MEET JESSICA (MIXING IT UP)

Cecily doesn't just battle men in Mixing It Up. She has a very formidable female foe in Jessica, Devlin's right-hand at Modern Media, or as Cecily often refers to her "his henchwoman." These two ladies get off on the wrong foot, and it's pretty much downhill from there. Jessica is always vamping it up around Marchetti and takes his side whenever he and Cecily have a skirmish on-set and Cecily is convinced that the two of them are plotting against her, a theory that is validated on more than one occasion. What really drives Cecily nuts about Jessica is that Devlin seems to value her opinion above all others. He's constantly waxing rhapsodic about Jessica's business savvy, but Cecily has no respect for her get-good-ratings-at-any-cost m.o. 

Author's Note: I didn't realize until I'd finished writing the first draft of this book that I never gave Jessica a last name! In the end, I decided she didn't really need one, so she's following in the footsteps of other strong, ballsy women like Cher and Madonna. I do enjoy writing a good bitch, and Jessica definitely fulfills that role in this book. She's one of those women who always has men eating out of her hand, but other females are completely put off by her. 

When thinking of Jessica, Melanie Griffith's famous line from Working Girl, "I have a head for business and a bod for sin," comes to mind. Jessica wears a lot of makeup and dresses in a somewhat provocative way for work. (This is what Cecily thinks anyway. The men at Modern Media don't seem to mind!)

Quotes: "What's going on with your face? You look like a clown, with a bad case of rosacea."

"He is one tall, cool drink of grappa, an alcohol I've heard is very potent."    

"Are we going to shoot these pictures or what? We only have the studio for another forty-five minutes. Tick-tock."

Casting: I immediately thought of Holland Roden (best known for her role on Teen Wolf) as Jessica. Physically, she's perfect as she has the wavy, dark red hair, the pouty lips, and the va-va-voom figure, plus she's great at giving attitude. No one does a disgusted eye roll better!

Poor Cecily really has her hands full in this book, doesn't she? To see how she handles Jessica and all the other obstacles I throw in her path, be sure to pick up your copy of Mixing It Up when it's released in just FIVE days!