MAKING IT
A Novel of Madison Avenue
BY HELEN KLEIN ROSS
ABOUT THE BOOK:
From the award-winning author who tweets @BettyDraper comes a debut eBook original about contemporary advertising world shenanigans as experienced by a high-powered, bread-winning mom in the vein of Allison Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It.
Successful, feisty, and approaching a Certain Age, Audrey is afraid of becoming obsolete in the ever-changing advertising business. She has worked for the Madison Avenue firm Tadd Collins for nearly twenty years. When the firm acquires a smaller company, she is promoted and partnered with Kabal Prakash, an ambitious, attractive hotshot from London. Meanwhile, frustration mounts at home as she unsuccessfully tries to help her teenage son, Paley, get into her old alma mater. As she flirts with a relationship with her new boss Kabal, her irritation with her husband grows. Should Audrey give in to her new boss and his youthful corporate ambition? Can she cut it in a quickly changing industry? Or does she belong with her gray-ponytailed husband, whose only ambition is to perfect his recipe for mead?
Successful, feisty, and approaching a Certain Age, Audrey is afraid of becoming obsolete in the ever-changing advertising business. She has worked for the Madison Avenue firm Tadd Collins for nearly twenty years. When the firm acquires a smaller company, she is promoted and partnered with Kabal Prakash, an ambitious, attractive hotshot from London. Meanwhile, frustration mounts at home as she unsuccessfully tries to help her teenage son, Paley, get into her old alma mater. As she flirts with a relationship with her new boss Kabal, her irritation with her husband grows. Should Audrey give in to her new boss and his youthful corporate ambition? Can she cut it in a quickly changing industry? Or does she belong with her gray-ponytailed husband, whose only ambition is to perfect his recipe for mead?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Helen Klein Ross is a veteran of advertising and has spent many years at global ad agencies in San Francisco and New York City. She created AdBroad, an award-winning ad blog, and her Twitter handle @BettyDraper has earned press coverage in Time and The Wall Street Journal, a Shorty award, and 34,000+ followers. Helen’s fiction and poetry has been published in The New York Times, The Southeast Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Salmagundi, and other journals. She has won numerous awards and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
SOME FUN FACTS A LA AUTHOR REVEALED FROM SIMON & SCHUSTER:
What is your birthdate?: 10/28
Previous occupations: milk maid, waitress, Avon Lady, department store clerk, construction worker, art director, copywriter, writer
Favorite job: writer
High school and/or college: Villa Maria Academy, Utica Catholic Academy, Cornell University
Name of your favorite composer or music artist?: Lady Gaga
Favorite movie: After Life (Wandâfuru raifu)
Favorite television show: Mad Men
Previous occupations: milk maid, waitress, Avon Lady, department store clerk, construction worker, art director, copywriter, writer
Favorite job: writer
High school and/or college: Villa Maria Academy, Utica Catholic Academy, Cornell University
Name of your favorite composer or music artist?: Lady Gaga
Favorite movie: After Life (Wandâfuru raifu)
Favorite television show: Mad Men
How would you describe your life in only 8 words? Bewitched, That Girl, Thirty Something, Mad Men
What is your motto or maxim? The life you save may be your own.
Who are your favorite authors? Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, John Cheever, Evan S Connell, Ian McEwan, Jonathan Franzen, Helen Simpson
What are your 5 favorite books of all time? Mrs. Dalloway, Mrs. Bridge, Remains of the Day, Getting a Life, Harold and the Purple Crayon
What is your motto or maxim? The life you save may be your own.
Who are your favorite authors? Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, John Cheever, Evan S Connell, Ian McEwan, Jonathan Franzen, Helen Simpson
What are your 5 favorite books of all time? Mrs. Dalloway, Mrs. Bridge, Remains of the Day, Getting a Life, Harold and the Purple Crayon
You can read more "Author Revealed" by visiting Simon & Schuster's website HERE.
MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:
I LOVED Helen Klein Ross’s MAKING IT! Presented as being a novel for fans of MAD MEN and books by Jennifer Weiner, it attracted me right away. Hailed as “A Novel of Madison Avenue”, I realized this was a book set in the unpredictably competitive and fascinating world of advertising. However, MAKING IT is much more than a story about the industry.
