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Castle Rock authors strike a chord with humor book

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Contributed by: Joseph Kirchmer/YourHub.com on 3/19/2008

Lisa Perry and Lauren Allison never imagined that an inside joke about annual Christmas cards would have taken them so far.

But now, the Castle Rock residents are laughing all the way to the bank as their book The Woman Who Is Always Tan and Has A Flat Stomach (and Other Annoying People) is gaining national notoriety and attention. The book, originally self-published in 2005, recently was picked up by a national distributor and can be found at bookstores around the country.

"Never in a million years," said Perry about her expectations of the book's success. "But, at the same time, I think a lot of people can relate to it."

Geared primarily toward women, the book features chapters with tongue-in-cheek titles such as "The Woman With the Angelina Jolie Lips," "The Woman Who Is Lifting Weights Everyday at 10 a.m. While I Am Gaining Weight Everyday at 10 a.m.," and "The Perfect Stage Mom Who Wants the Kindergarten Class to Perform The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant."

"The book is a fun look at the ways women strive to be perfect as women and mothers and how we sometimes fall short of that," Perry said. "And it's about how that's OK."

Perry came up with idea for the book after reading over "those perfect Christmas letters" describing recent family accomplishments.

"So Lisa started sending out these hilarious letters that talked about how her family bought some new dental floss in January and how they grilled some hamburgers in February," Allison said. "And people just kept saying, 'Hey you should turn this into a book.'"

From there, the book "sort of took on a life of its own," Allison said.

An agent with Grand Central Publishing saw the book listed on Amazon and asked the women if they would be interested in expanding it. Perry and Allison, who had never written a book before, churned out 29 new chapters and the book was released in March to a nationwide audience. It retails for $12.99.

Now the two authors, who met in a class at Arapahoe Community College, already are working on a follow-up for the book, with another likely following.

"It's been a total surprise," Allison said. "We were just sort of amusing ourselves and it developed into this really fun book."

See an interview of Allison and Perry by clicking here.

Find out more about the book by clicking here.

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Submitted By: Barbara Neff

posted on 3/20/2008 @ 5:58:31 PM

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