Alesia's first novel, AMERICAN IDLE, launched Dorchester Publishing's new trade paperback line, Making It, in August, 2004, and is a double finalist in the prestigious RITA awards for women’s fiction. Publishers Weekly spotlighted AMERICAN IDLE as auspicious first fiction. She now writes funny novels sometimes called chick lit for Berkley Trade.
Alesia also wrote the critically-acclaimed E-MAIL TO THE FRONT, which shared the real story of the lives of military families when one spouse goes to war.
Now, without further ado, here is Alesia Holliday!!!
NICE GIRLS FINISH FIRST
So one day I was thinking about today's woman, as I often do, considering that I write funny books about the everyday (and not so everyday!) things we all go through, and I was wondering about that perpetual dilemma -- the Myth of the Nice Girl.
Somehow, through a peculiar evolution of the professional environment, women today are finally recognized (mostly) as equally competent, ambitious, and dedicated as men in the workforce. (We'll leave the "we have to work smarter and harder" argument aside for now.) But yet, we have an added burden: we have to be NICE.
Now, this isn't really tough for most women, most of the time. We were raised to be nice. That's what little girls do, right? "Play nice!" "Be nice!" Except, well, there are times when you can't be all that nice . . . Boyfriend cheating? Kick him to the curb! Um, in a nice way? Opposing counsel trying underhanded tactics? Notify the judge and get him sanctioned! Er, nicely?
The idea of a character who is very ambitious and a great person, but a little bit of a tough chick on the surface, really intrigued me. And I had the perfect character in Kirby Green, newly-hired exec at the Whips and Lace Co. She'd pretty much stolen every scene she was in in AMERICAN IDLE (Double RITA finalist, how cool is that??). Then I wanted to compare and contrast Kirby with a character who was so nice that she was in danger of becoming a doormat. Brianna sprang to life. My good friend who is an opera singer (no, really!) provided some great background for her. Then I set the two of them loose to play on the pages -- each helping the other learn something about life, and about herself. That's how NICE GIRLS FINISH FIRST was born.
Can we be successful as women today and still retain some of that niceness that was so valued in earlier years? I think so. But nice doesn't mean dumb, and today's nice girls DO finish first. They might just have to kick a little ass along the way.
Nicely.
Thanks for helping me celebrate the release of my second novel!! -- Alesia Holliday (p.s. This nice girl is frantically polishing some pages due to Hollywood interest -- you can see the details at Alesia's Blog.)
Edited to fix the weird symbols.
