Conversation with Amanda Brice
Today I'm posting my conversation with chick-lit author Amanda Brice.
Bebe: Hi, Amanda. Thanks for stopping by. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Amanda: I’m 29 years old and live in Arlington, Virginia with my absolutely wonderful husband, who’s also my best friend. We met at a party the first week of law school. He claims I was spitting in his face, but I have zero recollection of that (damn that Maggie forcing me to drink all that red wine!). Anyway, somehow he still liked me. Go figure.
Bebe: I love it! It sounds like a scene out of a romantic comedy. Anything else you want to reveal?
Amanda: I’m an intellectual property attorney, specializing in trademark and copyright law. In my spare time, I dance. I used to do all styles—ballet, tap, contemporary, jazz, hip hop, flamenco, ballroom, Latin—but I don’t have the stamina or body that I had when I was a teenager or in college. So now it’s just ballet and jazz.
Bebe: You seem very artistic and creative. How did you get into the field of law?
Amanda: It’s kind of a convoluted story. The short answer is I didn’t have anything better to do.
Bebe: LOL – Care to expand on that?
Amanda: The longer answer? I loved writing stories when I was a little girl, but my dad told me I should do something more practical.
Because I’d always been really good with languages, I decided I would major in International Relations, take the Foreign Service Exam, and go work for the State Department overseas in the American Embassy in Paris. (I was quite naïve about the process, clearly.)
The problem was that the year I graduated from college, they didn’t give the Foreign Service exam, and I would have to wait a whole 18-months longer before I could take it. So basically, I needed a job.
I had a double major bachelor’s degree in political science and French & European Studies, so basically, I was prepared to do absolutely nothing. LOL! I found a job as a legal assistant in one of the big DC firms in the Intellectual Property department. I was the liaison between the firm and their foreign counsel in other countries, so I dealt with IP issues around the world.
I decided it was really interesting, so I ended up taking the LSAT instead of the Foreign Service Exam and then applying to law school.
Bebe: What’s it like being an attorney? Is it really as exciting as it seems on television?
Amanda: NOTHING like the shows on TV.
Most attorneys never actually see the inside of a courtroom. My life is pretty much all paperwork. They’d never make a legal drama about a transactional attorney, because that would be the most boring show ever.
It was much more exciting when I was a counsel to a Congressman, because at least then I had hearings and meeting with lobbyists and I was involved in the process of creating law, but now my job is much more sedentary. But I like it. Intellectual property is a fascinating area of law.
Bebe: How do you work writing in to your routine?
Amanda: Unfortunately, sometimes my writing gets squeezed out by life. Weeks or even months go by that I don’t add to the word count of any of my WIPs. But I’ve been making it a priority to write at least a page a day.
At RWA in Atlanta, one of the lunchtime speakers—I think it was the RWA pres—said that if you just write one page a day, then at the end of the year you have a completed manuscript. That really struck a chord with me, and I’m making it my mantra.
But because I don’t get home until close to 8 on weeknights, I have to do much more on the weekends. Fortunately, my job is very flexible, so I work longer hours Monday through Thursday and am able to take off on Fridays. So I try to get the bulk of my writing done on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Bebe: Your e-book, She’s Got Legs, is published by Freya’s Bower. Tell us a little bit about the story.
Amanda: I was given a prompt by my fabulous editor, Faith. Basically the prompt was about a hideously ugly pair of platform sandals that made women’s legs look fantastic. I had to use that pair of shoes in both stories, so I just started brainstorming.
SHE’S GOT LEGS focuses on Daria Wyatt, a former wallflower who’s blossomed into a successful Capitol Hill attorney. At her sister’s urging, she attends her 15-year high school reunion. She doesn’t really want to go, but she gives in and goes rummaging through her sister’s closet to find something to wear. She means to grab the Jimmy Choos, but instead ends up wearing the most horrible shoes ever. At the reunion she meets her former crush, Greg McCauley, but she’s embarrassed to see him.
Bebe: Ugly shoes are the worst! Describe the ugliest pair of shoes you ever owned.