MAKING IT centers on the very delightful character of Audrey and right away when an incident at work sets Audrey reeling, I was “turning pages” to find out where life was going to take her. She is easy to relate to, being a woman in her late 40s, working in a field where things change daily, and job security can be tenuous. Audrey is married to Oren and mother of a teenage son, Paley, who is in the process of applying to colleges. Oren doesn’t work outside the home but is a very dedicated house parent, and a somewhat quirky, but interesting and loving husband.
Ross has created this character of Audrey who will capture you dramatically from the start and not let go. She is genuinely likeable and so easy to identify and empathize with. When the company Audrey works for is partnered with another firm, a new boss enters the scene. As the attractive and ambitious Kabal, the new corporate leader, takes over, everything changes for Audrey. What happens to Audrey, her family, the company…yes, even her life, is why Helen Klein Ross’s MAKING IT is such a marvelous story. The well developed characters along with a believable and relatable narrative are what make this a book you will want to pick up and not put down until you finish it. The cleverly plotted twists and turns in MAKING IT, along with life’s normal challenges, make for a provocative and convincingly satisfying literary experience.
I LOVED Helen Klein Ross’s MAKING IT! Presented as being a novel for fans of MAD MEN and books by Jennifer Weiner, it attracted me right away. Hailed as “A Novel of Madison Avenue”, I realized this was a book set in the unpredictably competitive and fascinating world of advertising. However, MAKING IT is much more than a story about the industry.
MAKING IT centers on the very delightful character of Audrey and right away when an incident at work sets Audrey reeling, I was “turning pages” to find out where life was going to take her. She is easy to relate to, being a woman in her late 40s, working in a field where things change daily, and job security can be tenuous. Audrey is married to Oren and mother of a teenage son, Paley, who is in the process of applying to colleges. Oren doesn’t work outside the home but is a very dedicated house parent, and a somewhat quirky, but interesting and loving husband.
Ross has created this character of Audrey who will capture you dramatically from the start and not let go. She is genuinely likeable and so easy to identify and empathize with. When the company Audrey works for is partnered with another firm, a new boss enters the scene. As the attractive and ambitious Kabal, the new corporate leader, takes over, everything changes for Audrey. What happens to Audrey, her family, the company…yes, even her life, is why Helen Klein Ross’s MAKING IT is such a marvelous story. The well developed characters along with a believable and relatable narrative are what make this a book you will want to pick up and not put down until you finish it. The cleverly plotted twists and turns in MAKING IT, along with life’s normal challenges, make for a provocative and convincingly satisfying literary experience.
GIVEAWAY
THANKS TO MELISSA AND THE GOOD FOLKS
AT SIMON & SCHUSTER, I HAVE AN eBOOK
COPY OF MAKING IT TO GIVE AWAY TO
ONE OF MY LUCKY FOLLOWERS
--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!
HOW TO ENTER:
+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON WHAT YOU READ ABOVE ABOUT MAKING IT THAT MADE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS eBOOK, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG AND/OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK HERE AND LEAVE ME YOUR LINK
+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FIND INTERESTING AT HELEN KLEIN ROSS'S WEBSITE HERE
+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE WAY YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU CAN COMMENT SEPARATELY AND EACH WILL COUNT AS AN ENTRY
+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON A CURRENT GIVEAWAY THAT YOU HAVE ENTERED ON MY BLOG. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, YOU MAY COMMENT SEPARATELY FOR EACH TO RECEIVE MORE ENTRIES
+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG AND/OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK HERE AND LEAVE ME YOUR LINK
+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FIND INTERESTING AT HELEN KLEIN ROSS'S WEBSITE HERE
+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE WAY YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU CAN COMMENT SEPARATELY AND EACH WILL COUNT AS AN ENTRY
+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON A CURRENT GIVEAWAY THAT YOU HAVE ENTERED ON MY BLOG. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, YOU MAY COMMENT SEPARATELY FOR EACH TO RECEIVE MORE ENTRIES
GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, APRIL 10
GOOD LUCK!
6 PM, EST, APRIL 10
GOOD LUCK!
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