25 things Liz & Lisa want to know about Allison Winn Scotch

Liz & Lisa are SO excited to feature NYT bestselling author Allison Winn Scotch at Chick Lit is not Dead.

We love learning more about all our favorite authors. And now that we’ve discovered that, like us, Allison loves trashy magazines and hearts a good ol’ fashioned F bomb, we just can’t get enough.  And btw, Allison, you’re going to have to girlfight us for Michael Vartan’s love-he’s such a fox!

Allison burst onto the literary scene in 2007 with her first novel, The Department of Lost and Found(Harper Collins) and followed it up with Time of My Life(Random House) in 2008. She’s currently at work on her third novel, The One That I Want, which is slated for a Summer 2010 release. We can’t wait!

We’ve been in love with her writing since the minute we picked up Time Of My Life, which is being released in paperback on August 4th.  It’s an incredible story about being able to go back, and, perhaps, do things differently.  The story follows Jillian- a married woman who has it all (a banker husband, a comfortable home a beautiful daughter) until she wakes up one morning and finds herself seven years in her past.  Before baby. Before marriage. Click here to order your copy!

Also, we have THREE copies of Time of My Life to give away!  Just leave a comment on this blog and we’ll pick the winners at random.

We have a feeling that you will be girl crushin’ on AWS too after checking out her sassy answers to our 25 Q’s.  Enjoy!

Chick Lit is Not Dead presents…
The 25 things Liz & Lisa  want to know about  Allison Winn Scotch

1.  Inside my purse, you’ll discover: My iPhone, a Sephora lip gloss, my mp3 player, Orbitz bubblemint gum, some random pieces of candy and coins.

2.  My secret talent is: Hmmm, true talent? I’m actually a really good singer. Not so true talent? I can read people really well within seconds of meeting them. (Beware!) :)

3.  If stranded on an island, the five things I could not live without are: My computer (is that cheating?), Napster (but that’s on my computer, so I don’t know if that counts), my kids, an all-you-can-eat buffet, a well-stocked shower. You know, as I think about it, I guess I don’t have too many material items that matter to me so much.

4.  On my nightstand you’ll find: Earplugs, a sleep shade, loads of trashy gossip magazines, and a few galleys for to-be-blurbed-if-I-like-them books.

5.  When I grew up, I wanted to be: An actress. Writing, actually, is very similar to acting, only with words, not cameras.

6.  My worst job: PR assistant. When I first graduated from college, I got a “real job” working in PR. And it was just sooooooo not for me. I stuffed goodie bags and made follow-up calls and did a bunch of mindless errands, and yes, I know you have to start somewhere, but pitching products that I thought were pretty crappy in the first place was NOT where I wanted to start. It was sheer misery. I quit 8 months later to try my hand at acting.

7.  My comfort food: Bread. Carbs. More bread. If you opened up my body for an autopsy, you’d probably find giant loaves of bread. With some chocolate on the side.

8.  The location where I write: Home office in NYC. Nice big windows overlooking the trees on our street.

9.  Three songs on my IPOD’s most played list: Well, this changes all the time because I’m a music nut, but for now: Read My Mind by The Killers, Needs by Collective Soul, Time by Chantal Kreviazuk, Gone by Matt Nathanson, Home by Vanessa Carlton, and Lifeline by Mat Kearney. (I couldn’t just choose 3.)

10. If I was on the cover of US Weekly, my headline would read: Allison’s Incredible Makeover – How She Goes From Bedraggled Working Mom to Best-Selling Author (Clue: lots of make-up)

11. The three books that make me think of my childhood: Blubber by Judy Blume, The Encyclopedia Brown series, and Cujo by Stephen King. Yes, really. I started reading him pretty early – I think around 4th grade and fell in love. (No, I don’t know what that says about me either. Or maybe I do and don’t want to ask.)

12. My favorite Chick Flick: Never Been Kissed. (FTR, I asked my husband this question, and he called it. I was going to say “Notting Hill,” but he’s right.)

13. My favorite Chick Lit book: I’m not sure if this is Chick Lit or not, but I’ll go with Lolly Winston’s Good Grief. A perfect blend of humor, realism, honest emotion, and fabulous writing. It’s the book that inspired me to write my debut novel, The Department of Lost and Found.

14. My “must see” TV: Friday Night Lights, Chuck, Lost, Mad Men and 30 Rock

15. My Starbucks order: Grande skim latte. (I know, boring. But I do add in the vanilla powder on top.)

16. My favorite curse word: Um, the one that starts with an F and ends with a K?

17. My celebrity man crush: Oh, so many men, so little time. You know, it’s gotten a little trickier these days, as I do celebrity interviews and actually get to meet these guys in real life…and thus, I’m more hesitant to admit my undying love on the internet, lest they know who I am, but, that said, it’s gotta be Michael Vartan. He was always at the top of my list, but once I interviewed him and he turned out to be as cool as I expected, he’ll likely retain that #1 spot for a lifetime.

18. My celebrity girl crush: Keri Russell. No contest. I’d probably marry her if I could.

19. My writer crush: Jonathan Tropper. Or should I name a woman since we’re doing Chick Lit? Well, regardless, I love Tropper’s books – every single one of them – and he is one of the few writers (outside my circle of friends, of course!) for whom I will RUSH to the bookstore to pick up a hot copy. He might be a guy, but don’t be dissuaded – women will (and do) love his stuff.

20. My last meal before execution: A triple-decker dessert buffet.

21. Three words to summarize my book: Twinkling, fantastical, thought-provoking.

22. It took me _____  to write my book. Two months.

23. My book’s original title: Time of My Life! I scrolled through Napster to see what might work, saw this, and bam, we all agreed it was perfect.

24. Right now, I’m working on: My follow-up, The One That I Want, which plays on similar themes as Time of My Life, only by turning everything on its head: a small-town woman who thinks her life is perfect is granted the (unwelcome) ability to see into the future and discovers that nothing is as it seems and nothing is perfect after all.

25. Chick Lit is alive & kicking because: There are smart women everywhere who still love nothing better than to sink into bed and reacquaint themselves with their imagination and their love of reading.

If you just can’t get enough of the fantastic Allison Winn Scotch, head on over to www.allisonwinn.com and click here to follow her on Twitter.  And for our fellow Facebook whores, click here to become a fan!

Xoxo,

Liz & Lisa