Bushweller, Sarah 1977(?)-

(Sarah H.W. Bushweller, Libby Street, a joint pseudonym)

PERSONAL: Born c. 1977; daughter of Brian (in politics) and P. Raquel (“Rocky”) Bushweller; married. Education: Graduated from University of Pittsburgh.

ADDRESSES: Home— New York, NY. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: Writer and novelist. Advertising executive at a pharmaceutical marketing firm.

WRITINGS

WITH EMILY S. MORRIS UNDER JOINT PSEUDONYM LIBBY STREET

Happiness Sold Separately, Downtown Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Accidental It Girl, Downtown Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Authors’ works have been translated into German and Dutch.

SIDELIGHTS: Sarah Bushweller and Emily S. Morris are the writing duo behind the chick-lit pseudonym of Libby Street. Bushweller, an advertising executive in New York, NY, and Morris, who holds a master’s degree in screenwriting from Ohio University, have been the best of friends since they first met as preschoolers in a residential neighborhood of Dover, Delaware. In adulthood, their friendship evolved into a creative writing partnership that has resulted in two well-received books.

In their first novel, Happiness Sold Separately, main character Ryan Hadley watches her friends’ lives thrive and prosper professionally, personally, and romantically, while her own boring existence seems to be taking her nowhere, except to a dead-end job in data entry and back home to a tiny, cramped apartment. She is still feeling the emotional toll of her breakup with Charlie, her ex-boyfriend and first love, who left four years earlier to take a job at a record company. Worse, Ryan feels she is becoming more and more peripheral to her friends’ lives. Will’s band has just scored a record contract, Audrey is busy with a promotion at work, and Veronica is assembling a career-making deal for her firm. To jolt herself into taking action, Ryan assembles “The Plan,” a fifty-item list of things she has always wanted to do and desires she has never had the chance to fulfill. The items on the list range from the routine and easy, such as brush and floss every day, to the practical but difficult, such as get out of debt, to the fanciful and unlikely, such as become queen of an island nation. Still, the motivation of her list is undeniable, and Ryan’s plan begins to show results. Her plans are unexpectedly derailed with Charlie’s sudden reappearance in her life, as band manager for her friend Will. “Ryan’s efforts to find herself will strike a chord with younger women,” commented Aleksandra Kostovski in Booklist.

Photographer Sadie Price, the protagonist of Accidental It Girl, is a member of the often-reviled but equally sought-after paparazzi, those specialist photographers whose candid shots of celebrities and screen stars sell tabloids by the millions. The life of a celebrity photographer is not easy. Sadie must dodge her subjects’ anger and sneak about in difficult terrain in search of the perfect shot. Still, she feels her work has its place in the world, and it certainly affords her ample financial reward. When one of her photographic subjects takes a keen interest in Sadie and in turning her paparazzi intensity back on herself, she begins to question whether she has made a good career choice after all. After she takes some questionable photos of Hollywood actor Ethan Wyatt, pictures that cause him considerable personal and professional grief, he decides that he will take his revenge on the photographer that caused him so much trouble. Suddenly, the tables are turned, and Sadie becomes the subject of Ethan’s determined efforts to catch her in an unguarded moment. Her life is jolted when a picture of her appears in the tabloids, suggesting that she is dating a particular movie star, and causing her colleagues and other photographers to focus their attention on her. Sadie is not dating any actor, and the photograph of her and the actor simply depicts an unfortunate suggestion of involvement between them. The turn of events makes her realize what her professional work has done to the people who appear in her photos. Realizing that Ethan Wyatt is the paparazzo behind the pictures causes her to further question her ethics and career. Bushweller and Morris have “collaborated to create a singular, spirited voice,” remarked Kostovski.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2005, review of Happiness Sold Separately, p. 1757; September 15, 2006, Aleksandra Kostovski, review of Accidental It Girl, p. 29.

Delaware State News, June 14, 2004, Jenna Kania, “Dover Natives a Novel Pair,” profile of Sarah Bushweller and Emily S. Morris.

News Journal (Wilmington, DE), December 7, 2004, Christopher Yasiejko, “Dover Friends Always Finish Each Other’s Thoughts, Decide to Write a Book,” profile of Sarah Bushweller and Emily S. Morris.

ONLINE

Book Fetish, http://www.bookfetish.org/ (January 22, 2007), Vivian Whipp, review of Accidental It Girl.

BookLoons, http://www.bookloons.com/ (January 22, 2007), Tarah Schaeffer, review of Happiness Sold Separately; Kim Atchue-Cusella, review of Accidental It Girl.

ChickLitGurrl Web log, http://chicklitgurrl.blogspot.com/ (November, 2006), profile of Sarah Bush-weller and Emily S. Morris.

Fallen Angel Reviews, http://www.fallenangelreviews.com/ (January 22, 2007), review of Accidental It Girl.

Libby Street’s Home Page, http://www.libbystreet.com (January 22, 2007).*