Shear, now 27, had spent a year in brand consulting after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania. Toomey, 26, had been doing the audition rounds after a drama degree from New York University.

But two years later, they had one of those only-in-New-York turning points. A guy sitting at their bar turned out to be an agent who was just sure that this gorgeous pair of bartenders had a story to tell. Turns out they did.

Together, they've written a novel -- The Perfect Manhattan (Broadway Books, $21.95) -- which tells the story of Cassie Ellis, who needs some fast cash to pay off her student loans. Like the authors, Cassie turns to bartending in an attempt to secure a perfect Manhattan life. Along the way, she gets a bartender's view of the trashy, flashy oh-so-seamy side of life in the fast lane.

"We're open to anything, but we would never not be genuine in our support of something," says Shear, during a recent stop in South Beach to promote the book. "That being said, we have a lot of ideas. And let's face it, everything's sort of global now and everything's interconnected: marketing, publishing, product, whatever."

At present, the emerging enterprise has them appearing as The Whisky Chicks on weekly drive-time radio spots (WIOD AM 610 in South Florida). They take questions from listeners (mostly men) who don't know how to be social once they've got a cocktail in their hands and a pretty girl on the next bar stool. They answer similarly pesky bar questions from fans at www.whiskychicks.com. A Hollywood agent is shopping their book around, and they'll soon be working on a sequel.

The Chicks have as their role models such successful chick lit writers as: Candace Bushnell, the inspiration for TV's Sex and the City; Lauren Weisberg, author of The Devil Wears Prada, and Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, co-authors of The Nanny Diaries.

"We're trying to be modern-day philosophers and we're also writing chick lit at the same time," says Shear. "We're trying to find that balance between fun and smart."

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