Gotta Love The Internet

Yesterday Jezebel ran with a story about girl's t-shirt. Normally t-shirts aren't all that newsworthy, certainly not on a feminist leaning website like Jezebel.  But this t-shirt was speical. It was being sold by JC Penny for girls between the ages of 7 and 16. As you can see below the t-shirt reads: "I'm too pretty to do my homework so my brother has to do it for me."

I'm not going to go into all the problems with this message. If you can't see them for yourself I strongly suggest you get back in your time machine and head back home to 1952 where the world will make sense to you again.

No, this blog is about what happened next. See, I didn't find out about this from Jezebel directly. I found out about it through Twitter. It was the first post I read yesterday morning...actually several people I follow had Tweeted about it including Avon Books who Tweeted the link along with the note: "The #AvonEditor just screamed a little." Of course I retweeted the article and then I headed over to Facebook and posted about the t-shirt there (yes, it pissed me off THAT much).  Soon others had reposted the link to the article.

By the end of the afternoon JC Penny issued a statement saying that they were no longer going to sell the t-shirt and that they agreed it "dose not deliver an appropriate message."

Now if JC Penny really had a problem with the message they wouldn't have developed and sold the product to begin with. It's their private label after all and they certainly can't claim that it slide in under the radar; not when they had a whole webpage ad for the tee with the pithy little logline: "Who has time for homework when the new Justin Bieber album is out?"

No, what they had a problem with was the immense negative publicity that was being generated and it was being generated at the speed of light...or at least the speed of a high speed internet connection.

It reminded me of what the internet has done for us. Yes, it has made porn more accessible, it has sucked up our time, and it has made it WAY too easy for us to check up on our exes. But it has also made it incredibly easy for individuals, regardless of their income level or power status within the corporate or political world, to effect change at a rapid rate. This was all about a silly t-shirt, but if it wasn't for Twitter, Facebook and the each person's ability to comment on JC Penny's site, that t-shirt would still be being sold and a handful of girls would have gotten the message that being smart is for ugly people and our world would be just a little bit worse. That didn't happen because enough people cared enough to speak up quickly and thanks to technology JC Penny heard us and responded just as rapidly.

So yes, some bad stuff is generated through the internet but on a whole it really has helped to make our world a little prettier...and a lot smarter.

Kyra "Fashionista Fatale" Davis

Why More Authors Are Turning To Amazon

Last Sunday the New York Times ran an article about Amazon's latest attempt to woo authors over to their imprints. They will be sharing numbers with them. Not only will they tell them how many books they sold over a period of time but they'll tell them how many they sold in each location around the country. The New York Times article suggests that this will do nothing more than make authors more neurotic or obsessed about their sales then they already are.

To me that's kind of insulting. I have never been given numbers on my sales from my publisher without asking for them. I have to wait a year before I find out what percentage of my sales are ebooks, what percentage are paperbacks and what percentage are audio. And until I read that article I didn't even know it was possible to find out what areas of the country my books sell best in. I don't think it makes me neurotic to want to know this information. After all, it's my career. But to be honest, my main motivation for wanting those numbers is because it would make self-promotion so much easier! 


Every publisher expects their authors to promote their own works. Even Jennifer Weiner has to design, buy and place her own ads in the New York Times and whatnot and only celebrity authors and A-listers get sent on tours these days. The reason for that is that publishers don't believe that tours work for authors. I don't think they necessarily believe that ads work either. That may be true in some cases but I really think it depends on the individual situation, book and author.

For instance, publishers will always tell you that at any Author event a large percentage of attendees will leave without buying a book. Okay, I believe that's the norm. It's never actually happened to me because if nothing else I'm really good at connecting with my audience. I have sold out of books at more than one event. I've never had more than one or two people leave a book event without buying a book excluding those who bought the book shortly before the signing. The problem for me when it comes to public readings has nothing to do with getting those who attend to buy a book. My problem is figuring out which locations I should tour to that will give me the biggest turnout. For instance, I toured in Denver and didn't get much of a turnout at all. I toured Orlando and people drove up from Miami and Fort Lauderdale just to see me. Apparently I have a big following in Florida. If I had known that I would have scheduled tours there for other books. But I don't know. So I've spent my money touring around to places hoping that maybe this is a location where my sales have been strong. I always inform my publisher of what my publicity plans are and they have never stepped forward and said, "Oh, that's great! Here's some info that might be helpful to you!" This by the way is in no reflection of my editor who has always been incredibly supportive and as helpful as he can be. But honestly, I don't think even he has the numbers as to how my ebooks are selling or where my paperbacks are most popular. That's all with another department that can't be bothered.

