Press Kit
A sex strike? Now she has their attention.
“It's a new kind of chick lit and romance, smart, fast, and a little crazy.”
--5-stare Amazon review
Black Opal Books is re-releasing my sex-strike novel, Closing the Store, on October 22, 2016. The book was previously released under the title Liz A. Stratton Closes the Store.
5-star Amazon review of the previous release of Closing the Store
[Closing the Store] is a retelling of the old Greek story of Lysistrata, where women decide to end a war by cutting their men off, sexually. Anderson updates the story into a fun, fast, feminine-power read. It isn't quite on purpose that Liz Stratton finds herself running for president in a country mired in a deadly but pointless war. But her brash, no-nonsense wit is just what the people, at least those with double x chromosomes, have been waiting to hear. The women of the country are so taken by their reluctant heroine that she soon motivates them to stop the war killing their sons and husbands by denying the men of the country the one thing they want most: their bodies. Along the way Liz must contend with her own budding romance, a difficult thing to have when you're the face of feminist abstinence.
Anderson's book is pure fun, reality trimmed to fit delightfully into fantasy. Nothing is dull. It's a new kind of chick lit and romance, smart, fast, and a little crazy.
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Press Release for Closing the Store
A Novel about a Political Sex Strike
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, September 20, 2016: Maren Anderson’s comic novel Closing the Store (to be released on October 22, 2016) is about Liz Stratton, a talk show host who runs for president of the United States on the platform of ending a never-ending war. However, during a debate, she is patronized by another (male) candidate, and she goes off-script, calling for a sex strike to end the war.
Closing the Store is a retelling of a the Ancient Greek farce Lysistrata by Aristophanes, but before you dismiss it as being too high-brow, know thatLysistrata is one of the lewdest plays in the classical canon. Anderson’s book is not as lewd as the source material, but the author isn’t afraid of frank descriptions of…acts…in her story.
Ms. Anderson teaches Literature and Writing at a university in Oregon and always begins her lectures about Aristophanes by explaining that the playwright is known for outrageous, impossible plots. “One of the plays has talking frogs in it,” she explains. “None of these plots is supposed to work, including the sex strike. Then I wondered, ‘what if it did work?’ That was the beginning of this book.”
The first draft of Closing the Store took only a month to write, though the editing process took much longer. Anderson says she often writes the first draft of each of her novels in a single month, a habit she developed when participating in NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, which takes place each November online at www.nanowrimo.org. “I love writing fast drafts. They are so freeing,” she says. Anderson often teaches Novel in a Month classes at libraries and writers’ groups.
Anderson’s other recent published work includes Fuzzy Logic, a novel about romance on an alpaca farm; poetry in The Timberline Review; and production of her adaptation for kids of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in July 2015.
Closing the Store will be available on October 22, 2016, as a paperback and ebook on Amazon.com and other booksellers. Contact Maren Anderson by visiting her website at www.marens.com.
“It's a new kind of chick lit and romance, smart, fast, and a little crazy.”
--5-stare Amazon review
Black Opal Books is re-releasing my sex-strike novel, Closing the Store, on October 22, 2016. The book was previously released under the title Liz A. Stratton Closes the Store.
5-star Amazon review of the previous release of Closing the Store
[Closing the Store] is a retelling of the old Greek story of Lysistrata, where women decide to end a war by cutting their men off, sexually. Anderson updates the story into a fun, fast, feminine-power read. It isn't quite on purpose that Liz Stratton finds herself running for president in a country mired in a deadly but pointless war. But her brash, no-nonsense wit is just what the people, at least those with double x chromosomes, have been waiting to hear. The women of the country are so taken by their reluctant heroine that she soon motivates them to stop the war killing their sons and husbands by denying the men of the country the one thing they want most: their bodies. Along the way Liz must contend with her own budding romance, a difficult thing to have when you're the face of feminist abstinence.
Anderson's book is pure fun, reality trimmed to fit delightfully into fantasy. Nothing is dull. It's a new kind of chick lit and romance, smart, fast, and a little crazy.
**********************************
Press Release for Closing the Store
A Novel about a Political Sex Strike
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, September 20, 2016: Maren Anderson’s comic novel Closing the Store (to be released on October 22, 2016) is about Liz Stratton, a talk show host who runs for president of the United States on the platform of ending a never-ending war. However, during a debate, she is patronized by another (male) candidate, and she goes off-script, calling for a sex strike to end the war.
Closing the Store is a retelling of a the Ancient Greek farce Lysistrata by Aristophanes, but before you dismiss it as being too high-brow, know thatLysistrata is one of the lewdest plays in the classical canon. Anderson’s book is not as lewd as the source material, but the author isn’t afraid of frank descriptions of…acts…in her story.
Ms. Anderson teaches Literature and Writing at a university in Oregon and always begins her lectures about Aristophanes by explaining that the playwright is known for outrageous, impossible plots. “One of the plays has talking frogs in it,” she explains. “None of these plots is supposed to work, including the sex strike. Then I wondered, ‘what if it did work?’ That was the beginning of this book.”
The first draft of Closing the Store took only a month to write, though the editing process took much longer. Anderson says she often writes the first draft of each of her novels in a single month, a habit she developed when participating in NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, which takes place each November online at www.nanowrimo.org. “I love writing fast drafts. They are so freeing,” she says. Anderson often teaches Novel in a Month classes at libraries and writers’ groups.
Anderson’s other recent published work includes Fuzzy Logic, a novel about romance on an alpaca farm; poetry in The Timberline Review; and production of her adaptation for kids of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in July 2015.
Closing the Store will be available on October 22, 2016, as a paperback and ebook on Amazon.com and other booksellers. Contact Maren Anderson by visiting her website at www.marens.com.
