"The consolation of imaginary things is not imaginary consolation."
—Roger Scruton

I had a wonderful editor at Gallery Books who loved my romantic comedy set in Pacific Heights. She thought it should be called something like "Miss Persnickety's Assistant" and I was set on "Nancy's Theory of Style." I wish I could find a list of proposed titles for a story about a snooty nitpicky young woman and her seemingly perfect British assistant. My editor eventually relented and had a wonderful cover designed. Then in the flick of an eye, my brilliant editor and several other senior editors were let go.

My new editor, a nice young woman, changed cover art to a very clever conceptual design...a design that did not succeed in conveying "romantic comedy, chick lit, fun and funny." My quirky title didn't help either. Someone should have explained to me that authors don't understand basic concepts of marketing because we spent our time reading novels and not studying business. Whatever.

I've republished the book as Fancy That with a cover and title which I think say "romantic comedy, chick lit, fun and funny." My favorite review of this novel was from The Book Lush:
"Have you ever read about a character that's so delusional and crackalicious that right from the get-go, she easily becomes your favorite? Well, that's Nancy to me!"
Library Journal named this a Women's Summer Reading Selection and SF Indie Fashion said:
"An ideal volume to throw in your beach bag...an easy, breezy read that managed to suck us in with its San Francisco references, chick lit 'tude and love drama-rama."
I've been thinking about Robert Scruton's quote (at top) because I love to write stories where there is some happy resolution, growth of characters, and hope. I've started working on a novel, Better, that will be an unapologetic romantic comedy about two friends who promise to do whatever it takes to have better lives. I intend to have this out in December 2018. I better get busy!