The Next Big Thing - Featuring Georgie Lee

Thanks for taking time out of your hectic holiday preparations to join me today. I was tagged to participate in The Next Big Thing Blog Hop and to discuss my upcoming release, Studio Relations, a love story set in the golden age of Hollywood.What is your working title of your book? Studio Relations  Where did the idea come from for the book? I have an M.A. in Mass Communications and I am a classic film buff so I know a lot about old Hollywood under the studio system. I knew there were a few women directors working in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, and having read their stories, they are very interesting and inspiring. I wanted to tell the story of my own female director and her experiences working in the male-dominated world of classic Hollywood.What genre does your book fall under? Historical fiction. Studio Relations takes place in 1935 at the fictitious Lion Studios.Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? If it were somehow possible, I’d have classic film stars Rosalind Russell (His Girl Friday) and Robert Taylor (Waterloo Bridge) play my characters.What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? Vivien Howard, a vivacious female director and Weston Holmes, a handsome studio executive must overcome their professional differences to find love during Hollywood’s golden age.Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? The book is published by Amazon’s Montlake Romance and will be released December 11, 2012.How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? I started the book a number of years ago and wrote about 30 pages before the story stalled. I set it aside because I knew something was wrong with the story but I didn’t know what. In the first version, the love affair was between the female director and the male star. In early 2010, I looked at the story again and realized the hero was wrong. Once I changed the hero from a star to a studio executive, the whole story suddenly came together and I wrote the first draft in six weeks.What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? Georgette Heyer’s 1930s set mysteries, such as Why Shoot A Butler? are like my book in that they really capture the essence of the era.Who or what inspired you to write this book? The idea of a woman working in a male-dominated field during a time when women were not encouraged to have careers offered so many opportunities for conflict that I just couldn’t resist.What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? There are a lot of elements of a classic film in this book, from the overbearing studio boss to the single female friend a la Eve Arden. Also, I tried to make the dialogue sound like something you’d hear in a classic film while giving readers a taste of what it might have been like to live and work in 1930s Hollywood.I want to thank Melissa Cutler for tagging me and encourage you to check out her blog http://www.melissacutler.net/blog/ After you check out Melissa’s blog, please hop on over to R. Ann Siracusa’s blog. http://www.rannsiracusa.com/blogand check out her Next Big Thing post.BIO:A dedicated history and film buff, Georgie Lee loves combining her passion for Hollywood, history and storytelling through romantic fiction. She began writing professionally at a small TV station in San Diego before moving to Los Angeles to work in the interesting but strange world of the entertainment industry.Her traditional Regency, Lady’s Wager and her contemporary novella Rock ‘n’ Roll Reunion are both available from Ellora’s Cave Blush. Labor Relations, a contemporary romance of Hollywood is currently available from Montlake Romance. Mask of the Gladiator, a novella of ancient Rome is now available from Carina Press.When not writing, Georgie enjoys reading non-fiction history and watching any movie with a costume and an accent. Please visit www.georgie-lee.com for more information about Georgie and her novels.Studio Relations on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Studio-Relations-ebook/dp/B008RBSNYY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354941905&sr=8-2&keywords=studio+relationsLINKS:Buy link for Studio Relations -  http://www.amazon.com/Studio-Relations-ebook/dp/B008RBSNYY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354680230&sr=8-2&keywords=studio+relationsWebsite: www.georgie-lee.comFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/georgie.lee.96Twitter: @GeorgieLeeBooksGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2985551.Georgie_LeeBOOK BLURBStudio RelationsBy Georgie LeeVivien Howard hasn’t forgiven Weston Holmes for almost derailing her career five years ago. Female directors in 1930s Hollywood are few and far between, and a man who coasts by on his good looks and family connections can’t possibly appreciate what it took for her to get to where she is. But when the studio head puts Weston in charge of overseeing Vivien’s ambitious Civil War film, she realizes she has a choice: make nice with her charismatic new boss or watch a replacement director destroy her dream.Weston Holmes doesn’t know much about making movies, but he knows plenty about money. And thanks to the Depression, ticket sales are dangerously low. The studio can’t afford a flop—or bad press, which is exactly what threatens to unfold when an innocent encounter between Weston and Vivien is misconstrued by the gossip rags. The only solution? A marriage of convenience that will force the bickering duo into an unlikely alliance—and guide them to their own happy Hollywood ending.