Wanted: Tall, Dark & Handsome Man to Sell My Book by Lori L. Tharps

Hi Girlfriends,

I don't have trunk novel. But I have a good story about a story of mine that never sold. Well, it wasn't really a story as much as it was an idea and that's why it never sold. Here's what happened.

I was young and idealistic when my first book, Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America came out in 2001. I co-wrote the book with a friend and we were so proud of ourselves. Hair Story is a cultural history of Black people's hair in the United States. Slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, Reganomics. We re-visit them all through the lens of Black hair. The book got rave reviews and even though I was six months pregnant when the book hit store shelves, my co-author and I hit the road to promote it, hitting at least 10 cities before my son was born.

Considering our publisher only prepared for a modest first print run, we sold out of our first printing rather quickly, but that didn't mean we hit any bestseller lists. We knew our book was good. And important. But it wasn't sexy. No, sexy books at the time were being written by a lot of men. I was working at Entertainment Weekly magazine at the time, and I even wrote an article about this trend of men being able to write even the crappiest pieces of fiction and women would buy it. It was infuriating. At one book event my co-author and I attended, we were seated at a table next to a famous male author who had just come out with yet another one of his bestselling books. Another sexy romantic thriller. Yawn! Six people came over to our booth to inquire about Hair Story. Six hundred women lined up to see Sexy Author Man. And that's when we hatched our plan.

My co-author and I decided we could probably write something at the same level as these upstart male romance writers. We figured we could probably do even better. But we knew that even if the writing was just as good, we wouldn't get the same play as a hunky dude. So, rather than sit down and plot out our story line, we went through our contact lists to see which one of our guy friends could we convince to pose as the author of the book we were going to write. We planned the photo shoot for his author photo (We decided on bare-chested with a beach background), how we'd prep him for the book tour, and of course we calculated just how much we'd have to pay him to be us. That was the tricky part. But my co-author was friends with a wanna-be actor who also happened to be ridiculously good-looking and we thought he might just do it for the experience. And maybe a nice dinner.

We were giddy with the idea. So sure that it would work. And we consoled ourselves by saying that we were only doing this for the money. It was a necessary evil. Then we could then write the important books we really wanted to be working on instead. Plus, we would be proving that the literary industry was just as sexist as the rest of the world. Did I mention that both me and my co-author went to women's colleges?

Anyway, my dear girlfriends, here's what happened. Nothing. After we found our fake hunky author, my co-author and I realized we really had nothing we wanted to write about. Every time we tried to sit down and spit out this easy, breezy novel, we came up blank. Eventually, the idea fizzled, and our fake author moved to Switzerland and got married. Moral of the story? Writing for money will never get you through to the finish line? Cheaters never win? No, I think the moral of that story is just that we should have tried harder and we'd probably be rich today. After all, it worked for Richard Castle. Yes, a fictional character from an ABC TV show is writing New York Times Bestselling books. What's the secret to his success?

Decent story + Good looking guy pretending to be the author = Multi-book Deal.

Live and learn. Live and learn.

Lori L. Tharps is the author of the novel, Substitute Me. She blogs regularly about parenting and pop culture at myamericanmeltingpot.com

Some Books Are Worth Repeating and Other Summer Guilty Pleasures by Lori L. Tharps

Hello Girlfriends,

I don't know about you, but I've been living on the academic calendar, well, since I started kindergarten  many, many moons ago. Even when I briefly worked in corporate America, my internal body clock knew there was something amiss about getting up and going into the office between June 15 and September 1st. Now that I work in the hallowed halls of academia, summer really means a break from the routine. And for me, part of that break means catching up on all of the delicious paperbacks, 'women's fiction' and guilty pleasure reading I don't have time for during the academic year. Case in point, I'm just about half way through Rebecca Skloot's, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I needed to read it for a class I'm teaching and because I thought I should. (It is a fascinating story.) But come June 1 or if I finish HeLa before then, here's what's on my TBR list for the summer of 2012.

32 Candles by our own Ernessa Carter. Yes, I read this fantastic, snarky, romance-with-a-twist when it first came out in 2010, but I'm ready to read it again. Of course, I'd like it if Ms. Carter would just pen another smart, romantic tale, but I'm happy to re-read 32 Candles while I wait.

