Blog Blitz Introduction

Welcome to the 2024 'Autumn Chickens' Blog Blitz.

Blog Tours have become an established way for authors and publishers to promote their books, particularly when newly published. This April Autumn Chickens are building on this tradition with a month of articles, reviews and excerpts which fit in with the themes of our website and social media activity.

If you haven't come across us before, this is what we are about....

In the mid 1990s there emerged a new genre of novels which became known as Chick Lit. With a lighthearted approach, Chick Lit characters  tended to be single, white, heterosexual, British and American women in their late twenties and early thirties, and Chick Lit titles began to top bestseller lists. It is generally agreed that British author Catherine Alliott's The Old Girl Network (1994) was the start of the chick lit genre and the inspiration for Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary (1996). The Chick Lit genre is still massively popular today, so it is hardly surprising that major publishing houses continue to sign up books which appeal to Chick Lit Readers.  

But some of the Chick Lit readers of the mid 1990s have moved on. As well as wishing to immerse themselves in the trials of Bridget Jones and her social network, the 'Baby Boom' generation seeks recognition of the interests and values of their contemporaries, who are older, more experienced, (though not necessarily wiser) and sometimes retired. 

The name 'Autumn Chickens' was inspired by a blog post entitled 'Age Matters in Romantic Fiction' written by fellow 'later life' author Anne Stormont. Anne writes about the struggle to persuade mainstream publishers to take books with older protaganists seriously. She also describes herself as 'more of an autumn chicken than a spring one.' We loved the phrase so much that we asked if we could  borrow it. Thank you so much, Anne, for providing the inspiration for the title of the Autumn Chickens website. You can find out more about Anne's novels here. Contributions to the Blog Blitz will appear at least every other day during April 2024. The link is here and we hope you enjoy the journey  

Claire Baldry (author, website creator and editor)

​