There's currently a TV show in development that's based loosely on my books. That enables me to shop my next book to several different publishers. However after sitting down with my agent and talking to her about Amazon it's hard to argue that their imprint might not be the best place to go. In addition to being able to access numbers, authors are presented with marketing plans before they sign the contract. So you know exactly what Amazon is going to do for you and what they won't. I defy you to find me an author who has ever gotten such a deal from one of the New York publishers. Sure, after they sign you they'll tell you they plan to publicize your work...assuming there is a plan which is rarely the case. But again, sometimes there is and if you're really lucky they may even contract a publicist to work with you. But the publicity and marketing is not a contractual obligation. If you think their plan is ineffective it's unlikely you'll be able to sway them in another direction and there's always the very likely chance that the entire plan will fall through without being fully executed.

I know the publishing houses hate Amazon. I know that they do have a few very valid reasons for that. But I also know that if Amazon continues to focus on the business angle of book-selling, focusing on marketing directly to consumers while publishers continue to focus all their marketing efforts on booksellers then more and more bestselling authors will go to Amazon.

Because it's not just about the art of writing. It's also about making a living.

Kyra "Fashionista Fatale" Davis

The Good News Is That YA Doesn't Turn Your Kids Into Masochists

Last month Wall Street Journal critic, Meghan Cox Gurdon wrote an article in which she expressed her dismay in the current content of YA fiction. In her opinion it's too dark and the graphic scenes of violence, self-mutilation (cutting), sexual assault are not only unsettling they're contagious. In other words, if a teen reads about a character who cuts herself she might want to cut herself too because a book has "normalized" the behavior. This set off a fire storm on Twitter, chastising Ms. Gurdon which lead to another article by Gurdon and more Twitter outrage and most recently a NPR interview in which she defended her views....at which point Tweeters went ballistic.

I don't think her article was worth the plethora of hostile Tweets. For one things, she writes for the WSJ so she was basically preaching to the choir anyway, certainly not to anyone who might buy the books and I don't think she has enough influence to encourage mass book bannings (which isn't what she wants anyway).  To be honest, I too have noticed that a lot of the YA books are pretty dark these days and certainly sex is not the taboo subject that it used to be in teen novels. I personally don't feel that a book always needs to be dark to be deep. But to say they normalize behavior? That's the part of Gurdon's article that gave me pause.  Books aren't like movies. Books engage your brain in a way that movies don't. They make you think not just about the basic plot or the overall message but the details. Movies wash over you, the images that are meant to make an impact usually do. You probably won't notice the extra standing by the tree paralyzed with fear, knowing that she's not going to be able to get her child out of the way of the monster, astroid, falling building or whatever. You might not really absorb her horror or her pain. You can't avoid the extra in the book because the author makes you read about her. The author (assuming he/she is talented) will make you understand that pain and hopelessness in your brain and feel it in your heart. Hollywood somehow manages to glamorize violence and desensitize us to violence at the same time. When you're desensitized to violence you may be more comfortable committing violent acts or dismissing the violent act of others.

Books don't desensitize us to anything. If we start to become desensitize to the events of the story we stop reading and pick up another book. So if books aren't desensitizing us are they glamorizing dangerous behaviors to teens? Do teens seek to emulate the protagonists they love?

I tried to think back to my reaction to the books I read as a teen and adolescent. I loved Gone With The Wind but I never wanted to be Scarlett and she certainly didn't make me want to spend my days pining away for a married man. I loved Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. Guess it goes without saying that I didn't want to be like any of those characters. Since sex wasn't featured in the teen lit that was around in my youth I would buy racy Harlequin romances. To this day I still remember reading my first sex scene...I was in middle school. And yet I didn't choose to lose my virginity until I was in college.