Minding Ben  by Victoria Brown. Here's a book I'd never heard of until I met the author this spring at a conference. She approached me because she'd heard about my book, Substitute Me and as her book is also about a nanny in New York, she thought we might be kindred spirits. Minding Ben is about a nanny recently arrived in New York from her native Trinidad. The book deals with issues of race and privilege, culture wars and immigration and that oh so unique nanny culture in New York City.

Anna In Between by Elizabeth Nuñez. Quite frankly, I'd read a cocktail napkin if Elizabeth Nuñez wrote something on it. I love her writing and the stories she tells always seem to resonate with my life circumstances. This book is about a woman, Anna, who works in the publishing industry who has to deal with her aging parents, as her mother deals with a diagnosis of breast cancer.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I got into a circus phase earlier this year when I wrote a newspaper article on a local circus. Then it was like, faster than you can say Cirque du Soleil, I was obsessed with all-things circus. I read Water for Elephants, considered signing up for trapeze classes and contemplated running away from home to attend clown college. So, of course I have to read this book about magical lovers under the big top. I'd probably read it anyway though because like Ernessa Carter, Morgenstern is another Smith College alum and I must support my fellow Smithies!

That's a good list. I'm sure I'll read all four of those books and still have time for one or two more before fall. I'll be checking everybody else's lists for suggestions. And just out of curiosity, does anybody else out there read their favorite books over again? Or am I the only one? Which ones are worth repeating?

Lori L. Tharps is the author of the novel, Substitute Me. She blogs regularly at My American Meltingpot.com

Ripped from the Headlines: Get Your Best Story Ideas from the Morning News by Lori L. Tharps

Hi Girlfriends,

So, we've been talking about coming up with good story ideas and I have a few things to add to the discussion. First and foremost, I'd like to say that my kids provide me with an endless supply of things to write about, both as a magazine journalist and a fiction writer. As a mother of three, I have a rich fantasy life about live-in help, luxurious vacations, and spa-days. If I ever find the time to pen another novel, it might have all of those elements in it because it's clear I won't be experiencing them in my real life. (sigh)

The idea for my first novel, Substitute Me, did actually come from my own trauma surrounding the search for the perfect nanny. I never found one, but the protagonist in the book does and drama ensues. These days, given the fact that my life seems to be on a permanent replay of work, feed the baby, laundry, grade papers, repeat, I'm not feeling another domestic drama. But that's okay.

When I'm not on duty as a human cow, I teach journalism to college students. This semester I'm teaching a class called Ripped from the Headlines: Using Journalism's Tools to Write Fiction. One of the main things I'm teaching my students to do, is scour the news media to find great story ideas. Because we all know that truth really is stranger than fiction. For example, my students just handed in an assignment where they had to research a recent story they discovered in the news that they thought would translate well into fiction. I received a slew of great stories -- from a female PhD candidate in chemical engineering who moonlights as a dominatrix, to a man who was rescued from a deadly shark attack by a group of friendly dolphins. Besides the fact that I felt like I must be living under a rock for not knowing about some of the more outrageous stories, I felt completely smart for creating this class.

A person doesn't have to go any further than their local paper to come up with clever, intriguing, unbelievable story ideas that they can spin into an amazing work of fiction. From natural disasters like the horrific earthquake and tsunami in Japan, to the recent lottery winner who is 85 years old, dramatic stories happen every day. This is not to make light of or profit from other people's misery. On the contrary, sometimes by unraveling the truth in fiction, we can give tragedy a happier ending, or at least sort out some of the complicated feelings involved. I just read such a book, the bittersweet Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron, which revisits the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

So, rather than 'writing what you know' or wracking your brain for creative ideas that may or may not be in there, open a People magazine and get inspired.

Lori L. Tharps is a magazine writer, college professor and mom. She blogs at MyAmericanMeltingpot.com.

Looking for Bad Writing Habits? Have a Baby by Lori L. Tharps

Hi Girlfriends,

It's been awhile, but I have a really good excuse. I was busy having a baby and I'm just now crawling back to the land of the living. When did my little bundle of joy arrive, you ask? Last month? Over the winter holidays? No, I admit, babygirl arrived in the heat of summer, but it still feels like yesterday. And I don't mean that nostalgically. I mean that I still can't quite figure out how to manage a newborn, two older kids, a job and all the other stuff that comes with the aforementioned trappings of this woman's life and find time to start my next book.

