion, and depths of fun. Not to be missed!" –LA Banks, author of the Vampire Huntress Legends series.

A three-time finalist in online contests, Judi Fennell has enjoyed the reader feedback she's received and would love to hear what you think about her Mer series. To celebrate the release of each of her books, Judi Fennell and the Atlantis Inn (www.AtlantisInn.com) and the Hibiscus House (www.HibiscusHouse.com) bed and breakfasts are raffling off three romantic beach getaway weekends.

All information is on Judi's website, where you can also read an excerpt of IN OVER HER HEAD and Judi's blog. Click for Judi's website!

A peek at the cover of THE SECRET OF JOY (will be published in trade paperback this November by Simon & Schuster). I am in love with the cover. In LOVE. 

Sorry it's been so long since my last post–I was chin high in revisions for both novels (THE SECRET OF JOY and THE MOSTS). I'm now working on the proposal for my next book (for adults) and am smitten with the necessary research: Italian cooking. I used to think New York City was the only place I'd ever want to live–until I traveled to Rome. I haven't been everywhere, but nowhere else has had the same kind of magical effect on me that Rome did. The book I'm conceiving takes place right here in Maine, which has a magic of its own, but it's a very, very, very different kind of magic. Interesting what the combination will bring . . . .

Melissa

What is the secret of joy? For one, it's the bright and shiny new title of my upcoming novel (will be published this November) about half sisters who meet for the first time–one hoping to establish family bonds, one who thinks DNA is overrated. More to come, including an excerpt and the cover! Check out the Books page for more info. 

The secret of joy is also having your friend say: "I'll drive you to and pick you up from your emergency root canal appointment tomorrow morning." This time, I will be blissfully knocked out and unaware. Last root canal I foolishly went with a hundred shots of novacaine. Now, I know better. Bring on the wooziness!

Well, first THE LOVE BUS (my upcoming novel–this November) became THE OPPOSITE OF ME. But another author beat us to that title, so now my editor has come up with a great new title that completely fits the book in so many different ways (thank you, brilliant editor). Everything about it is right and it feels special to me.  Just waiting for confirmation that it's a definite go–I'll post it on Monday and change it everywhere I've already changed it. 

Titles are so tough. I accidentally came up with the title of my debut novel, SEE JANE DATE, by adding it in a long list of possible ones to replace my working title THE FLIRT NIGHT ROUNDTABLE (what was I thinking??), but next to SEE JANE DATE I added: just kiddng! Everyone loved it and thought it was perfect, and it really was the perfect tltle for that book.

Just came back from the Portland Public Library, which is worth the schlep from my tiny town. I took out a collection of stories on motherhood aptly titled Mothers and started reading the first one by Mary Grimm, and it was so GOOD that I had to stop so that I could save it for tonight when I could really savor it, instead of read it quickly while waiting to do something else. (Motherhood is like that.) Also took out The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted by Elizabeth Berg, who by the way, wrote one of my favorite books on the craft of writing, along with Carolyn See's Making A Literary Life and Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird and Stephen King's. I have tried and tried to read Elizabeth Berg's novels, all of which sound so appealing, yet for some reason, I've been unable to connect. I love her non-fiction, though. Same goes for my beloved Pam Houston and Anne Lamott. Not sure why that is. 

Have a great weekend!

My six-year-old took this picture of me a couple of months ago and it's my new favorite. I think I look very happy. A budding photographer, Max is!

I haven't blogged in a loooong time. Mostly because I've been waiting, and when I'm waiting, I can't do anything else but wait. What I was waiting for was feedback from BOTH editors on BOTH manuscripts that I delivered. My teen novel and my women's fiction (a new editor and new house, at that!). My teen editor emailed me her editorial/revision letter last week, and she is a brilliant goddess. I can't tell you how good it feels to know that the stuff that comes pouring out of my brain and fingertips onto the computer screen/paper, over 300 pages of it, will be lovingly and carefully and brilliantly read by someone who will guide me in writing a better, stronger book. So, lots of work ahead, but good work. Now of course, I'm waiting to hear on my women's fiction novel, but luckily am too busy revising my teen novel to fret about the wait. All good. Did any of this make sense?

I've been reading like crazy. The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch; Shelter Me (God, I LOVED this book); All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, How To Talk So Kids Will Learn (this is the only parenting book anyone with a kid needs–pure brilliance). I just ordered a memoir about a woman who moves to tiny New England cottage with her teen daughter to raise some baby chickens. 

