Winter 2009/2010 Writing Contest Entries

Favorite books

Name: Angela Lam Turpin (Santa Rosa)

I wrote my first novel, Legs, after attempting to write serious fiction for years. I had always imagined I might become a literary novelist like Ernest Hemingway or popularize a new literary form like Gabriel Garcia Marquez did with magic realism. Never did I imagine I was best suited for the fiction I love best—chick lit.

Chick-lit is popular women’s fiction, often about single women grappling with issues of identity, career, dating, and relationships. It is known as the literary equivalent of a romantic comedy. Good chick-lit is considered a beach read. Something you can devour in a weekend or on a vacation. It is literary escape for the world-weary soul.

My all time favorite chick-lit book is Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. Confessions of a Shopaholic opens with an almost conspiratorial colloquial beginning admitting the shameful situations we sometimes get ourselves into unwittingly. The tone and humor grabbed me and kept me turning the pages, eager for more. Some other chick-lit books that have inspired me to write better include The Night I Got Lucky by Laura Caldwell about a young married woman whose wishes come true only to turn her life into a nightmare and As Seen on TV by Sarah Mlynowski about a twenty-something woman who stars in a reality TV show only to discover her real life has become a sham. All three books take tricky life situations and strong-willed, lovable women to tell amazing stories full of warmth, humor, and the indomitable human spirit.

I wrote Legs hoping to capture some of that indomitable human spirit in my narrator, Trina Kay, who goes through the housing crisis with laugh-out-loud humor.