I find it absolutely hilarious, however, that the main character in my novel, Substitute Me, didn't have such problems. She transitioned from new mom to working mom with ease and grace. She found the perfect nanny and breezed right back into her whirlwind life as a corporate PR exec. How is it possible that I could create such a character, yet can't imitate her ways? I guess I didn't realize I was writing fantasy fiction. Then again, my character's nanny kind of destroys her life so I guess, I'm not totally jealous.

So, without further ado, here are five things you should never, ever, do, if you want to cultivate a productive writing life:

1. Have Children. At all. They are a major time suck. Even when they're sleeping you might, like me, have to stay in their room and watch them breathe to make sure they are actually asleep and not in a coma.

2. Get Cable. Like children, cable television will absolutely steal all of your time. Marathon episodes of A Baby Story are particularly addictive and may even lead to you accidentally getting knocked up which would mean you'd have children. (See #1 above).

3. Have Access to the Internet. The Internet is like that boy who always used to pull your hair in second grade. It is a major distraction and you won't be able to ignore it. Email, texting, tweeting, will always demand your immediate attention. The Internet is almost worse than children. But at least, you can unplug it for days at a time. There's no off button on your kids (sigh)

4. Think About All of the Money and Fame You Will Achieve From Your As Yet Unwritten Book. I don't think this really requires any explanation, but for those of you who still think you're going to pen the next Harry Potter or Twilight Series, it's probably not going to happen. Instead, you must write for the sheer joy of writing so that when you do publish your beautiful work of art and only make modest amounts for your effort, you feel overjoyed not betrayed.

5. Have an Attractive, Loving Husband/Boyfriend. He may mean well, but he will never understand why he has to shut up while you agonize in front of your computer for hours, sometimes days on end. He will pout and groan and complain that you are ignoring him. And to make him feel better (and perhaps it will make you feel better too) you will appease him with mercy sex. This in turn could lead to you getting knocked up (see #1 as to why this isn't a good idea).

So, there you have it girlfriends. Heed my warnings and you'll be on the right track to being very productive writers this year. Good luck!


Lori L. Tharps is actually in love with all three of her children and writes about them a lot on her blog at My American Meltingpot.com

Write What You Know, But Don't Stop There!

Writers and wanna-be writers are always told 'write what you know' and that old adage has always worked for me. I’ve written three books – two non-fiction and one novel – and all three have been inspired by my own life experiences. Heck, the second book, Kinky Gazpacho, is all about my life experiences, it’s a freakin’ memoir. It’s not that I think my little world is so completely fascinating, but the things that happen to me are the things that obviously consume most of my time and attention, so obviously it’s as good a place as any to come up with story ideas.

That being said, there’s a big difference between, 'the book was inspired by my own life and the book is about my life,'especially when it comes to fiction. Readers often get the two confused. And I admit, I’m as guilty as the next person in reading into a novelist’s work, trying to figure out what part of the main character is really the author working through her own issues. A lot of readers ask me which of the main characters in my novel, Substitute Me, do I most relate to. Clearly, they really want to know if the African-American nanny is actually me. She’s not. Not by a long shot. In fact, of the two main characters in the book, I identify a lot more with the White woman who employs the nanny. See readers, I threw you off with the race swap thing. Ha!!

But seriously, my agent gave me the greatest compliment when she read the first draft of Substitute Me and said, “I’m so proud of you. This book is so not about you.” I was thrilled that I was able to create two unique characters that really were creations of my own imagination. And that’s where we get back to the difference between inspired by and about. I can freely admit that the germ of the story in Substitute Me – exploring the relationship between a working woman and the woman she hires to be her domestic replacement – came from my own experience trying to find the perfect nanny to care for my newborn son. (True confession, I gave up the hunt, quit my job and worked from home for many years.) I often wondered how other women managed to make that relationship work, how they juggled the guilt and freedom having a nanny provided. And soon enough, a story began to take shape in my mind that answered those questions for me. Ten years later, Substitute Me hit store shelves.

