Fiction / LGBTQ / Romance
Publication Date: June 11, 2024
Publisher: Bywater Books
Novelist and filmmaker Mari SanGiovanni introduces readers to the irrepressible Liddy-Jean Carpenter, a matchmaker with special talents who will charm readers with her wit, wisdom, and sensibilities in this warm, enchanting love-is-love office romance.
Liddy-Jean Carpenter has learning disabilities. But she also has a surprisingly genius plan.
While she spends her days doing minor office tasks with nobody paying attention, she sees how badly the wand-waving big boss treats the Marketing Department worker bees. So, she takes lots of notes for a business book to teach bosses to be better.
While compiling pages of bad behavior notes, she finds she likes office-mate Rose and Rose’s new friend Jenny. But she doesn’t like Rose’s creepy boyfriend. So how can she save Rose?
Liddy-Jean knows with certainty that love is love, and she concludes that Rose should be with Jenny, bosses should do better, and everybody needs the services of Liddy-Jean, Marketing Queen.
About the Author
MARI SANGIOVANNI is a novelist, filmmaker, screenplay writer, and owner of Love Is Love Productions. She is the author of the award-winning novels, Greetings From Jamaica, Wish You Were Queer, Camptown Ladies, and 80% Done With Straight Girls, and she wrote and directed the award-winning short film, The Sibling Rule. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, she splits her time between Boston, MA, and Coventry, RI.
Interview:
Tell me
more about your journey as an author, including the writing processes.
My name is Mari SanGiovanni and I am an author of four books, the latest of which, Liddy-Jean Marketing Queen, was released in June, 2024. I am also a filmmaker, screenwriter and director and CEO of a small independent film production company called love is love productions. I also have a full time job in corporate as a Product Development professional for a global retailer (that is nothing like the company that Liddy-Jean works for!) I am trained designer and artist who was lucky enough to graduate from Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in illustration, which came in handy to design my own book jackets…and make films.
I started writing because many years ago there were hardly any LGBTQ friendly books for the community, unlike today. There were even fewer films, so when I started writing, I actually was writing with the sole purpose of someday making a film. I’m in my 50s now it was very different back then. Now, everyone talks about visibility and inclusivity, and it’s wonderful. But I still find that we really don’t have inclusive representation as we should in the entertainment industry and in novels. When I wrote my first three books (a trilogy of novels) it was because I felt like there was a lacking of entertaining and feel good stories for gay women to relate to. So, I wrote the type of stories I would have wanted to read, stories where gay characters were integrated into an Italian family much like my own, and stories that I hoped made people laugh. There were many tragic stories out there about the coming out process and how difficult it all was, but not so many romantic comedies!
Tell me
about your Book
Liddy-Jean Marketing Queen was written at a time in my career that I was feeling unhappy working for a large corporation. I work for a great company now, but back then, women were not treated with respect. The inspiration for the story came on a day when I was particularly frustrated with my job. I was walking down a hallway and I glanced into the marketing department where a young woman with down syndrome was happily doing some simple tasks as part of a work program. We made eye contact and there was something in the way that she looked at me that made me think: I wonder what this crazy place looks like from her perspective? That was the day Liddy-Jean Marketing Queen was born in my head, but I didn’t start writing the book until 20 years later, after my rom-com trilogy was published. My first in the series was published in 2007.
The book genre is a little hard to categorize! It is narrated by a young woman with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who is blessed with an amazing sense of justice and humor! I guess you would call it women’s fiction, or general fiction, but I am published by an LGBTQ publisher, and there is also a subplot with a female/female love story woven through the book, so it is officially classified as an LGBTQ Romance. I check a lot of boxes with this book, but I hope the story is a universal one.
This book would be appropriate for any reader with a sense of humor and a good heart! I wrote it for adults, but it would be appropriate for a young adult reader. I think a woman of any age could relate to the frustrations of being in a crazytown work environment, longing for a love they have never had, or a love they have had, and lost.
Any
message for our readers
I want people to read this book just for the entertainment value! First and foremost I hope they get a kick out of the main character and how intelligence could be looked at in so many different ways. I hope they receive the message that a differently abled individual can bring to the table gifts that others cannot.
Story
Liddy-Jean Carpenter has learning disabilities, and a genius plan. While she spends her days doing minor office tasks with nobody really paying attention, she sees how badly the boss treats the Marketing Department workers. So, she decides to write a business book to teach bosses how to be better. Liddy-Jean loves working with Rose and her new friend Jenny, but she does not like Rose’s creepy boyfriend, so she sets her sights on saving Rose. She knows that love is love, Rose needs her help, bosses should do better, and just about everybody needs the services of Liddy-Jean Marketing Queen!
My first 3 books were a popular trilogy about an eccentric Italian family which follows tMarie Santora and her two siblings as they attempt (and often fail) to navigate each other’s love lives. The books are popular with LGBTQ readers, and anyone with an offbeat sense of humor!
Trilogy: Greetings From Jamaica Wish You Were Queer, Camptown Ladies, 80% Done With Straight Girls.
Contact Links
Instagram: @SanGiovanniMari
Purchase Link
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