Amanda: Probably this pair of shoes that we wore for a lyrical routine back when I was like 13, maybe? The routine really should have been done barefoot, but someone’s mother was violently opposed to the idea of her daughter dancing barefoot, so our choreographer came up with the idea of using these weird half-shoes. They had suede soles, so it gave us the right give-and-take of friction and glide, but there were no heels. And I don’t mean that they were low-heels. I mean, there was no back at all to the shoe. The suede sole was only under the ball of our foot, and it was open-toe and sort of was strappy like a Grecian sandal, but like I said, there was nothing under our heels. They were really weird.
Bebe: Who is your favorite shoe designer?
Amanda: Can I have a fictional shoe designer as my fave? My friend Gemma Halliday recently released an absolutely hilarious novel, SPYING IN HIGH HEELS, about a shoe designer named Maddie Springer. If she was real, and if she wasn’t designing Strawberry Shortcake Velcro sneakers, then I’d say Maddie Springer all the way. LOL!
Bebe: What about it real life?
Okay, you want a real answer. Hmmm…I love, love, love Prada and Jimmy Choo when I’m in a dream-world dress-up mood, but that mood doesn’t last beyond the store, because I can’t exactly afford them. I try them on and play around in the store but don’t take them home. So in real life, I guess I’d say Kenneth Cole, Chinese Laundry, Enzo Angiolini, or Steve Madden.
Bebe: Chick-lit is considered “fluff” in some circles. As a young professional, do you feel the criticism is justified? What attracts you to reading and writing in the genre?
Amanda: Well, so is romance in some circles.
Bebe: I know what you mean. I think romance was looked down on in every college level creative writing class I’ve taken.
Amanda: Personally, I don’t understand this need that some people have to tear down other people’s tastes, like if I don’t read “literature” that I’m somehow less intelligent. Quite frankly, if a book that’s light and humorous is considered fluff, then I guess I’m guilty of reading and writing fluff. But really, is that so wrong? I spend my entire day reading and interpreting case law and statutes, so I want something I don’t have to study and over-think when I’m relaxing. Sometimes I just want to laugh and be entertained, no strings attached.
Bebe: Besides attorney/author, what is your dream job?
Amanda: I’d love to combine my interest in writing and publishing with my knowledge of IP law and be a literary agent some day. But that’s well into the future.
Bebe: You’ve won a month long, all expenses paid trip for two. Where will you go? And who is tagging along?
Amanda: Why thank you! When do I leave? LOL! Hmmm, I think perhaps South America. My hubby and I would start off with a few days in Lima, Peru, and then fly to a remote Amazon village, where we’d board a riverboat for a week floating down the river through the rainforest. Then we’d fly to Machu Picchu to see the extraordinary pre-Columbia ruins. Next up would be a week or so in Argentina, eating lots of meat and taking tango lessons. We’d finish up with a week on the beach in Brazil. Of course, I wouldn’t pass up a month in Italy either. I love traveling.
Bebe: Who are your favorite authors?
Amanda: I’ve got so many, I know I won’t be able to list them all here. But I really love Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Alesia Holliday, Jennifer Weiner, Jane Green, Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella, Jennifer Crusie, Lauren Baratz-Logsted, James Patterson, G.A. McKevett, Perri O’Shaughnessy…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Bebe: What’s next from Amanda Brice?
Amanda: Right now, I have partials and fulls of my chick lit manuscript out there with agents, so hopefully something will come of that.
I’m also working on finishing up my YA mystery.
The next project is a Christmas-themed novella that I’m working on with two other writer friends. We’re each writing a novella and then we’re going to combine the stories to form a novel. Each of us is focusing on one main character, but the main characters from each of the other novellas also find their way into all of the stories—they’re all friends. It should be challenging, but fun. It’s just kind of weird to write about the holiday season when it’s 90 degrees out!
Bebe: One last question… where can I find the perfect egg roll?
Amanda: Easy…my husband’s Aunt Janey’s house in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her husband is a fabulous chef. Mmmm…we eat so well whenever we visit any of his relatives. It’s one benefit of marrying a Taiwanese-American man. :)
You can visit Amanda at her BLOG. You can pick up your copy of SHE'S GOT LEGS at Freya's Bower.