But then what about those Sweet Valley High books I used to love so much? I went through that series like popcorn and I did want to be like those characters because the books made it very clear that everyone should want to be like those characters. The twins, who were in the center of it all, were described as the definition of beauty. That definition is as follows: having blonde lightly wavy hair, having green eyes and being 5'6". I spent my entire middle school years praying that I would reach 5'6". It was my only hope. I could never have blonde hair. I would always have impossibly kinky curls. My eyes would be brown to the day I died. So either I reached 5'6" or I would just have to walk around with a bag over my head praying that some blind guy would ask me out. Those books affected my idea of beauty. They increased my insecurities.

But I can't say that I wish I never read them. The reality is that many people do have this narrow view of what is or is not physically desirable. I was going to be confronted with that at some point in time anyway. At least I was entertained during the confrontation.

But more to the point, Sweet Valley High is very different than the books Ms. Gurdon has a problem with. Sweet Valley High was all about glamour. The whole point was to make you want to live in the twins' world. Any careless racism or what-have-you wasn't intentional (IMO) so we never really saw the dark side of it. The books Ms. Gurdon is taking issue with are ones that deal almost exclusively with the dark side of things. All you see are the negative consequences to bad behavior and you see it in visibly disturbing detail.

In other words, wanting to emulate these characters would kinda be like wanting to emulate Frankenstein's monster because, you know, despite the misery, loneliness, violent tendencies and utter rejection from society he was actually a very intelligent, surprisingly relatable charter who was pretty cool in a dark and moody kinda way. So yeah, sure, sign me up for that.

Not.

It's hard to make cutting seem like an attractive activity and if kids are going to learn about substance abuse (and obviously they will) better that they learn about it in a book that ends with the characters self-destructing in gruesome and disturbing ways rather than in say...Hangover II. If a teen is going to get pregnant let's feel her emotional turmoil and pain as we did in Amy Efaw's After instead of giggling along with Juno (although I did find that film entertaining).

I do think that publishers need to publish more YA books that aren't all about doom, gloom and clinically depressed vampires. And it's silly to think a book is good just because it's gritty. But I don't think that YA, in its current state, is destroying America's youth.

And I can tell you right now, if YA books didn't feature teens who had sex (in what are still highly edited scenes) real teens would be sneaking off to the drug store to buy Harlequins the way I did.

Pick your poison.

Kyra "fashionista fatale" Davis

A Little Shopping, A Lot Of Justifying

My birthday is coming up at the end of August and lately I've been thinking a lot about what that means to my skin. When I was younger my only skincare concerns revolved around my occasional breakouts. But now 40 no longer seems like just an idea. At this moment my skin still looks pretty good but there are little things that are bugging me. Subtle fine lines have taken residence on my forehead. My skin looks a little duller than it used to and it takes a little more concealer to hide the dark circles under my eyes.

These are now the issues that weigh on me and then, in a sudden and rare fit of indulgence, I decided I was going to do something about it. I went out and splurged on a lot of different skincare products. I mean a lot, a lot, a lot.  I got the Clarisonic Mia (an exfoliator made by the people who make Sonicare toothbrush), Skinceuticals Renew Overnight Oily, Neocutis Lumière Bio-restoritive eye cream , Dr. Hauschka Lip Care Stick and L'Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream.

None of these products are cheap but something came over me and I just had to have all of them. I got most of them online from various sites (chosen based on who had the best-price/free-gift/free-shipping) so they were delivered to my door on different days. The whole of last week was sort of like Hanukkah with eight days of presents. The only difference is that instead of praying to God and lighting a menorah before opening each one I sent up a silent "Thank You!" to the skincare-lab-technitions of the world and kissed my InStyle magazine.

But of course I couldn't help but feel a little guilty. My son goes to a very expensive special education private school which I can barely afford and I'm splurging on luxury skincare? I needed to be reassured. I dialed up my friend M who picked up despite being on the treadmill.

"I spent a bundle on skincare," I moaned.

"That's good! It's an investment!" M chirped.

"Yes," I said, immediately warming to this idea. "And I did a lot of research before I bought each product. I found out who had the best price and who had free shipping!"

