The Lit Chick Corner delves into New York society

Welcome to ‘Lit Chick Corner!’ (LCC). I am a Sydney-based novelist, dedicating this weekly forum to all those hardworking, and often unrewarded, authors out there. So, be it fiction or non-fiction, my aim is to introduce the reader to some of the writing available outside of the traditional publishing arena. I hope you enjoy!

~ Sylvia Massara

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By the way, visit “The Lit Chick Show” (LCS). This is a blog that is run as a virtual TV show, featuring authors and guest speakers on anything literary. Visit us at www.thelitchickshow.com

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This week, LCC takes a vicarious adventure into New York City society and relationships with author Meredith Cagen and her book Size Eight in a Size Zero World.

 

“The novel centres around Lindsay, a typical woman for this new millennium; working a job, taking care of her family, running her household, overworked, unappreciated, no time for herself and a super multi-tasker, while her husband watches TV and plays on the internet,” says Cagen. Sound familiar to most women out there? “Lindsay struggles to keep a sense of herself.” Cagen adds. “Then one day she meets someone who causes her to re-evaluate how she lives her life, turning her world upside down. She is a good girl trying to do the right thing and the wrong thing simultaneously, while remaining true to herself, whoever that is. It’s a very realistic journey filled with lots of humour and heart! Life is funny, even when it is serious!”

 

And what about ‘baddies’? “There are no real ‘bad guys’ in this story, except perhaps Grant, Lindsay’s husband. He’s a bit of an ogre, but he is not a ‘bad guy’ in the true sense of the word. The story has no black and white, bad and good. There are no absolutes, only shades of gray. Nothing is easily quantified.” Cagen explains.

 

Is the story based somewhat on Cagen’s real life experience? “Absolutely! First time authors tend to write what they are familiar with. I consider my genre NYC-lit, chick-lit, women’s romance. I live and work in NYC. I write what I know about. My book is fiction, but it contains adaptations of my personal experience and that of my friends’. There are strong autobiographical elements in the book. The readers have to guess what is real and what is in my imagination,” Cagen stated.

 

Cagen is a working wife and mother living in New York City. She works as a freelance writer and registered nurse. Known as ‘Queen of the Multi-taskers’, she returned to school to obtain a Bachelors of Science in Nursing. Finding the subject dry, technical and boring, she had a difficult time focusing on her studies. Easily distracted, and prone to daydreaming, she wrote Size Eight in a Size Zero World.

 

So what’s next for Cagen? “Female readers want to know what happens to Lindsay now. Male readers are begging me to write an entire book about the character of The Man Upstairs.”

 

This promises to be a very funny and quirky read. For more information about Cagen’s book visit: www.sizezeroworld.com.