Anyway, now that I'm incredibly busy revising and have no extra time between 8:20 and 3:10 (mom hours = my work time), I will be doing plenty of blogging. That's just the way life is. 

Melissa

Welcome to my new website, which I'm in the process of updating! Check back very soon for info about my new books and this and that….

I am fascinated by lawyers turned authors, especially lawyers turned authors of fun women's fiction. Like the lovely and talented Brenda Janowitz, author of JACK WITH A TWIST, I can think of several attorneys turned writers, like Laura Caldwell and Whitney Gaskell and Emily Giffin. There's a real following your bliss/heart there. 

And in Jack WITH A TWIST, Brenda Janowitz has her lawyer protagonist and her lawyer fiance walk down the aisle of a courtroom in this wonderful and fun story. Here's the scoop:

Planning a wedding can be a trying experience…

A little pre-wedding anxiety is normal for every bride, and Manhattan attorney Brooke Miller isn’t worried. She’s got the loving support of the world’s greatest guy, so planning her nuptials should be a piece of cake.

But that was yesterday.

Today, Brooke’s landed her first big case and has just discovered that the opposing attorney is none other than her fiancé, Jack. But that’s okay. These two professionals aren’t going to let a little courtroom sparring get their legal briefs in a bunch.… Right? Wrong! Now Jack’s pulling every dirty trick in the law books, and Brooke’s starting to suspect that maybe he isn’t the man she thought he was. Warring with her fiancé at work and at home, Brooke realizes that she’ll have to choose between the case of her life, or actually having a life.

About Brenda Janowitz: Brenda is the author of the novels JACK WITH A TWIST (Engaging your adversary and other things they don’t teach you in law school) and SCOT ON THE ROCKS (How I survived my ex-boyfriend's wedding with my dignity ever so slightly intact), as well as the short story BASED ON A TRUE STORY. For more info on Brenda and her novels, check out her website by clinking on her name above.

Enjoy!

It could happen to you…

When I first heard about this novel, which is next on my TO BE READ list, I immediately Googled to find out if this really COULD happen. Could you imagine? Hilarious debut author Melissa Clark can….

 SWIMMING UPSTREAM SLOWLY by Melissa Clark

After too many vodka tonics at her best friend's baby shower, twenty-seven-year-old Sasha finds herself having a ladies' room epiphany. How quickly life can change, she thinks to herself: one minute she's writing a master's thesis about a TV comedy show for kids–and the next, the program actually gets optioned with her as the star. But Sasha’s awe at the twists of fate proves to be premature. The real shock comes the next day, when her routine visit to the ob-gyn reveals that she’s pregnant—even though she hasn't slept with anyone in more than two years.

To her unbelieving ears comes the doctor’s diagnosis: Sasha’s body has unwittingly hosted a cellular hitchhiker, a medical anomaly known as “lazy sperm.” And now that this plodding genetic contribution has finally fulfilled its destiny, it will be up to Sasha to summon the courage to revisit her past loves even as her future slowly takes shape inside her. Which of her exes will be the father and how will he take the astounding news? And what will the end of the mystery mean to Sasha? The answers are revealed in this wonderfully inventive debut about the bonds that linger between people even after they part ways, and how the future can change in the twitch of a tail.

Melissa Clark says: "Swimming Upstream, Slowly" is a novel about Sasha Salter, who wakes up one day to find she is pregnant. Only problem is she hasn't had sex in over 2 years. The doctor's diagnosis is that Sasha's body has been harboring a 'lazy sperm'. Sasha must now open up the Pandora's box of her past loves to figure out which of her exes is the father - and what the future holds in store.

The idea was born because I was having lunch with a friend and overate. I lifted my shirt to expose my bloated belly and the friend said, half joking, "Are you sure you're not pregnant?" and I said, "Yeah, right, from a lazy sperm." I went home that night and started outlining the idea for a movie. I decided, eventually, to write it as a novel instead."

BIO: Melissa Clark is the creator and executive producer of the award-winning television series, 'Braceface', and has written for shows on the Disney Channel, Cartoon Network and Fox. She received a master's degree from the writing program at U.C. Davis, and currently lives in Los Angeles. This is her first novel.

Happy reading!