As a magazine writer, my own hectic life is always where I begin to cull my story ideas from. And I’m not writing personal essays. But looking over my clips from the last ten years, it’s pretty clear what’s been going on in my life. I wrote about pregnancy, spring cleaning, raising kids with a positive body image, the effects of spanking, and getting along with your in-laws during the holidays. Trust me, I never showed up as a source in any of those stories, but the ideas were “ripped from the headlines” of my home. The thing is, I figure if this stuff is important to me, it’s probably important to somebody else. And when you take that same approach with fiction, if something happens in your life and you can’t stop thinking about it or wondering how other people deal with such things, you’ve probably got the makings of a great novel or short story.

Wanna know what I’m thinking about now? Adoption. We did a lot of work and started the adoption process. As it turns out, I slipped and got pregnant. So the adoption is off, but I’m still thinking about it. Wondering what if? What if we adopted and had a new baby at the same time? And so a new story begins. Stay tuned.

Lori L. Tharps is the author of Substitute Me. Feel free to visit her at LoriTharps.com

Writer Mama Starting Over Again

Hi Girlfriends,

I think it's quite funny that this cycle's theme is new beginnings, because that's exactly where I am in my life right now. I'm starting over. But it has nothing to do with my literary life, although it will definitely change the way I write. Girlfriends, I'm having a baby. Ten years after giving the birth the first time, I'm doing it again. Yes, there is another child in between the first and what will definitely be the last, but still, he was born almost seven years ago. For all intents and purposes, I feel like this is definitely going to be a new beginning. (Just as a side note: I can't believe all of the improvements and new gadgets there are for babies these days. A trip through the baby aisles at Target yesterday gave me a panic attack.)

While I would never say this baby was an accident, she wasn't exactly planned either. Suffice it to say, the hubby and I did not sit down and figure out exactly how a new baby would fit into our already hectic lives. My husband is in graduate school. I was planning on going on a whirlwind book tour this summer for Substitute Me. Considering I'll be bigger than a beached whale and on the verge of pushing this baby girl out, I can pretty much postpone those plans.

So, what am I going to do? How do I once again figure out how to marry my life as a writer, --which today we know also means my life as a non-stop publicist, promoter and social media whore -- with that of a new mother? After the birth of my first child, it took me an entire year to write one feature-length magazine article. I figured my writing career was over before it began. But then a funny thing happened. Once my son was a year old, sleeping through the night, on a semi-regular schedule, I started to fit the writing in during those nap times, after hours, or even while he played on his baby gym and I pretended to watch. If I'm being honest, I'll tell you that having kids actually made me into the super efficient writer I am today. Once my second son was born, I wrote three more books, a slew of magazine articles and a synopsis for a stage play that never made it out of my living room, but still.

My fingers are crossed that this child will be born knowing how much I love her, yet at the same time knowing how much I need her to be really keen on schedules. (Please!) Of course I know that it is entirely possible that because I actually need a really easy baby, I'll probably get a super fussy-won't sleep unless she's in a moving vehicle- needs to eat precisely every two hours for six months baby, but I kind of have a Plan B for that scenario. She comes with me on that whirlwind book tour. After all, Substitute Me is all about a working woman trying to find a perfect nanny. Won't having Baby X attached to my side make a great talking point for book groups? You think I'm kidding?

At the end of the day, I wouldn't change my life circumstances for the world. Since I was a little girl there have been two dreams that have been constant in my life; to be a writer and to be a mother. So far I've been able to do both and now I get a chance to try again. I couldn't be happier that this my new beginning.

(But just to calm my fears as a writer who's about to become a mother of three, I started googling writer mamas with three or more kids and I discovered, Jodi Piccolt, Jacqueline Mitchard and Sara Gruen all have at least three kids. If you want to make me feel better, let me know of any other three-kid author moms and/or if you are one of those yourself, how do you make it work? I'm so listening.)

Thanks, Girlfriends.

Resolved for 2011: Read More Books

Hi Girlfriends,

So, I'm one of those people who celebrates the new year twice. Once in September -- because as a college professor, my life still revolves around the academic calendar -- and again in January. Somehow September always feels more like a new beginning to me, but January always gets me with that must-write list of resolutions.