Bebe: Hi, Amanda. Thanks for stopping by. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Amanda: I’m 29 years old and live in Arlington, Virginia with my absolutely wonderful husband, who’s also my best friend. We met at a party the first week of law school. He claims I was spitting in his face, but I have zero recollection of that (damn that Maggie forcing me to drink all that red wine!). Anyway, somehow he still liked me. Go figure.
Bebe: I love it! It sounds like a scene out of a romantic comedy. Anything else you want to reveal?
Amanda: I’m an intellectual property attorney, specializing in trademark and copyright law. In my spare time, I dance. I used to do all styles—ballet, tap, contemporary, jazz, hip hop, flamenco, ballroom, Latin—but I don’t have the stamina or body that I had when I was a teenager or in college. So now it’s just ballet and jazz.
Bebe: You seem very artistic and creative. How did you get into the field of law?
Amanda: It’s kind of a convoluted story. The short answer is I didn’t have anything better to do.
Bebe: LOL – Care to expand on that?
Amanda: The longer answer? I loved writing stories when I was a little girl, but my dad told me I should do something more practical.
Because I’d always been really good with languages, I decided I would major in International Relations, take the Foreign Service Exam, and go work for the State Department overseas in the American Embassy in Paris. (I was quite naïve about the process, clearly.)
The problem was that the year I graduated from college, they didn’t give the Foreign Service exam, and I would have to wait a whole 18-months longer before I could take it. So basically, I needed a job.
I had a double major bachelor’s degree in political science and French & European Studies, so basically, I was prepared to do absolutely nothing. LOL! I found a job as a legal assistant in one of the big DC firms in the Intellectual Property department. I was the liaison between the firm and their foreign counsel in other countries, so I dealt with IP issues around the world.
I decided it was really interesting, so I ended up taking the LSAT instead of the Foreign Service Exam and then applying to law school.
Bebe: What’s it like being an attorney? Is it really as exciting as it seems on television?
Amanda: NOTHING like the shows on TV.
Most attorneys never actually see the inside of a courtroom. My life is pretty much all paperwork. They’d never make a legal drama about a transactional attorney, because that would be the most boring show ever.
It was much more exciting when I was a counsel to a Congressman, because at least then I had hearings and meeting with lobbyists and I was involved in the process of creating law, but now my job is much more sedentary. But I like it. Intellectual property is a fascinating area of law.
Bebe: How do you work writing in to your routine?
Amanda: Unfortunately, sometimes my writing gets squeezed out by life. Weeks or even months go by that I don’t add to the word count of any of my WIPs. But I’ve been making it a priority to write at least a page a day.
At RWA in Atlanta, one of the lunchtime speakers—I think it was the RWA pres—said that if you just write one page a day, then at the end of the year you have a completed manuscript. That really struck a chord with me, and I’m making it my mantra.
But because I don’t get home until close to 8 on weeknights, I have to do much more on the weekends. Fortunately, my job is very flexible, so I work longer hours Monday through Thursday and am able to take off on Fridays. So I try to get the bulk of my writing done on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Bebe: Your e-book, She’s Got Legs, is published by Freya’s Bower. Tell us a little bit about the story.
Amanda: I was given a prompt by my fabulous editor, Faith. Basically the prompt was about a hideously ugly pair of platform sandals that made women’s legs look fantastic. I had to use that pair of shoes in both stories, so I just started brainstorming.
SHE’S GOT LEGS focuses on Daria Wyatt, a former wallflower who’s blossomed into a successful Capitol Hill attorney. At her sister’s urging, she attends her 15-year high school reunion. She doesn’t really want to go, but she gives in and goes rummaging through her sister’s closet to find something to wear. She means to grab the Jimmy Choos, but instead ends up wearing the most horrible shoes ever. At the reunion she meets her former crush, Greg McCauley, but she’s embarrassed to see him.
Bebe: Ugly shoes are the worst! Describe the ugliest pair of shoes you ever owned.
