Nina Siegal

Hey, what are you going to do — it’s a different language. Stuff falls through the cracks.

The Dutch version of my novel, which strangely has an English title — but not my title — is about to be published in Holland. They’re calling it Up & Down, which makes no sense to me, and it’s being classified as “chick noir,” apparently a new genre of literary fiction. HarperCollins, my US publisher, has the foreign rights to the book and sold the Dutch rights without retaining any control over title (supposedly this is typical in the business) so my vigorous protests went unheeded.

In any case, the publishing house, Truth & Dare, has done great publicity for the book so far, and I think the chick noir thing is kind of fun, though I’d probably prefer something like “dame noir” or “broad noir,” since I’ve never thought calling women “chicks” was very flattering or progressive.

The daily Dutch newspaper, De Pers (The Press) ran an interview with me on Tuesday. The very friendly reporter did a nice job with the piece, though he called my book “chick lit” — the fault of the publicity materials, no doubt — and he also said my favorite teacher was John Irving, though John Irving was never my teacher. I did mention, however that Irving had come to give a special seminar and workshop at Iowa, which was very inspiring. To be fair, the reporter gave me a chance to fix the errors, but I wasn’t able to check the Dutch translation in time. The main gist of the story is that I like to get feedback from other writers while I’m working on a book, which was certainly true for my first novel. I haven’t shown my new book to too many people, but I am looking to organize a writing group in Amsterdam for the support and feedback. The headline for the piece, Ik Heb Enthousiaste Meeleezers, means essentially, “I need to have enthusiastic readers.”

The bloggers are reporting back on A LITTLE TROUBLE WITH THE FACTS. Here are some reviews we’ve found online:

Nanners and Noodles notes, “I may have stumbled upon a gem of a book with A Little Trouble With The Facts by Nina Siegal.” She goes on to quote from the Publishers’ Weekly review. When last we checked, she was 60 pages in and “loving every bit of it.”

Bohemian Flophouse says, “What’s best about Nina Siegal’s art world novel is the dialogue – modern Valerie Vane talks sharp and slick like women in classic noir mystery books – think Lauren Bacall in those Bogey films.” Bohemian Flophouse just doesn’t like the cover of the book.

Ms. Frizzle is “thinking of reading 5-6 books that sold well, are on the smarter end of the spectrum writing-wise, and that are set in different worlds (ie, I don’t want to read only about women who work in fashion),” so she’s reading A LITTLE TROUBLE and finds it “hilarious” so far. She’s looking for other titles, too.

FuseAction, who heard the reading at KGB in New York, says on his MySpace page, “Siegal has put her newspaper experience to good use in what sounds like a delightful romp of a murder mystery.”

Tulipgirl says she read LITTLE TROUBLE from cover to cover in a single day.

Amy Belk, my best buddy, had really sweet things to say about the experience of coming to Amsterdam for my book launch: “I recommend the experience of standing in line for the autograph of someone you know and love. I think maybe we should do that for each other more often. Blush a little, hold out your newly purchased copy: um, please make it out to your friend, your fan…” Amy’s got a gorgeous Flickr page. I dare anyone to look at it and not fall in love with Amy.

My friend Corbin Collins blogged the Amsterdam book launch event at the American Book Center. See his contribution on Earth Goat.

The New York Post’s famous “Page Six” gossip column mentioned A LITTLE TROUBLE THE FACTS, quoting a section of the book that talks about… Page Six.

WE HEAR… THAT Nina Siegal gets it right in her witty, journo-turned-gumshoe novel, “A Little Trouble With the Facts,” in which one character gushes: “There’s a reason people pay 25 cents to flip to page 10 for Page Six every day” . . .

The circle of irony is complete. See the site here.

Art + Auction calls us “Fun with the Facts:”
Journalist Nina Siegal’s debut novel, A Little Trouble with the Facts (HarperCollins), at left, tells the Chandleresque story of Valerie Vane, a style reporter at a big New York City daily whose spectacular fall from grace lands her on the obits desk and smack in the middle of the intrigue surrounding the death of a once-famous graffiti artist. As Vane plumbs the darker depths of the art world, some readers may wonder how much Siegal, an Art+Auction scribe, drew from real life. Could the petite yet formidable Chelsea dealer Darla Deitrick, for example, be a cross between Mary Boone and Tony Shafrazi? Siegal won’t say but does admit, “I wanted the book to have the feel of a roman à clef—you’re never sure exactly what’s fact and what’s fiction.”

We are the “book choice of the month” in the March issue of Quick and Simple magazine, under “Great Reads”

Artnet.com mentioned us in Walter Robinson’s Weekly Update.