By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY
Best-selling chick-lit author Jennifer Weiner has much to celebrate: the 10th anniversary of her hit novel Good in Bed, which made plus-size heroines fashionable; a new novel, Then Came You, out July 12; and her headfirst jump into producing State of Georgia, a new TV show starring Raven-Symon� (premieres Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on ABC Family). Weiner, 41, spoke with USA TODAY about her busy summer.
By Andrea Cipriani Mecchi
Jennifer Weiner has a novel about surrogacy, 'Then Came You,' hitting shelves July 12.
By Andrea Cipriani Mecchi
Jennifer Weiner has a novel about surrogacy, 'Then Came You,' hitting shelves July 12.
Q:How didGood in Bedchange the landscape of women's fiction?
A: It made the world of fiction safe for bigger heroines. When I was growing up, it was a lot of Judith Krantz and it was a lot of these women who were more beautiful than you would ever be, wealthier than you'd ever be ? like Shirley Conran's Lace, where every character was this drop-dead stunner.
Q: So it became OK for a novel's heroine to be plus-size?
A: When you look at what people were calling chick lit back then, it was very glamorous and New York-y. My woman characters were a little more grounded and a little more real. Before, if you were going to have a big girl, she was the best friend or she was going to undergo some magical transformation and turn into a beauty by the end of the book.
Q: Is chick lit thriving?
A: There are certain factions that hated the idea of chick lit, hated its popularity, hated that what they saw as these frivolous books that had nothing to say and were only about sex and shoes and shopping were doing so well. They are now doing the happy dance on what they think is chick lit's grave. I think those books are still with us. I don't think a genre that was just about sex, shoes and shopping would have any kind of staying power at all.
Q: How do you define it?
A: "Real" chick lit speaks very personally to women about their lives and about their choices. Those books are always going to be with us. Women want to read stories about characters who feel familiar and whose choices feel relatable.
Q: Is surrogacy, the focus ofThen Came You, your new novel, still a hot-button issue?
A: Surrogacy has been around since Abraham and Sarah, but money is the last great taboo. The idea that someone with enough money can just will a baby into being ? that's fascinating to me.
Q: How did you become executive producer of your own TV series?
A: The people at ABC said, "We like your books. We really like what you do with strong female characters. Why don't you see if you can come up with some TV shows for us?" I partnered with Jeff Greenstein, who writes for Desperate Housewives and was show runner on Will & Grace, and we came up with State of Georgia, about two young women who move to New York to try and make it.
Q: What's it like?
A: It's sort of Laverne & Shirley. It's a little Sex and the City. A little Ally McBeal. It's that moment in your 20s when you're right out of college and you've been defined as one thing growing up and as a student and as a young woman, and now you're on your own and get to define yourself. That moment has so much appeal for me and seemed to have the potential for a lot of comedy and a lot of emotion, too.
Q: Tell us about the show's star, Raven-Symon�, who plays Georgia.
A: What we were looking for was a larger-than-life, bubbly, exuberant, confident young woman who was convinced of her own worth even when the world couldn't see it. I really think that's what we have with Raven. She's this incredibly natural comedienne.
Q: Is Georgia a classic Jennifer Weiner character?
A: The original intention was for Georgia to be a big, curvy girl, and that would be one of the obstacles she dealt with while pursuing her acting career. She wanted to play the ing�nue and the bombshell, and people would want to cast her as the funny best friend. Raven has lost a lot of weight, and that's been a challenge we've been dealing with. But in terms of her sense of humor and outlook on life, Georgia's going to feel familiar to anyone who loved Canny in Good in Bed or Becky in Little Earthquakes and Addy in Best Friends Forever.
Q: You have more than 28,000 followers on Twitter (@jenniferweiner). Is it fun?
A: It's so much fun, but there's a lot of discipline, too, in that 140-characters thing ? how pithy or on point can you be in this tiny bit of space? That's a good exercise for a writer. I love live-tweeting The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. Hands down, it's the high point of any week.
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