Sex and the City

Liz Tuccillo's 5 Do's and a Do-Over

Okay, so y'all know that we LOVE Sex and The City. In fact, we were so desperate for a Carrie fix that we chose our fave episodes in celebration of the premiere of SATC2 last year!  So when we discovered that Liz Tuccillo, one of SATC's writers, had written a novel, we knew that we just had to get our hands on it. So we're thrilled that Liz is sharing her 5 Do's and a Do-Over with us today. She was a writer on the two final seasons of Sex and the City.  After that she went on to co-author the bestselling book, He's Just Not That into You, which went on to be a major motion picture produced by New Line Cinema.  She created the television show Related for the WB, before traveling the world and writing her first novel, How to Be Single. She has recently finished writing and producing a new webisode for Warner Brothers titled Paul the Male Matchmaker.

And we LOVED How to be Single.  It's smart and funny and will make you want to call up your best girlfriends for happy hour!  Order it today!

After Julie Jenson, single New Yorker turned anthropologist, has a historically bad night out with her friends, she decides to cash it all in and hit the road. From Paris to Brazil to Sydney, Bali, Beijing, Mumbai and Reykjavik, Julie travels the world to find out if anyone has a better idea how to handle this whole “single” thing. Julie falls in love, gets her heart broken, sees the world, and learns more than she ever dreamed possible.

Back in New York, her friends are grappling with their own issues—bad blind dates, loveless engagements, custody battles, and single motherhood. Through their journeys, each woman fights to redefine their vision of love, happiness and a fulfilled life.

Be sure to leave a comment to be entered to win one of FIVE copies!  We'll choose the winners on Sunday, April 10th after 6pm PST.

We think you'll love her 5 Do's and a Do-Over.  In fact, we are going to give #2 a try this week!

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS: LIZ TUCCILLO'S 5 DO'S AND A DO-OVER

5 DO'S

1.  Try to learn something every day. Rent a documentary instead of seeing that romantic comedy one night.  If you travel, make a point to learn a little about the history of where you're going.  If you read something in the paper you don't understand, go online and research it.

2.  Go one day not saying anything nasty about yourself. See if you can do it.  Go about your day as you normally would, but just when you pass that mirror and are about to comment that you're too old, or too fat, or how much you hate your hair... stop it.  At work, if you make a mistake don't call yourself an idiot.  If you eat too much at lunch, give yourself a break and just decide to enjoy it.  Just for educational purposes, try to remember how many times you wanted to be nasty to yourself.  I'm sure it's a lot more than you'd like it to be!

3.  Make a movie. We all have a little Meryl Streep or Martin Scorcese just trying to get out.  So get your video camera or flip cam (or even cellphone at this point) and be a filmmaker!  Get all your friends to act in it.  Or just interview a family member, like your mother, who'd you'd love to capture for posterity.  Edit it on one of the inexpensive programs they have now.  (Many laptops already have one installed.)  Have your own special film festival!

4.  Have a pot luck. Nothing is more fun than a dinner party with friends, but sometimes the thought of it can be overwhelming.  But with a potluck, you share the work and the fun!  Pick a theme, like "tapas" or "Northern Italian" and invite people to cook a dish from that region, (organizing by appetizer, entree, side dishes and dessert.)  For the non-cooks, invite them to bring alcohol from that region or provide the music from that region -- or just a good appetite.  It gives everyone something totalk about, and you'll come away some great recipes and a great time!

5.  Take a child to their first play. Whether it's Broadway or Community theater, there's nothing more fun than watching a child experience their first live performance.  You come off looking all generous and thoughtful, but in the end, you'll have the most fun of all.

DO-OVER

I've lost loved ones to illness, and I am still haunted by feeling like I didn't do enough for them.  I guess I would like to have that time back.  And also to be better in the future.

Thanks Liz! xoxo, L&L

To read more about Liz, head on over to her website.  And is this where we officially beg her to set up a Facebook or Twitter page?  C'mon Liz!  Your fans are dying to "like" you!

 

5 Things Liz & Lisa Didn't Know About... Sarah Dunn

Today is a BIG day for us! Especially for Lisa... because one of her biggest author crushes, Sarah Dunn, is HERE. Yeah, we know what you're thinking, we have A LOT of author crushes. What can we say? We're kind of author crush whores! But hey, we'll take the label. Because we're thrilled that there are so many fantastic female writers out there to lust after.

Now back to Sarah. It all started with The Big Love. When Lisa read the story of Alison Hopkins who gets dumped-hard-when her live-in boyfriend, Tom, goes out for MUSTARD and, um, never returns. Let's just say Lisa could relate. No, none of her boyfriends went out for a condiment and disappeared, but many of them did dump her-hard. So she could feel Alison's pain. Especially when Tom calls to say he's in love with another woman AND he's been sleeping with her for FIVE months. OUCH. And now Alison, flat broke and working for a floundering newspaper, must jump back into the single world. *Sigh*

And then Sarah wrote Secrets to Happiness and we both boned out over the story of Holly Frick (love that name) who is still in love with the man she's divorcing. Double Ouch. And Holly's happily married best friend reveals she's about to have an affair...And then another woman comes to Holly asking for love advice- with Holly's EX. (Sarah knows how to build the drama!) So Holly, determined to find happiness, gets herself a much younger man (score) and a dog... And we LOVED the theme of this story that we can all relate to- searching for happiness.  And if you leave a comment, you'll be entered to WIN 1 of 5 copies of Secrets to Happiness- out in paperback now!

And now, here's Sarah... who we love even more after this mother of a newborn (she gave birth just weeks ago) *raise champagne glass* managed to find time to bust out five things and reveal, among other things, that she LOVES inappropriate TV! Have we died and gone to Heaven? Can Sarah get any better? We'll let you be the judge... (PS: Hopefully we can get more scoop about #1!)

5 Things Liz & Lisa didn't know about...Sarah Dunn!

1. The book Sex and the City is dedicated to my husband, Peter Stevenson. I find this more than a little alarming.

2. The first animal sound my son Harry learned how to say was the camel’s. He still won’t meow, moo, or go woof-woof, but if you ask him what a camel says, he spits.

3. My Secret Celebrity Crush is Brody Jenner. Related to this, I suppose, is the fact that I watch a lot of age-inappropriate TV.  I’ve only recently come to terms with the idea that I am too old to be on The Real World.  I also love ‘Snapped’, a true crime show wherein ordinary women just like you and me kill their husbands.  They can’t help it.  They just snap.

4. One of my most cherished possessions is a hot water bottle shaped like a little horse that I call The Hot Pony. I bought it in Ireland, where liability issues are such that children are encouraged to sleep with stuffed animals filled with boiling water.

5. I just had a baby.  Her name is Alice. I haven’t slept for more than three straight hours in seven weeks.  I wish I could think of something more clever to say.

Um, Sarah, we think you deserve an award for even finishing these five things! And we love them!

For more info on the lovely Sarah Dunn, visit her website.

Thanks! xoxo, L&L