Am I Writing Chick Lit?

Someone, a very nice someone, read the first two (very short) chapters of the book I'm writing. One of the things she said was that what I'm writing doesn't exactly fit into the mold of category romance, but it might be Chick Lit. 



Really?  What exactly is the difference?  I'm on the research trail of Chick Lit!

The first article I read was PopGurls Guide to Writing Chick Lit.

They outline the formula for Chick Lit.  I hope I don't have to fit into it exactly, but in some ways, I do.

My heroine is around thirty. Score one for me.

What about her issues/quirks (she should have three)?

• Well, Hadley is currently very upset that her mother just died.
• She has this old boat to deal with, and she wants to leave this state where she spent her childhood as soon as possible.
• She's never really been around much traditional marriage, and so hasn't really given that path to happiness much thought (She thinks the Cougar lifestyle is the normal lifestyle).

Is that enough?  The trouble is that my character is very well adjusted. Not in the normal all-American way, but considering how she grew up. She's happy with herself, or thinks she is.  She does learn a lot about herself in the story though, and ends up even happier.

My heroine is also supposed to be struggling in her career. I hadn't planned  that, but that change would be easy to make . . . If I decide to make it.

She's supposed to have a gay best friend.  I have not written a gay friend in for Hadley, and can't really think how to fit that in.  Wait.  There was a gay couple on the adjoining dock of where my boat is one summer. They had an awesome Hatteras boat, but they sold it and left.  I don't think that's a very gay-friendly dock.  In fact, It's a pretty hicky, red-necked dock, which is, I guess, one reason I stand back when I'm there and view it as a writer, not a participant.  When we buy our live-a-board (weekend condo-boat), we're moving to another dock, but my step son's boat is there, so we'll stay pretty close.  Have to think about that one.  



Now the other friends, she does have, including the married friend.  She plays a bit of a different role than is outlined in the article, though.

Well, obviously Hadley has had ex-boyfriends.  This girl is NOT a virgin.  She's grown up in France, for goodness sake.  But any ex's are back there, and obviously she wasn't too torn up about any of them.  She's a free spirit and kind of looks at men as delicious varieties of candy to be enjoyed.  She's a curious and adventurous girl.

And her mother IS NOT a cold blooded Harpy ( or was not--she's just died).  She was, again, a bit unusual by most of our standards, but she was a very loving mother and a very wonderful person. She did have her demons, and by the end of the story, we find that before she died, some of her issues were resolved. At least her daughter understands her a lot more.

Dad, the voice of reason?  Give me a break.  He's a Dean Martin type, drinking, whoring oil man.  ( I have read that Dean Martin was really a good family man, and I love his music, but you know what I mean.)  And he's dead.  And he made her mother miserable.

The mistake. Yeah, there is one, but I'm not giving that away.

And my story must have the perfect man, and it does.  Kain is pretty darn cool, even if she thinks he's just a hick boat dock laborer when she meets him.  His dad is cool too.

The book does have sex, but more sexual tension . . . It does have alcohol, and glittery parties on boats in on a pretty cool lake, surrounded by absolute mansions (and trailer parks), a lake that most people don't know exists in the dusty hills of Eastern Oklahoma.  It has less glamorous late night events as well.

And the ending is happy.  So whaddya think? Do I have a Chick lit story?