"That's smart," she said sagely. "Shipping can get pricey."

"I think if I don't take care of my skin now I'll want plastic surgery later!"I added.

"And that's really expensive!" she pointed out. "You're saving yourself a ton of money! If you think about it, this really isn't any different from spending money on medicine!"

"So what you're saying," I said excitedly, "is that it would have been financially irresponsible for me not to have spent this money on myself!"

"Of course it would have been! Now tell me about everything you bought."

And so of course I did. I've only been using the products for a week but I can honestly say that all of them are living up to my expectations (the Neocutis Lumière eye cream has surpassed them). So I'm happy I splurged. But mostly I'm happy that I have wonderful friends like M. Friends who understand that to be a true friend you have to know how to do more than just listen and talk and empathize (although those things are all essential).

You have to know how and when to justify your girlfriend's shopping spree. Thank you M :-)

-Kyra "Fashionista Fatale" Davis

A Not So Ordinary Movie Night At The El Capitan

I don't work for Disney but I'm going to use this post to advertise for them. It's the least I can do considering what they did to make movie night with my son so spectacular this last Tuesday. Because the one thing you can't take away from Disney is that they know how to put on a show.

For over a year my son has been counting down the days until Pirates Of The Caribbean, On Stranger Tides reached the theaters.  I figured that for his patience he deserved to see the film in style. So I got us VIP tickets to see it at Disney's El Capitan Theater, a 1920s theater on Hollywood Blvd. that has been fully refurbished. VIP means we get reserved seats so of course chose center, first tier balcony, because really, how often do you get to watch a movie from a balcony anymore? The theater itself is gorgeous and seeing anything in that space would be a treat. But of course, Disney can't just leave it at that. Oh no. Instead when I got the tickets they suggested that I download the Android Pirates El Capitan app so I can more fully enjoy the experience. I figured, what the hell. It's free, right (unlike the very pricey 3D tickets)? But when I downloaded it and tried to see what it was all about the app explained that since I was not yet at the El Capitan theater I would have to wait to see what app features awaited me.

Oddly enough this made this app a lot more exciting for me and my son. I mean it's just a stupid free app but knowing that I had to wait to open it? Like it's a Christmas present or something? Well as sophisticated as I like to think I am, that just appeals to the little kid in me and it certainly appealed to my son. 

So again, I'm thinking, lets milk this for all it's worth. We arrive early so we can go to the El Capitan adjacent Disney's Soda Fountain where we had dinner and shared in The Fountain Of Youth (a special float that they themed after the movie). And finally we got to the theater itself.  

When we stepped inside the cast members at the door handed us our 3D glasses and two velvet pouches filled with metal (faux antiqued gold) pirate coins. After checking out the props from the movie that they had displayed in the lobby we checked in to the theater using my Pirate App (it even makes sure that you're checking in for the correct showtime). It instructed us to go to the VIP concession stand and show them my phone. I did and we were given two popcorns in novelty Pirates buckets, two bottled sodas and four metal pirates pins (the kind you can use for the pin-trading they have going on at the theme parks). The only problem I had at that point was finding a way to hold two popcorns, two sodas, two velvet pouches of coins, a bunch of pins and my phone without dropping anything. Even with my son's help I failed at the task but eventually made it up the stairs to the balcony. There an usher guided us to our seats.

So now I can go to the next feature on the app. My son and I gazed at my phone as a video played featuring interviews with the actors and behind-the-scene glimpses of the movie we were about to see. I tried to go to the next feature but it informed me that it wouldn't show me that feature until after the film was over (and since it knew what show we were there to see it had the whole thing timed out). So more stuff to look forward to.

And in the meantime we are in the most gorgeous theater on earth. After only three previews they had the Before-The-Curtain show complete with music, beautiful imagery, props reminiscent of what you might have seen in a 1930s Broadway musical (except more high tech) and cannons that shot gold confetti into the air.

Yes, really.

Oh yeah, and there was the movie too. I think it was a fun flick but honestly by that point my son and I were so unabashedly wrapped up in the whole Disney experience that it could have sucked and I wouldn't have minded too much. And as anyone who has ever seen any of the Pirates films knows, all of the action sequences are thoroughly enhanced by an awesome soundtrack.

