An Author’s Kiss with Sara Troy and her guest R.L. Maizes, on air from November 25th

 A Complete Fiction  Told in a humorous vein, R.L. examines the very serious questions of who has a right to tell a story, and has cancel-culture gone too far in our social media–drenched world?

With little evidence, would-be author P.J. Larkin serves a “nibble” on the trendy new social media app Crave, accusing editor George Dunn of stealing the novel she submitted to him for publication. The nibble shoots to the top of the site’s Popular Menu Items, and before you can say “unpaid literary labor,” George is embroiled in a scandal, his job and book deal in jeopardy. P.J. ‘s novel is snapped up amid the publicity, but has she revealed her sister Mia’s secrets in the book? Some diners on Crave think so, and now it’s P.J.’s turn to feel the public’s scorn.

Fiction can give us a breather from the relentless churn of the news, and A Complete Fiction does just that—offering a thoughtful look at serious issues while keeping readers laughing along the way. Its very creation carries a touch of irony: a book critiquing the intrusiveness of social media must still rely on those same platforms for promotion. The author explores what makes social media so objectionable to her, from its noise to its pressure, while also touching on the quieter indignities of the writing life—like receiving the dreaded “remaindered” letter for earlier books.

Why she had her husband block her social media accounts for her while she wrote the book

R.L. Maizes’s debut novel, Other People’s Pets, won the 2021 Colorado Book Award in Fiction and was a Library Journal Best Debut of Summer/Fall 2020. She also is the author of the short story collection, We Love Anderson Cooper. Her short stories have aired on National Public Radio and can be found in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading and in The Best Small Fictions 2020. Maizes’s essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, O Magazine, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and have aired on NPR. She is a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow and the recipient of a Fellowship Grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture for 2024–2025 for her novel-in-progress. Maizes was born in Queens, New York, and lives in Boulder County, Colorado, with her husband, Steve, and her muses: Rosie, a dog who spent her first year homeless in South Dakota and thinks Colorado is downright balmy, and the ghost of Arie the Cat.

AMAZON 

Www.rlmaizes.comes.com

https://www.facebook.com/rachel.maizes

https://www.instagram.com/r.l._maizes

https://bsky.app/profile/rlmaizes.bsky.social

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17595826.R_L_Maizes

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