Dear Reader,
Please welcome today's guest author, Shana Feste, part of a successful duo with Jen Besser. Jen and Shana met as eleven-year-olds in California and have been collaborating ever since, beginning with writing, directing, producing and starring in many regrettable middle-school talent shows. Dirty Diana first launched as a podcast starring Demi Moore, debuted at #1 on Apple, was nominated for Podcast of the Year and won the Ambie for Best Fiction, Screenwriting. Shana is the award-winning screenwriter and director of several feature films, including Country Strong and Run Sweetheart Run. Jen is a fiction editor and publisher. They now live thousands of miles apart and talk every day.
Their debut novel is Dirty Diana A deliciously provocative novel about a woman caught between the comfortable stability of her marriage and her memories of a more sensual past--the first book in a three-part series based on the #1 fiction podcast.
Shana is giving away a copy of "Dirty Diana" to three winners. To enter the giveaway, click here.
Welcome to the book club, Shana...
How a game of Hide and Go Get It led to a lifelong friendship
Jen and I met in the sixth grade, our friendship cemented on the night of our first boy-girl party. We were at the height of our pre-teen awkwardness. I had clear braces that were never "clear" but more of a "dirty blonde," and Jen was overdressed for the party in Mary Janes with ruffled socks. We arrived early to find the birthday girl wearing a denim mini skirt with Doc Martens and smoking a menthol cigarette in the alley behind her apartment.
As partygoers trickled in, we divided ourselves into two clumps by gender. Hormones raging, the boys suggested we play a game called Hide and Go Get It. It's exactly what you think it is. The girls hide and the boys make out with the first girl they find. Consent was not big in the late '80s.
Jen and I didn't know each other well. I was new to town and we'd barely exchanged a word at school, but as soon as Trevon, the hottest guy in sixth grade, yelled GO!, our eyes locked. In a sea of kids, we found each other. Somehow we knew we were the only girls who planned to find a good hiding spot. As everyone scattered, Jen and I linked arms and ran.
As we tripped our way down the alley, Jen turned to me and made a joke I remember to this day. "If I knew it was going to be this kind of party," she huffed, "I would have worn my running shoes!" Little did we know, not a single boy would be out looking for us. Or maybe we did know, but our shared sting made it that much more bearable. We crammed our small bodies behind the biggest, grossest Dumpster we could find and we talked about our animals and our favorite teachers and how disgusting every single boy was at the party and how in actuality it was a gift 'not' to be found. We talked for so long that we didn't realize the party had moved on to the cake. When we finally crawled out from behind the Dumpster, I knew I had found something better than my first kiss with a boy who didn't know my name. I had found my best friend.
-- Shana Feste
Shana is giving away a copy of "Dirty Diana" to three winners. To enter the giveaway, click here.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
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