Today's guest: Erin Duffy
Why we love her: She wrote one of the juiciest books of 2012. Speaking of...
Her latest: Bond Girl (Out in paperback now!)
The scoop on it: While other little girls were fantasizing about becoming doctors or lawyers, Alex Garrett dreamed of conquering the high-powered world of Wall Street. Now she's grown and determined to make it big in bond sales at Cromwell Pierce, one of the Street's most esteemed brokerage firms. Though she's prepared to fight her way into an elitist boys' club, she starts out small, relegated to a kiddie-size folding chair with her new moniker, "Girlie," inscribed in Wite-Out across the back.
Always keeping her eyes on the prize (and ignoring her friends' pleas for her to quit), Alex quickly learns how to roll with the punches, rising from lowly analyst to slightly-less-lowly associate in no time. Suddenly she's being addressed by her real name, and the boys' club has transformed into forty older brothers . . . and one possible boyfriend. But then the apocalypse hits, and Alex is faced with the most difficult choice of her life: to stick with Cromwell Pierce as it teeters on the brink of disaster . . . or to kick off her Jimmy Choos and go running for higher ground.
Our thoughts: We loved it just as much the second time around. Click here for our thoughts when we hosted her on our site when Bond Girl was released in hardback. (Then add even more gushing and oohing and ahhing!)
Giveaway: 5 copies of the paperback! Leave a comment and be entered to win. We'll randomly select the winners after 3pm PST on Sunday, August 5.
Fun Fact: Duffy used to work on Wall Street and wrote Bond Girl after being laid off after a decade long career. Way to make a come back!
Where you can read more about Erin: Facebook
CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...ERIN DUFFY'S 5 DO'S AND A DO-OVER
Well this is a first for me! It’s not often that I get a forum to blog about Dos and Do Overs, mostly because no one seems to ever really care what I think about, well, anything. Typically, when I give my thoughts to friends or family I’m greeted with polite smiles, not-so-polite eye rolls, and then I’m entirely ignored. It’s hard for me to be surprised by this, because Lord knows, I never really take my own advice, either, so I guess I can’t blame them. I will say though, that I’m beginning to wish that I could sit down with the younger version of me and smack her in the face before imparting these brief words of wisdom. Writing Bond Girl has been an amazing experience, proven by the fact that I get to be on Chick Lit Is Not Dead! I don’t know that writing it makes me qualified in any way whatsoever to give my thoughts to other people, so I promise if you all want to skip over this entry, I’ll forgive you. But, as I’m trying to think more positively these days, I’ll at the very least give it a whirl. In no particular order, here they are!
1. DO save your money. I’m thirty-four now and I wish I had been a bit more frugal in my twenties then I was. Here’s the thing about recessions: you don’t really appreciate what the word means until you live through one. Maybe you lose your job, or maybe you take a pay cut, or maybe you watch friends struggle to find work month after brutally long paycheck free month, but whatever is, you realize you’re your money can dry up fast! I myself have yet to find my money tree (but I’m still looking, really hard, and I’ll report back if I find one), and I want to kill the younger, dumber Erin for taking a steady paycheck for granted. If I had gotten up a little earlier and had time to take the subway to work instead of a cab over the years, I’d have more money saved and maybe wouldn’t worry quite as much about having to move home to my parents to avoid paying rent. Basement living isn’t really my thing. And at thirty-four, if I’m going to cohabitate with someone, I really prefer it not be with my mother. No offense, Mom.
2. DO think long and hard about dating guys who already have loads of baggage in their twenties. Relationships are hard enough when both people’s crazy quotients are within the realm of reason. I can’t tell you how many girls I know who invested years of their lives with guys who due to any number of unfortunate life events, were simply too crazy to possibly be considered good dating material. I can’t think of a single instance in this case where things ended well, or where the girl wasn’t left saying to herself, “what was I thinking?” The answer is, she wasn’t, (and in the interest of being honest, yes, ladies, I’m one of them), so this one I would like to stress. I’d put this whole paragraph in capital letters to prove that point but then it would look like I was screaming at you.
3. DO spend quality time with your girlfriends. One of the worst parts about getting older, aside from wrinkles, sagging boobs, and a slowing metabolism, is that your friends will inevitably get married, move away, have babies, and begin their own busy lives. It becomes harder and harder as time goes by and life gets in the way to maintain those all important female ties. Sometimes, it seems easier to let weeks go by without checking in, but thanks to facebook, emails, texts, and various other forms of electronic communication, it’s infinitely easier than it used to be. You will need your girlfriends at times in your life, and when you do, make sure you know where to find them.
4. DO take time to take care of yourself. It’s so easy to get caught up jobs, families, friends, ect that we can forget to take a few minutes to make ourselves presentable to the outside world. I once went an entire week running around like such a lunatic that I actually managed to go four days without brushing my hair and the resulting self-loathing was strong enough to crush an elephant. Now, let me be clear here, no one is talking about being Marcia Brady and brushing your hair 100 strokes a day while gazing fondly at your appearance in the mirror, but a multitude of sins can be cured with a hairbrush and a hot shower. If nothing else, it will help your mental state to know that worst case scenario, if you do end up in the emergency room somewhere, your mom will be proud to know that you are, in fact, wearing clean underwear.
5. DO take some chances in life. I worked in finance for twelve years before I published Bond Girl, and sure, there are days that I am terrified that switching careers was maybe a bad idea. The truth is, if you don’t at least try new things, and work hard at something that you love, you’ll never know what you are capable of achieving. No one is saying to start walking tightropes over highways or swallowing fire or anything, but a few well thought out risks in life will make you a braver, and I’ve found, happier person. And hey, if things don’t work out, you probably will at least have some really funny stories to tell your kids one day.
And last but not least, here is my do over…drum roll, please? Thank you.
DO NOT beat yourself up over every mistake you make. There are enough people in this world who will relish the chance to make you feel like an idiot at every possible opportunity. You don’t need to join them, they’ll do just fine without you, trust me. I wish I had been a little easier on myself at certain times over the last few years, and didn’t punish myself whenever I failed to do something perfectly. (Or at least, as close to perfect as I can possibly be. The truth is, I’ve accepted the sad reality that perfection is something that will elude me for the rest of my days on this earth.) I don’t care what Dr. Oz or anyone else says, ladies, if you ask me, sometimes it’s okay to lie on your couch, eat pizza, and watch bad reality TV for eighteen hours a day. Think of it like a reboot for your system. I think there’d be a lot less neurotic people running around out there if they would just take a day to chill out!
Well, it seems that that’s all the time we have for today. Thanks so much ladies for letting me blog today, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! I have to run, there’s a Real Housewives of New Jersey marathon starting, and my pizza just got here.
Xoxoxoxo
Erin
Thanks, Erin!
xoxo,
L&L