This year was no different. However, this January I just didn't have it in me to make a long to-do list of activities that inevitably I'd stop doing around March 15, like exercising every day or making more than the minimum payment on my credit card bill. When I really took stock of what I wanted to do differently this year, what I wanted to do better, what I wanted to spend an entire year working on, it became crystal clear. Write. More specifically, I want to write another novel. A better novel than my first one, Substitute Me.

Don't get me wrong, I love my first novel, but I know it's not perfect. I figure I have about five more books in me before I get to "perfection" (perfection being loosely defined as 'really, really good' and possibly receiving the kind of award that comes with a gold sticker slapped on the cover.). So, I decided that before I dive into writing that next book, what I need to do is read. A lot. Novels to be specific. And I don't mean haphazard pluck a book off the bookshelf because it has a pretty cover reading. I mean reading with purpose. I mean selecting specific authors because they have mastered their craft. Because they make people weep with their eloquent prose. Because they tell rich and compelling stories that leave readers gasping for air when they turn the last page. This will be my year of reading dangerously and courageously. This will be my year to fall passionately in love with the written word all over again. As an adult. As a student. As a writer.

Now, of course this means I need to compile a pretty good list of what to read. Here's what I have so far.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Room by Emma Donoghue

What is the What by Dave Eggers

If Sons, Then Heirs by Lorene Cary (Release date May 2011)

That's five books for the first five months of the year. Needless to say, I need more titles to add to the list. If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them. Tell me the best book you've ever read or the book that inspired you to be a writer, or even the book you ignored your kids and hid in the bathroom to finish. I have an entire year to keep reading and this year I plan to keep my resolution.

Lori L. Tharps is the author of the novel, Substitute Me. She blogs regularly at My American Meltingpot.com.

My Journey into the World of YA Fiction: Or How I Became a NANOWRIMO Junkie

Hello Girlfriends,

I have to apologize for being absent on the comments here lately. I am just coming up for air after participating in my first ever Nanowrimo. For those of you not acquainted with this crazy concept, Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it takes place during the month of November. During that month, people from around the world commit to writing an entire novel -- that's 50,000 words -- in 30 days. Broken down that comes out to 1667 words a day, every day. God may have rested on the seventh day, but not us writers, apparently.

But I know you are all scratching your heads and saying, but Lori, you're such an accomplished writer. You have three books under your belt already. You just published your phenomenal first novel, Substitute Me. Why would you participate in such a pedestrian exercise as Nanowrimo? Surely you know by now that you can't possibly write a decent novel in a month. Come now.

Well, I have a confession to make. Yes, I've written two other non-fiction books and a novel, but I waded into the world of YA and I needed Nanowrimo, to help get me out. Sort of. Let me explain this round-about writer's journey.

Once upon a time, somewhere between book one and book two of mine (both of which are non-fiction), a good friend and I decided that we would never get rich writing critically acclaimed non-fiction books about race and culture. We realized that the big money was clearly in teen fiction and we wanted in. So,  we cobbled together an outline for a story that we thought was riveting, divided up the chapters and started writing. When we handed it to our agent, she handed it right back and told us that while we may know something about journalism (we were both magazine writers at the time), we clearly didn't get fiction writing. But instead of slamming the door on our faces, she worked with us and had us rewrite that manuscript about 100 times until it resembled something like an actual novel. But it still sucked and to this day it's sitting in a folder in the back of my closet somewhere.

But from that original idea that my friend and I had, another story idea was born in my head and now that I 'understood' how to write a novel, I told our agent that I'd like to try again and she agreed to read it when I was done. A few months later, I gave her my first draft. While it wasn't perfect, she agreed it had potential. I worked on it some more and within the year it was sold to a major publisher. And then a very strange thing happened. After a first round of edits, that manuscript of mine ended up in publishing limbo. Months passed, then years. I wrote two more books; I had another child; I left New York City and moved to Philadelphia, and I accepted a full-time job in academia. I almost forgot about the confused teenage girl named Syrinthia James that I had created almost four years before, but she didn't forget me. She came knocking on my subconscious and told me I had to bring her to life again.

