Bleak

Lights Cameras Inaction New York writer Ricki Carstone knows it's extremely unlikely a movie of her debut novel, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, will actually get made-the odds are like one in a hundred or something-but Moxie Bernard (hello most famous teen on the planet ) has signed on to star. Plus, the producer is throwing her a super fabulous party in Hollywood (with Moxie ) to celebrate the relaunch of her book with a younger, sexier cover. Clearly, this is one movie option that's going to make it all the way to the movie theater.Ricky is so confident, she quits her dead-end paralegaling job and moves out to Los Angeles to keep an eye on the project. There, with the encouragement of Harry Skimpole, a handsome out-of-work actor who knows all the ins, outs, overs and arounds of moviemaking, she decides to try her hand at screenwriting. Churning out a script seems so much easier than a full-length novel. Thankfully, experienced screenwriter John Vholes is willing to teach her the ropes-for a small fee, of course. (Well, the fee starts small.)A fish out of water, Ricki quickly adapts to the strange and puzzling ways of the entertainment industry. Or does she? Her cute neighbor Simon seems to think her new friends are taking advantage of her. But what does he know? He's a bitter ex-screenwriter who never got a single movie produced, and she's about to see her name in lights any day now. Or month. Or year.Bleak-a smart and funny update of Charles Dickens's classic Bleak House-is for anyone who's ever held on to a dream just a little too long.

Lynn Messina grew up on Long Island and studied English at Washington University in St. Louis. She has worked at the Museum of Television & Radio (now the Paley Center for Media), TV Guide, In Style, Rolling Stone, Fitness, ForbesLife, Self, Bloomberg Markets and a host of wonderful magazines that have long since disappeared. She mourns the death of print journalism in New York City, where she lives with her husband and sons. She is author of seven novels, including the best-selling Fashionistas, which has been translated into 15 languages and is in development as a feature film.