Amanda: Probably this pair of shoes that we wore for a lyrical routine back when I was like 13, maybe? The routine really should have been done barefoot, but someone’s mother was violently opposed to the idea of her daughter dancing barefoot, so our choreographer came up with the idea of using these weird half-shoes. They had suede soles, so it gave us the right give-and-take of friction and glide, but there were no heels. And I don’t mean that they were low-heels. I mean, there was no back at all to the shoe. The suede sole was only under the ball of our foot, and it was open-toe and sort of was strappy like a Grecian sandal, but like I said, there was nothing under our heels. They were really weird.
Bebe: Who is your favorite shoe designer?
Amanda: Can I have a fictional shoe designer as my fave? My friend Gemma Halliday recently released an absolutely hilarious novel, SPYING IN HIGH HEELS, about a shoe designer named Maddie Springer. If she was real, and if she wasn’t designing Strawberry Shortcake Velcro sneakers, then I’d say Maddie Springer all the way. LOL!
Bebe: What about it real life?
Okay, you want a real answer. Hmmm…I love, love, love Prada and Jimmy Choo when I’m in a dream-world dress-up mood, but that mood doesn’t last beyond the store, because I can’t exactly afford them. I try them on and play around in the store but don’t take them home. So in real life, I guess I’d say Kenneth Cole, Chinese Laundry, Enzo Angiolini, or Steve Madden.
Bebe: Chick-lit is considered “fluff” in some circles. As a young professional, do you feel the criticism is justified? What attracts you to reading and writing in the genre?
Amanda: Well, so is romance in some circles.
Bebe: I know what you mean. I think romance was looked down on in every college level creative writing class I’ve taken.
Amanda: Personally, I don’t understand this need that some people have to tear down other people’s tastes, like if I don’t read “literature” that I’m somehow less intelligent. Quite frankly, if a book that’s light and humorous is considered fluff, then I guess I’m guilty of reading and writing fluff. But really, is that so wrong? I spend my entire day reading and interpreting case law and statutes, so I want something I don’t have to study and over-think when I’m relaxing. Sometimes I just want to laugh and be entertained, no strings attached.
Bebe: Besides attorney/author, what is your dream job?
Amanda: I’d love to combine my interest in writing and publishing with my knowledge of IP law and be a literary agent some day. But that’s well into the future.
Bebe: You’ve won a month long, all expenses paid trip for two. Where will you go? And who is tagging along?
Amanda: Why thank you! When do I leave? LOL! Hmmm, I think perhaps South America. My hubby and I would start off with a few days in Lima, Peru, and then fly to a remote Amazon village, where we’d board a riverboat for a week floating down the river through the rainforest. Then we’d fly to Machu Picchu to see the extraordinary pre-Columbia ruins. Next up would be a week or so in Argentina, eating lots of meat and taking tango lessons. We’d finish up with a week on the beach in Brazil. Of course, I wouldn’t pass up a month in Italy either. I love traveling.
Bebe: Who are your favorite authors?
Amanda: I’ve got so many, I know I won’t be able to list them all here. But I really love Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Alesia Holliday, Jennifer Weiner, Jane Green, Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella, Jennifer Crusie, Lauren Baratz-Logsted, James Patterson, G.A. McKevett, Perri O’Shaughnessy…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Bebe: What’s next from Amanda Brice?
Amanda: Right now, I have partials and fulls of my chick lit manuscript out there with agents, so hopefully something will come of that.
I’m also working on finishing up my YA mystery.
The next project is a Christmas-themed novella that I’m working on with two other writer friends. We’re each writing a novella and then we’re going to combine the stories to form a novel. Each of us is focusing on one main character, but the main characters from each of the other novellas also find their way into all of the stories—they’re all friends. It should be challenging, but fun. It’s just kind of weird to write about the holiday season when it’s 90 degrees out!
Bebe: One last question… where can I find the perfect egg roll?
Amanda: Easy…my husband’s Aunt Janey’s house in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her husband is a fabulous chef. Mmmm…we eat so well whenever we visit any of his relatives. It’s one benefit of marrying a Taiwanese-American man. :)
You can visit Amanda at her BLOG. You can pick up your copy of SHE'S GOT LEGS at Freya's Bower.
