American Idle

by Alesia Holliday

Dorchester

Literature and Fiction: Chick Lit

August 1, 2005

ISBN-13: 0505526549

Available in: Paperback (reprint)

American Idle
by Alesia Holliday

When her celebrity chef boss knocked her unconscious with a frying pan, it jump-started Jules's life. She'd been stalled too long: job-hopping, man-hopping, floating in the pool with no cares—had it all been a Peter Pan act? Now, with a chance as a production coordinator on a cheesy new reality TV show, she would get herself in gear. But with an executive producer with a split personality, a judge with bubonic plague, a murderous coworker whose weapon was bad mayonnaise, insane fans, vote-rigging, dressing room Botox, and a hot guy who thought Jules was an alcoholic—"Pop Star Live!" should have been called unreality TV. Plus, the publicity stunt that made Jules the "Face Behind Reality TV" and meant national attention 24/7 was even stranger. But instead of hitting the brakes, Jules only drove herself harder. Her idle life was gone forever; in its place she'd found her own American idyll.



Alesia Holliday's Bio

OK, first the hard part: pronunciation. Alesia is pronounced uh-LEE-suh (or exactly like it would be pronounced if it were spelled Lisa with an A on the front of it. That silent I has been the bane of her existence for 30 years.)

Holliday - yes, the rumor is that she's related to Doc Holliday. Alesia's dad was a world-ranked shooting champion, but she's never tried to shoot anything or anyone except with a water pistol, so who knows? And wasn't Val Kilmer great in that movie? Who knew huckleberry could be a scary word?

Alesia grew up all over the world and even lived in Turkey for two years and the Philippines for another two years. Just when you'd think she'd know better, she married Navy Guy and became resigned to putting roller skates on her furniture.

After a lot of angst over the fact that she really wanted to be a writer, she went for a real (read: boring) job and graduated from The Ohio State University and then graduated summa cum laude (rough translation: with much student loan debt) from Capital Law School, in Columbus, Ohio.

Alesia spent several years as a trial lawyer in complex class action and mass tort litigation, which means you never actually go to trial, you just sit around with a lot of old guys who tell you how great it was in the good old days when they tried three cases a day in the snow, uphill both ways. She wrote legal briefs that read like comedies, which might explain why she never made partner.

Her first book, E-MAIL TO THE FRONT, shared embarrassing personal stories with people and generated fan letters like "I laughed so hard I snorted pasta sauce out my nose." Causing people to spew foodstuffs out of their noses has been a personal goal ever since.

Addicted to making people laugh (and shed the occasional tear), when Alesia really, really couldn't keep the voices of all those fictional people locked in her head anymore, she started writing their stories. And look what that got her - a day job where she gets to work in her pajamas! She burned her pantyhose.

Now she lives in Florida, very near the beach, with her research department (and husband) Judd, two very short people who keep claiming she's their mother, and her pug puppy, Daisy. She's probably either hard at work on her next book, shopping for the perfect pair of high heels, or sneaking out for a movie-break lunch at this very moment . . .

Photo by: Brant Photographers, Inc.