And as it turns out, that was the last feature on my phone. When the movie ended we went back to my app to find out that I now had the entire soundtrack for the latest pirate film. 

And this was just an ordinary movie night at The El Capitan. Yeah, I know, it was totally over the top. But it was also totally fun. If every movie experience was like this I think I wouldn't be using Netflix so much.

Kyra "Fashionista Fatale" Davis

Keeping The Love Alive

Several years ago I saw a documentary titled, Women Of Mystery: Three Writers Who Forever Changed Detective Fiction. It featured authors Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky and Marcia Muller.   Grafton spoke of a time when she realized that she was no longer fully in tune with or connected to her main character, Kinsey Millhone.  She corrected that problem by spending days walking around the house swearing like a sailor the way Kinsey might.  In doing so she successfully channeled...or to be more accurate, re-channeled, her character. Clearly this is her method and it works spectacularly well for her. I can't tell you how much I respect that. But I can tell you right now, that wouldn't f**cking work for me.

And yet it's a problem that I'm familiar with.  When you have a series featuring the same characters you are always in danger of having those characters become tired. You see it in television series all the time. Viewers will love a series for the first few seasons but by season three or four the whole thing feels stale. The only way to keep a series alive is to keep the vitality of the characters alive and to make sure that they have emotional growth...at a VERY slow rate. The last thing you want to do is solve all their problems before the series has come to a close. Usually when a character viewers/readers have come to love becomes...well, boring, it's because the writer (be that an author or a TV writer) is bored with him/her.  It's an occupational hazard. After all, writers, like other people who work within creative fields, tend to crave novelty.  So if you're writing for the same characters year after year you need to find a way to stay connected to them and, most importantly, interested in them. I'll admit that after I wrote my fifth Sophie book, Vows, Vendettas & A Little Black Dress I became worried that I was in danger of that happening to me. Writing Vows was fun but could I keep my Sophie and her friends vibrant and fresh for a sixth book?  I wasn't sure.

And then Lifetime contracted me to write a pilot for a Sophie series. The process of creating Sophie for a new medium totally revitalized her for me.  It was like a remarriage.  There I was with my characters passionately renewing my vows.  Like a new bride the whole process made me giddy and suddenly I realized that Sophie is as beautiful to me as she was on the first day we met.  I hadn't necessarily anticipated that happening but it makes sense. If you crave novelty but need to write for the same characters the best way to keep things exciting is to play with the format. That way when you go back to the old format you do so with a new perspective and energy.  I have no idea if Lifetime will want to shoot the pilot or not but I do know that writing it will make the next Sophie book that much better for both me and my readers. If the series doesn't get picked up I'll look into different ways to keep Sophie cutting-edge and exciting for me. Perhaps I should write a short story about her and her friends between books.  The story wouldn't even have to be a mystery, it could just be about an adventure she has with her friends.  I actually have several other ideas as well and over time I'll try them all out.  But for now there's no rush. Sophie  has recaptured my heart and I really believe that ours is a lasting love.

Kyra "Fashionista Fatale" Davis

Leather Pants

As a general rule, I won't repost ebay product descriptions on this blog. Particularly not for items that have already been auctioned off. But this post on ebay was brought to my attention by a friend some time back and I copied it because....well, when you read it you'll understand. Enjoy the saga of the Leather Pants:

