Yes! Yes! Yes!
Yanno I posted something similar to this today.
I read everything I can get my hands on and I think my writing is varied in just that same way.
Heck, when I'm desperate I even go for the back of cereal boxes (do you know all the cool toys you can GET by sending away $2.99 and a couple proof of purchase seals?)
I have just ordered three of Shanna Swendson's books to read on the plane to Norway. I had been meaning to but after reading your blog I just went right out and did it.
Thanks for a great post!
first of all, can I just say, I read The Bitch Posse the summer of 2005 and I absolutely loveloveloved it. Sorry to gush, but it really is my favorite book. OK! gushing over!
Great post! I think people really underestimate just how hard writing is - even writing chick lit. There is good chick lit and bad chick lit, and the good should be admired because it is not easy. I never really thought of the Bitch Posse as anti-chick lit because I never thought of it in relation to another genre. Just because a novel has females as the main focus doesn't make it chick-lit, nor does it make it anti-chick lit. But oh well. I definitely agree that it's better than being known as the female Chuck Palahniuk. I think it's one thing to compare one author to another - "fans of so and so, will love this" or even to say "her work is similar to x-author" but to specifically say you're the female version of someone is a little disconcerting. And as great as Chuck Palahniuk is, I don't really see the comparison. I mean granted, I haven't read all of his novels, but from what I have read he always seems a bit all over the place (this is not necessarily a bad thing) whereas despite the switching between narrators and time periods, your novel always seemed way more focused than his. Maybe I'm focusing too much on style here and your editor was more referring to content, but even then ehhhh.
OK, that was quite long. Sorry!
and the cover of Sittenfeld's Prep looked most decidedly chicklitish - an (ironic) factor in its success no doubt!
You're so right, Martha. I thought I wrote comedy and didn't know I wrote chick lit until my agent told me
Huh? I said.
Anyway, I'm delighted that you enjoyed my book. Coming from a writer of your talent, that's quite a compliment. I'd be thrilled to be the official airplane book!!
love,becky
Thanks for the shout-out! Ironically, my books have also been compared to Chuck Palahniuk...plus Swift, Austen, and for my literary thriller, Rendell. Not bad for a Chick-Lit writer, huh? 
As you know, I read Bitch Posse right after it was published and enjoyed it greatly. I think branding all of Chick-Lit as light and entertaining is a misrepresentation, though. Entertaining? Hopefully so. But the genre is defined by edgy or satiric voice, as opposed to "light," which implies something entirely different. Just my two cents!
Thanks for all the comments!
Lauren , that is an important distinction. By "light," I meant enjoyable... But I do think chicklit like yours, Fielding's, Bank's, and Becky's has much to say about the day-to-day struggles of women. It's said in a fun way though... in the best of chicklit, the reader never feels preached at. XO
Well, we do know I can get preachy, doll! Thanks, Martha. You're a mensch of a woman.
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