Welcome Brenda Janowitz + book giveaway!

Attention chick lit fans: I've got a good one for you here. Brenda Janowitz' JACK WITH A TWIST. Good thing to know about Brenda: she loves to give away books on her blog. And she's graciously offered to give a copy of her new novel to a Pajama Gardener reader! So if you want a chance to win a FREE COPY leave a comment here. On January 15th, Noon MST I'll draw a name at random from all the commenters and Brenda will send you a book!

Here's the nutshell version of JACK WITH A TWIST:

A little pre-wedding anxiety is normal for every bride, and Manhattan attorney Brooke Miller isn’t worried. She’s got the loving support of the world’s greatest guy, so planning her nuptials should be a piece of cake.

But that was yesterday.

Today, Brooke’s landed her first big case and has just discovered that the opposing attorney is none other than her fiancé, Jack. But that’s okay. These two professionals aren’t going to let a little courtroom sparring get their legal briefs in a bunch.… Right? Wrong! Now Jack’s pulling every dirty trick in the law books, and Brooke’s starting to suspect that maybe he isn’t the man she thought he was. Warring with her fiancé at work and at home, Brooke realizes that she’ll have to choose between the case of her life, or actually having a life.

Sounds funny, right? Brenda's a lawyer by day and novelist by night. A native New Yorker, she's had a flair for all things dramatic since she played the title role in her third grade production of Really Rosie. When asked by her grandmother if the experience made her want to be an actress when she grew up, Brenda responded, “An actress? No. A writer, maybe.”

Brenda attended Cornell University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Human Service Studies, with a Concentration in Race and Discrimination. After graduating from Cornell, she attended Hofstra Law School, where she was a member of the Law Review and won the Law Review Writing Competition. Upon graduation from Hofstra, she went to work for the law firm Kaye Scholer, LLP, where she was an associate in the Intellectual Property group, handling cases in the areas of trademark, anti-trust, internet, and false advertising. Brenda later left Kaye Scholer to pursue a federal clerkship with the Honorable Marilyn Dolan Go, United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York.

Since her clerkship, Brenda has worked as a career counselor at two New York City law schools, where she published a number of articles on career related issues in publications such as the National Law Journal and the New York Law Journal. She currently lives in New York with her husband.

Brenda is the author of JACK WITH A TWIST (Engaging your adversary and other things they don’t teach you in law school) and SCOT ON THE ROCKS (How I survived my ex-boyfriend's wedding with my dignity ever so slightly intact), as well as the short story BASED ON A TRUE STORY. You can learn more about Brenda at http://www.brendajanowitz.com/.

It seems she's found a new way to write about being lawyer that isn't crime fiction. Not that there's anything wrong with crime fiction, I'm just saying good on her for doing something a little different.

Now, here's my chat with Brenda:

Q. Who do you picture in your mind when you write?

A. I don't really picture anyone in my mind while I'm writing, but a favorite thing for me to do with friends who've read the book is to cast the movie in our minds.

I'd love Drew Barrymore for Brooke, and Fran Drescher as her mom. For Jack, I could see a lot of my Hollywood crushes playing the part: Adam Sandler, Jack Black, or Paul Rudd would be perfect. (Yes, I like me a funny guy.)

Q. What's been your biggest surprised about getting published?

A. That writing the book is the easy part! I had no idea that once I finished writing my book, that the real work would then begin. As you're writing your first novel, you tend to think that that's the hard part-that once you finish, fame and riches await.

In reality, it's a long road to getting your grand opus published, and there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears involved with getting it onto book shelves and then marketing it.

Presumably, fame and riches will be there at some point, but it's a hard long road to get there!

Q. What's the main thing you hope people take away from your book?

A. I had a ton of fun writing this book, so I just hope that people have fun reading it!

Q. Art or entertainment? Is one more valid or important than the other?

A. I think that both are important when writing books. We want to entertain, and we also want to tell the story beautifully. So, it's a balance we should all try to strike, I think.

Q. What comes most naturally for you to write, dialogue? plot? character? And what's hardest?

A. I love writing dialogue, and it's what comes most easily for me, by far. Plot is always tougher for me-I always work hard to take the reader on a journey, and it's so important to deliver on everything you've built up, and to give them something memorable and satisfying.

Thanks Brenda and good luck with JACK WITH A TWIST!