Photo: Mary Entrekin Agee

Longtime Nashville journalist Carrington Fox stepped away from the all-you-can-eat buffet of reviewing restaurants to draft her first novel, Sexy Chapter, complete at 75,000 words and in search of representation.

About Sexy Chapter 

Too many years have passed since author Augustine “Gussie” Flowers burst onto New York’s literary scene with a critically acclaimed best-selling novel, and now that she’s over 40 and struggling to finish an overdue manuscript, her self-esteem is shot. More than anything in the world, Gussie wants her work to be useful, but in a literary landscape dominated by the lurid crime fiction of her swashbuckling boyfriend and the blockbuster werewolf fantasies of her professional rival, she’s writing for survival, to prove to a skeptical new editor—and to herself—that her voice still resonates.

Buoyed by her outspoken and often outrageous friends—including an obstetrician who can’t get pregnant, a pastry chef who can’t tolerate gluten, and an aging rock star who can’t shake his scandalous reputation—Gussie battles the destructive undertow of imposter syndrome and self-doubt. Traveling between creative communities in New York and Nashville—on the cusp of Covid lockdown, before the dawn of BookTok—Gussie seizes the seismic moment of early 2020 to reexamine the characters in her fiction and in her real life. Digging into her research, she uncovers more backstory than she bargained for, and the revelations about her friends, her rivals, and herself empower Gussie to reclaim her creative confidence.

With subplots related to culinary writing and education, Sexy Chapter draws on Carrington’s experiences as longtime restaurant columnist for the Nashville Scene alt weekly and as wife of the former chairman of Nashville’s metropolitan school board. Like Younger and Sex in the City, Sexy Chapter showcases strong, creative, and supportive women endeavoring to live happily ever after in their personal and professional spheres.

About Carrington Fox 

In 2010 Carrington Fox was named the top food writer by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies for her column in the Nashville Scene. Her work has appeared in Southern Living, Food Network, Dr. Oz The Good Life, Culture, and NFocus magazines; Creative Loafing Charlotte; Louisville’s LEO Weekly; Esquire.com; Chapter16.org; MasonDixonKnitting.com; and The Tennessean. She has appeared on Throwdown! With Bobby Flay and been a guest on Martha Stewart’s radio program. Carrington addresses civic groups, garden and book clubs, and writing workshops.

In 2016, Carrington enrolled in her local technical college. She journaled the experience as a middle-aged mom in construction school at BuildingUpButtercup, for which she was named the 2018 Outstanding Technical Student of the Year in Tennessee (and won a car).

Carrington is a graduate of Princeton University and holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University. She lives in Nashville with her husband David, three young sons, a micro-flock of backyard hens, and a shiftless but endearing Havanese terrier.

email: carringtonfox (at) hotmail (dot) com
phone: (615) four-eight-one-9731

blog: buildingupbuttercup.com
twitter: @carringtonfox