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 Click here to read an excerpt from Best Friends Forever To watch me read from Best Friends Forever, click here. posted by Jen at 7/10/2009 11:04:00 AM BEST FRIENDS FOREVER comes out Tuesday (but you knew that already, right?) In the meantime, three more events in St. Louis AND San Francisco, which were the top two vote-getters in my Facebook poll. Come see me... Saturday, July 18: St. Louis, The Ethical Society of St. Louis (9001 Clayton Road), 8:00 pm Tuesday, July 21: El Cerrito, Barnes and Noble El Cerrito, (El Cerrito Plaza), 7:00 pm Wednesday, July 22: San Francisco, Book Passage Bookstore in the San Francisco Ferry Building (1 Ferry Building, #42), 8:00 pm' Finally, a note for Kindle users -- I know the book is currently priced at $14 for Kindle, as opposed to $9.99 you pay for most titles. Amazon is responsible for setting the price. My understanding is that they list titles they expect to do well for $14 and then, after a week or two, the price drops to $9.99...but because it's Amazon, not the publisher, making the decision, I can't tell you how the price got set, or tell you when the price will change. All I can say is that I hope you decide that BEST FRIENDS FOREVER is worth $14, and that you enjoy the read. | # Thursday, July 02, 2009 posted by Jen at 7/02/2009 08:06:00 AM
New blog at the Huffington Post about bad reviews, bad behavior, and why your "friends" are not your friends.
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New event in Princeton, at noon on Wednesday, July 15, at Eno Terra restaurant, to raise money for 101, a nonprofit organization that provides college scholarships to Princeton High School students. $50 gets you lunch, wine and the pleasure of my company...and BEST FRIENDS FOREVER will be for sale! To sign up, call Eno Terra at 609-497-1777. Seating is limited! And my closet and I are featured in the new Entertainment Weekly...so if you want to see where I write (and why I'm there), pick up a copy. Tuesday, June 30, 2009 posted by Jen at 6/30/2009 10:33:00 AM Two weeks until BEST FRIENDS FOREVER! In the meantime, you can read more about the book, what inspired it, and how (and where) I wrote it, at Chick Lit is Not Dead, The Mummy Chronicles, Laura Reviews, and in The Hartford Courant, which lists it as a "summer book that doesn't feel like homework." Don't forget to go to my Facebook fan page and vote for me to visit your city on my book tour. Last but not least, the first Fran story of the summer. Me (calling to daughter in back seat): "Lucy, see if you can spot Pilgrim Monument!" Fran: "That's not Pilgrim Monument. That's a water tower." Me: "No, it's over there." Fran: "Are you sure? I can barely make it out with all this fog." Me: "Look harder." Fran: "Oh. Right. There it is. Gee, I can hardly see it!" Me: "Yeah. That's why I thought looking for it would be a fun game. For my six-year-old." Pause. Fran: "You better not be Tweeting this." | # Friday, June 26, 2009 posted by Jen at 6/26/2009 05:05:00 PM Two new tour dates have been added to the summer schedule, in addition to the dates in NYC, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago: Washington, DC, Thursday, July 16 at 7:30 p.m., Bailey's Crossroads Borders, and Atlanta: Friday, July 17th at 7pm, Atlanta/East Cobb Borders. Still don't see your city? There is hope! Go to my fan page on Facebook at http://facebook.com/jenniferweiner. Once you become a fan, you can nominate your city in the comments section of my status update. Top five cities move on to the finals, and the city that gets the most votes gets me on Saturday, July 18. Vote early and often! | # Wednesday, June 24, 2009 posted by Jen at 6/24/2009 07:39:00 PM With less than three weeks until the July 14 publication of BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, I am delighted to finally announce my tour dates. Tuesday, July 14: New York City, Lincoln Triangle Barnes & Noble (Broadway at 66th), 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 15: Philadelphia, Free Library of Philadelphia Central Branch (1901 Vine Street), 7:30 p.m. Sunday, July 19: Framingham, MA: Barnes & Noble, 1 Worcester Road, 3 p.m. Monday, July 20: Lincolnshire, IL, Stevenson High School, 1 Stevenson Drive, 7 p.m. (The event is free, but you have to register for tickets ahead of time, which you can do by clicking here). Monday, July 27: Dennis, MA, with Jane Green and Lynn Kiele Bonasia, Lighthouse Inn, 4 p.m. (This event is a fundraiser for the Dennis Public Library. Tickets are $50, the link to buy them is here). Tuesday, August 20, Chatham, MA, Wequassett Inn Resort, 11 a.m.. (Tickets are $80, which includes lunch and a signed book. To buy them, go here.) There is still the possibility of a second Boston event on Tuesday, July 21, and a reading in Washington the night of the 16th. I'll post details as soon as I get them, but for now, mark your calendars and I hope to see you all on the road! | # Thursday, June 11, 2009 posted by Jen at 6/11/2009 10:07:00 PM I know we're still four weeks and change away from the release of BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, but, OMG! The New York Times actually had something to say about something I've written! And that something was nice! In her annual chick-lit roundup, Janet Maslin writes: "Jennifer Weiner, another creator of widely popular female characters, injects an element of suspense into her latest, “Best Friends Forever.” This book begins on an unexpected note of violence, but the friendship of the title is at its heart. Two estranged onetime high-school chums — one now a television weathergirl and the other one of Ms. Weiner’s lovable, snack-obsessed frumps — are thrown together to find out what happened in that opening scene and to hash out old grievances. Ms. Weiner’s characters are warmly and realistically drawn, even if the weathergirl needs to be told, about the Weathermen, “those guys weren’t actual meteorologists.” Ms. Weiner writes comfortably about the real world." Sweet! You can read the first chapter of BEST FRIENDS FOREVER right here (it's a very short first chapter, and I'll be posting a longer excerpt shortly). The book comes out July 14. I'll be in New York City at the Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble the night of the 14th, then in Philadelphia at the Free Library the following night, and in Chicago on July 20. More dates and specifics to come, but for now, woo hoo! | # Thursday, June 04, 2009 posted by Jen at 6/04/2009 02:13:00 PM BEST FRIENDS FOREVER (hey, did you see that Time Magazine picked it as a summer beach read?) is coming in about six week, which means I'm thinking a lot about publicity and promotion. This year, for the first time since 2001, my publisher's campaign contained no print element at all. No big day-of-publication New York Times ad, no little Times ad, no ad in any paper or magazine at all. Just lots and lots of advertising on the Internet and on the radio. On the one hand, I want the ads to target potential readers as specifically as possible, to meet them where they live, which means Facebook and Twitter, gossip and fashion websites, top 40 radio, mom-blogs and the like. On the other hand, as a former print journalist, the tacit admission that newspapers and magazines don't matter much anymore is a little hard to take. So when it came time to supplement my publisher’s efforts, I looked around for a print component to compliment the plan already in place, and quickly arrived at People magazine. The ad's ready to go. The date's been chosen. Now comes the big roll of the dice: who will be on the cover the week the ad runs? A few weeks ago, the Times published a fascinating piece about the people on People a few weeks ago about how the editors choose their covers, about what works and what doesn’t, and how “at this point Farrah has to die. It’s the only cover left for her.” (their words. Their words! Not mine!). Evidently, we've all had our fill of Madonna, whereas Jon and Kate are as huge as their brood (which totally makes sense – I’ve seen about five minutes of the show, but, thanks to People, I have many elaborate theories and opinions about their marriage). Death is big, whether it's a dead princess, dead pundit, or dead crocodile hunter. Weight gain and weight loss seem to be guaranteed sellers – who doesn’t love the story of a dramatic transformation or, better yet, the sad tale of a former skinny who’s fallen off the wagon? But celebrities are tricky, and the editors acknowledged that it’s hard to find the sweet spot of a subject appealing to the magazine's wide range of readers, who are diverse in terms of age (boomers and x'ers), geography (red states and blue), and whether they care about NASCAR, country music and Heidi and Spencer. Which leads me to this question: what would be the absolute, ultimate, jaw-dropping, earth-shaking, cannot-look-away People cover to run July 21st (available on newsstands in major cities 7/15?) Brad and Angelina Get Hitched? Brad and Angie break up? Brad leaves Angie for Jen? Diana: Back from the Dead…and Pregnant? Kirstie Alley, thin once more? Valerie Bertinelli, heavier again? A secret royal love child? A shocking celebrity death? Baby down a well? Farrah down a well? Hmm… | # |
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