You are bidding on a mistake.
We all make mistakes. We date the wrong people for too long. We chew gum with our mouths open. We say inappropriate things in front of grandma.
And we buy leather pants.
I can explain these pants and why they are in my possession. I bought them many, many years ago under the spell of a woman whom I believed to have taste. She suggested I try them on. I did. She said they looked good. I wanted to have a relationship of sorts with her. I’m stupid and prone to impulsive decisions. I bought the pants.
The relationship, probably for better, never materialized. The girl, whose name I can’t even recall, is a distant memory. I think she was short.
Ultimately the pants were placed in the closet where they have remained, unworn, for nearly a decade. I would like to emphasize that: Aside from trying these pants on, they have never, ever been worn. In public or private.
I have not worn these leather pants for the following reasons:
I am not a member of Queen.
I do not like motorcycles.
I am not Rod Stewart.
I am not French.
I do not cruise for transvestites in an expensive sports car.
These were not cheap leather pants. They are Donna Karan leather pants. They’re for men. Brave men, I would think. Perhaps tattooed, pierced men. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say you either have to be very tough, very gay, or very famous to wear these pants and get away with it.
Again, they’re men’s pants, but they’d probably look great on the right lady. Ladies can get away with leather pants much more often than men can. It’s a sad fact that men who own leather pants will have to come to terms with.
They are size 34x34. I am no longer size 34x34, so even were I to suddenly decide I was a famous gay biker I would not be able to wear these pants. These pants are destined for someone else. For reasons unknown - perhaps to keep my options open, in case I wanted to become a pirate - I have shuffled these unworn pants from house to house, closet to closet. Alas, it is now time to part ways so that I may use the extra room for any rhinestone-studded jeans I may purchase in the future.
These pants are in excellent condition. They were never taken on pirate expeditions. They weren’t worn onstage. They didn’t straddle a Harley, or a guy named Harley. They just hung there, sad and ignored, for a few presidencies.
Someone, somewhere, will look great in these pants. I’m hoping that someone is you, or that you can be suckered into buying them by a girl you’re trying to bed.
Please buy these leather pants.

I sort of wish I had bid on them just so I could find a tattooed, pierced man (or Rod Stewart) to give them to.

--Kyra "Fashionista" Davis

There's A Lot Going On For Sophie Katz

A lot of you have been asking me when the next Sophie book will be coming out.  I know I have been vague to say the least, never committing to anything beyond, "I'm working on it." 

And I am working on it but I have to put it aside for a few weeks so I can give my focus to writing, polishing and perfecting a pilot for an original TV series that is in development with Lifetime.  At the moment it looks like the show will simply be called "Sophie Katz." Or maybe just, "Sophie." Rod Lurie, creator and producer of Commander In Chief has signed on to executive produce should the series be picked up. Rod is also known for his movies The Contender (starring Gary Olson and Joan Allen), Nothing But the Truth (starring Matt Dillon) and The Last Castle (starring Robert Redford) and many others.  Oh and he WILL be known for his upcoming movie, Straw Dogs, starring the love of my life, Alexander Skarsgard. It was through Rod that I actually got to meet Skarsgard which was kinda cool (understatement).

The Sophie series will feature all the characters my readers have come to love but it will have very different storylines than the ones you've already read. And yes, of course Anatoly will be a major part of each and every story.

It's all incredibly exciting however we still have a long way to go before Sophie has the opportunity to stroll into America's living rooms. For one thing, Lifetime has to actually LIKE my pilot enough to film it.  Then they have to like what they've filmed enough to pick it up. Then the ratings have to be strong enough to keep it on the air.  Lots and lots of variables.  But it's a promising beginning.

Even if the show doesn't get picked up I must say that I'm enjoying the process of creating it a lot.

As for the book...the release date is somewhat contingent on how this whole thing plays out. I've been advised that I should coordinate the release with certain bench marks in the show's development and, if I'm extremely lucky, its premiere. That doesn't necessarily mean I'd wait for the premier of the series to release the book but I might wait until Lifetime launches their publicity campaign.  Keep in mind, this isn't a Lifetime movie or a mini-series but a regular ol' ongoing series. Currently Lifetime's only two original series on air are Army Wives and Drop Dead Diva. 

But that's going to change.

I'm also not 100% convinced that self-publishing isn't the way to go for me. I've had six books published through traditional channels and I do have a following, many of whom read ebooks. So then the question is, do I really need a publisher? New York Times bestselling author, Barry Eisler certainly doesn't think he needs one. He just turned down a $500,000 advance so he could self-publish through ebooks.  So as you can see, I have a lot to think about. I can promise you that the 6th Sophie book really and truly is in the works and regardless of whether or not things work out with the television show, I will be releasing it for public consumption in the not too distant future.   

For now, everybody keep your fingers crossed for me and, if you haven't already done it, sign your name on the petition to make a Sophie Katz TV series.  Can't hurt to let TPTB know that there's a demand for our girl ;-)

--Kyra "Fashionista Fatale" Davis