Of Course I Write Romance Novels.

I’m super happy and excited to have this, the first installment of COMFW of 2008, feature my friend Bianca and her new book, Steve The Penguin.

*golf claps*

Actually, let’s have a round of full-on, noisy, messy applause for Bianca, because she deserves it. You may have clicked on her link in my sidebar over to the right at some time or another, or read her comments on various posts of mine, or clicked through to her site any one of the many times I’ve linked my posts to hers. I read and reference her blog a lot, because she’s smart, feminist, funny, cute, and she keeps me caught up on current events, both on the political scene and the celebrity/TV/pop cultural ones too. So I was not only pretty dang excited when her book finally came out last month, I was very impressed by her seemingly totally instinctive grasp of marketing her stuff.

See, here’s the not-too-confusing part: Bianca is actually the main character of STP, and the author of the STP blog. But Mahlena-Rae Johnson is the real-life author, the creator of the character “Bianca,” and the person behind Bianca’s book and blog. It’s no coincidence that author and character are so closely intermingled; while reading STP, I had a strong feeling the novel is semi-autobiographical. But that’s neither here nor there, really.

What I was starting to go into is how cool it is that Mahlena did this all herself. First off, not to sound like a proud mommy or something, but the book, well, it looks good. It looks like a real book. You might think, “Well, duh,” but I’ve seen more than a few self-published novels that, I’m sorry, looked like crap. You could immediately tell they were self-pubbed, without even opening their covers. But Mahlena obviously did her research and found a good printer, and editor.

Second, in every writing workshop I’ve ever attended that covered marketing, everyone has always talked about how essential it is for an author, even an as-yet-unpublished one, to have a Web site — to start creating a “Web presence” so that when their book finally comes out, they’ll already have a (albeit most likely tiny) built-in readership. Blogs are even better for this purpose, since they offer dynamic content that keeps readers coming back for more, plus they invite readers to get to know the author as a person. Mahlena did all these things, and created her own buzz about STP well before it even came out. How cool is that? (Answer: Very.)

(OK, I really am starting to feel a little bit like Mahlena’s mom, or something — “Well, will you lookit that? She made a book! A REAL book! Whatta smart girl!” But that’s not it. It’s that, as an author myself, I’m really impressed with the way she did everything herself, and in a very professional and savvy way.)

She was recently featured in an article in the Virgin Islands Daily News, which I assume is Mahlena’s home paper, since, like her character Bianca, she was raised in St. Thomas. Another point of coolness.

As for the story itself, it’s really enjoyable. Its pacing is kind of friendly and languid, which I like to think is due to the author’s and character’s island upbringing. Art reflecting life, or whatever. Bianca, the main character, loves the TV show “Daria,” and I can see why; B and D have similarly dry senses of humor and deadpan deliveries of their funny lines.

I really liked the poignancy of Bianca’s interior life best, though. Her connection with her Mummy, which seemed simultaneously close and strained, as most bonds between moms and their adult daughters are. Her strong sense of self, juxtaposed against her very real insecurities about how other people view her and whether or not they’ll like her for who she is. All very relatable, real, emotional stuff.

I can’t wait to read the next installment of the series, to find out what happens with Bianca’s love life, her friendships back in LA, her job and more. (Another savvy marketing trick: Putting a teaser at the end of the book for the next one!)

Love, Catherine