R.L. Maizes completes us...plus a book giveaway

Photo by Steve Olshansky

Today we welcome R.L. Maizes to CLC to talk about her latest novel, A Complete Fiction. This novel sounds unique and fun and we're excited to talk with her about it. Thanks to Blankenship PR, we have TWO copies to give away!

R.L. Maizes is the author of Other People’s Pets, which won the 2021 Colorado Book Award for Fiction, and the story collection We Love Anderson Cooper. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, O Magazine, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and Electric Literature, and has aired on NPR. A Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow, she’s currently supported by a 2024–2025 Fellowship Grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. 

Maizes lives in Boulder County, Colorado, with her husband, their dog Rosie—who still can’t believe how nice the weather is—and the ghost of their cat, Arie. Visit her at her website and on Instagram.

Synopsis:

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.

Told in the humorous vein of Where'd You Go Bernadette?, A Complete Fiction 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? (Courtesy of Amazon.)

"R.L. Maizes has written a smart, compelling novel about publishing and its perils, families and friendships and their limitations, and storytelling itself, in all its wondrous messy glory."

—Laurie Frankel, author of This Is How It Always Is

"We follow P.J. as she longs to publish a first novel and George, an editor, who turned her down for writing a book that he may or may not have plagiarized from her. Rooting for both with laugh out loud moments, I raced to the conclusion to find out how it would end." 

—Bethany Ball, author of What to do About the Solomons

"A Complete Fiction checks all of the boxes for an incredible read that sits at the intersection of cancel culture and #metoo. It's packed full of contemporary anxiety, it's hilarious in moments, and it's a page-turner where readers will get a true joy out of being a fly on the wall to the conversations between characters." 

—Wendy J. Fox, author of If the Ice Had Held

What is a favorite compliment you have received on your writing?
A national book club organizer told me they dreamed about my novel A Complete Fiction. It’s an honor to enter someone’s psyche that deeply. A writer recently said they thought of me while stirring Medjool dates into oatmeal. In Other People’s Pets, my debut novel, a man makes that precise oatmeal for his sick partner. It’s the greatest compliment to me when someone is thinking about my book years later and taking a compassionate action that mirrors one in the book. Of course, it’s not all compliments. At the second author talk I gave for the new novel, a reader wondered who came up with the “terrible” title A Complete Fiction. As it happens, I did. 

If you could tell the debut novelist version of yourself one thing, what would it be? 
Savor each success. You don’t need a review in The New York Times to feel fulfilled as a writer. You don’t need your book to be a number-one bestseller, though that would be nice. What matters is that the book reaches the people it’s supposed to reach, that it speaks to those readers and sticks with them. Take time to appreciate each of those wins. 

If A Complete Fiction were made into a movie, who would you cast in the leading roles? 
🤞🤞🤞 In the movie version, which is definitely going to be made, at least in my highly fertile imagination, Kiera Knightley plays P.J. and Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays George.

How would you describe your relationship with social media? 
I’m horribly addicted. I’m checking-during-commercial-breaks-while-on-the-throne addicted. I had tempered my use of social media while writing A Complete Fiction, but now I’m promoting the novel and social media is a good way to reach readers. Unfortunately, it has completely sucked me back in. Which is ironic since the book satirizes social media. I hope after this period of intense book promotion to cut back again, or at least to keep it out of the bathroom. It’s best not to be around cameras when in compromising positions.

If your life was a TV series, which celebrity would you want to narrate it?
Any ET broadcaster. That way people would be fooled into thinking I’m way more famous than I am. 

If we were to visit you right now, what are some places you would take us to see? 
I’d show you some great Colorado hiking trails. Fall is a beautiful time to take a walk in the woods here. We’d also visit the pedestrian mall in Boulder to see the buskers: fire eaters, jugglers, musicians, and writers who will pen a poem for you. When we got sufficiently tired, we’d find a café and people-watch while drinking craft beer and eating truffle fries.

Thanks to R.L. Maizes for visiting with us and to Blankenship for sharing her book with our readers.

How to win: Use Gleam to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Gleam on our blog, enter the giveaway here.

A Complete Fiction (2 print copies)

Giveaway ends November 11th at midnight EST.

Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.

Listen to this book on Speechify!