So I called my agent, who contacted the publisher and, 'surprise!' the manuscript was found. I wanted to get right back to work on the book, but when I reread the story, I realized I wasn't the same person anymore and my main character wasn't either. I knew what I wanted to do with Syrinthia, but the only way to bring my vision to life was to start over. Can a writer ever hear two more painful words? Start over? (ugh!). But I had no choice. There was no way to "fix" the errors in the story. The manuscript needed a major overhaul, so I did what any good writer does, I procrastinated. I took on other projects. I taught my classes. I blogged. Time passed and my deadline kept approaching. Enter Nanowrimo. By the end of October, I knew I needed either a Romanian gymnastics coach to whip me into shape or something like Nanowrimo, which offered a false deadline, tons of encouragement and the camaraderie of some 500,000 other crazy writers trying to accomplish the same goal as I. Since I don't know any gymnastics coaches, I went with Nanowrimo and it worked.

Yes, girlfriends, I am happy to report that as of November 30, I typed that 50,000 word and finished the manuscript. (The story wasn't actually finished until 54,000 words, by why quibble over details.) I'll have you know that in order to finish on time I wrote in some strange places, including on an airplane, in a hotel bathroom, and in bed. Of course, now I have to edit the beast, but to me that is far less daunting than the rewrite. And that is how I made the journey into YA fiction and how I became a Nanowrimo junkie.

In return for answering this question: What's the strangest but most effective regimen you ever put yourself on to make a deadline? Or you can tell me the strangest thing you've ever done in a hotel bathroom? Either way I'll send one lucky person an autographed copy of my new novel, Substitute Me and an IOU for the as-yet untitled YA novel. All comments must be received by 7pm on Friday December 10 for the drawing.

Thanks!

Lori L. Tharps is the author of two non-fiction books and the recently released novel, Substitute Me. Please visit her website LoriTharps.com to read more about her work and passions.

My Name in Lights!

Okay, so I have an almost true Hollywood story as well. The 'almost' refers to the fact that the Hollywood ending never really happened, not that my tale isn't true.

The truth is, my second book was optioned by an independent filmmaker. But my second book is a memoir. The title alone, Kinky Gazpacho, got me a lot of interest from movie folk -- both Hollywood and Indie -- but the fact that the story is about a little Black girl from Wisconsin who sets her sights on a life of adventure and romance in Spain confused most of them. I don't blame them entirely. My own parents were confused as to why I thought Spain would be the perfect place to find myself. "What's wrong with Milwaukee," they wanted to know ( as they bit into their bratwurst and sipped from their cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer)?

So, when this female filmmaker from Canada (which is totally close to Wisconsin) said she wanted to turn Kinky Gazpacho into a feature film because the story resonated with her so much, because she thought a lot of other people would be able to relate to my spirit of longing, and because, well, because she wanted to shoot a movie in the south of Spain, I was thrilled. And let's be honest, I was completely geeked on the idea that my life story was going to be the basis for a movie. Granted, the filmmaker informed me that she'd have to 'adjust' some of the narrative to make a better story, but I was okay with that. For example, I told her to feel free to completely skip over the chapter that rehashed my minor romance with "Smelly Man," aka the lovely Amherst boy who followed me home one summer but neglected to mention his new vow against using deodorant. 'Yes, please,' I said. 'Cut all you want, especially if will help tell a more compelling (and, ahem, less embarrassing) story.

Needless to say, after spending far too much time trying to decide who should play me on the big screen, as well as my sexy Spanish husband -- who isn't as sexy as say Antonio Banderas was in his prime, but is totally cuter -- in my opinion -- than Javier Bardem -- I realized, there are definite drawbacks to having your life plastered on a movie screen. No matter how much the filmmaker claimed she "got me," her focus was on telling a great story, not sparing my feelings when she decides to turn Smelly Man into an abusive boyfriend with a bad coke habit, instead of just a misguided boy with a hygiene problem. You see where I'm going with this? Once that story became hers, my life was no longer my own. Literally.

Lucky for me, Kinky Gazpacho the movie is still in the development stage. For about a year I would check in with the filmmaker on a regular basis for status updates, but now I'm content to leave the project in that famous Hollywood limbo. If it ever does make it to the big screen I don't know how I'll feel seeing my life interpreted by a complete stranger. It will probably be very trippy. Maybe I'll call Elizabeth Gilbert and she how she's dealing with it.

Peace out!

Lori L. Tharps is the author of two critically acclaimed non-fiction books, Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America and Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love & Spain. Atria Books just released her debut novel, Substitute Me in August 2010.