November 3, 2004 -- Get
ready for the Bad Girlz, the next big thing in publishing. We're
predicting that mainstream publishing houses are going to try and cash
in on Abigail Vona's buzz (see Rugged Land's "Bad Girl: Confessions of
a Teenage Delinquent"). Hottish young chicks writing "true stories"
about how they used to get fucked up all the time will be everywhere.
In fact, it's happening already. This month's Vanity Fair profiles
Melissa Panarello, 16-year-old author of "100 Strokes of the Brush
Before Bed" (Grove), in which she tells stories about her sexual
deviation.
In February, Viking plans to bring out
"Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood," by Koren Zailckas (or,
according to Barnes & Noble,
"Growing Up a Drunk Girl"). Zailckas, 24, gives us her sodden life
story from "earliest experimentation to habitual excess to full-blown
abuse."
The catalogue copy helpfully notes, "Binge drinking among girls is
gaining more and more national media attention." If we get a 1000-word
email from Doug Dechert talking about how he used to bang these chicks
and taught them everything they know, we're going to Plath.
