I'm so happy to welcome Shirley Loeb today as she tells us how she created her debut coming-of-age novel, The Y Sapphires. First a brief synopsis of The Y Sapphires: It is a coming-of-age story that will satisfy adolescents and adults. The 12-year-old protagonist, too tall and too fat, is lost in the new world of high school. She's funny, lovable, and reads people accurately. She joins the Y Sapphires, a club of the "not-so-popular" and begins a friendship with a sophisticated but troubled classmate. Can she remain true to herself and still fit in the club she loves? Here's Shirley: "The process was lengthy. I started writing this book about 25 years ago. I always loved the protagonist but somehow could not sit down long enough to complete it. It was left languishing for years at a time. Funny as it might sound, I felt I had abandoned Sylvie, the 12-year-old protagonist, and that I owed her the debt of completing her story. I was in a writing class where the members … [Read more...]
Sales are down
Maybe reading a heartfelt and sensitive review will help get you over to Amazon to buy a copy of my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother's Memoir of Living with Her Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide. "A beautiful yet heartbreaking story..a must read! As parents, we do everything we can to help our children become strong, healthy, well adjusted and morally upright adults. Yet there are obstacles that we cannot foresee and cannot even begin to understand until we see all of our efforts unravel right before our eyes. This is what Madeline and her family experienced with Paul. He developed a severe mental disorder that caused him to become someone that his family could barely recognize. As hard as they tried to understand, encourage, and help Paul, his illness took over time and again. The ebbs and flows, the highs and lows, the abstract hope and then disillusionment became their norm. In the end, no amount of intervention helped Paul to overcome his disease … [Read more...]
Introducing A Flapper’s Dictionary
In celebration of completing one more pass through my entire novel as part of my revision process, I'm sharing A Flappers Dictionary. I used it to provide a smattering of flap talk throughout the second half of the book. The talk and the dress - especially shoes - of the 1920s are integral to my story (the working title of my novel is Papa's Shoes). Unfortunately I cannot say I'm done-done with Draft 4. I have many Post-it flags on pages to go back to. Plus I need to cut. I'm about 9,000 words over the 90,000 word-limit for novels. Another daunting job to start on Monday. A Flappers' Dictionary (courtesy of Book Flaps and the guy behind the counter at The York Emporium used book and curiosity shop in downtown York, PA. Visit him online) During the Roaring 20s of the last century, young ladies took on a new, and for the time radical, lifestyle. These were the years following World War I and prior to The Great Depression. It was the jazz age and the ladies were taking full … [Read more...]
Ageism doesn’t apply
I'm Going Back to Work I wasn't looking for consulting work when I retired in April 2010 at the age of seventy. I was intent on working as a creative writer rather than a technical writer and proposal manager. For me it was either now or never. And I succeeded. In the last four and a half years I had my memoir published, I've written for several websites, I've written poems for two books of photography, and co-edited three poetry anthologies. Now I'm knee deep in revising my first novel. So really I have no time to work a day job, as they like to say. Actually, in the last couple of years I worked a couple of short-term consulting jobs helping a group of engineers write proposals to the U.S. government. And it was easy-going back. I found that once I walked in the door I got into the swing of the work immediately. It was like I'd never been gone. Of course after doing the kind of work I did for almost thirty years, I shouldn't have had any doubt that I could still … [Read more...]
A walk for suicide prevention
Those of you who have been following my blog for a while know how obsessive I am about writing. My life is about the actual writing or thinking about writing when I'm not at my computer. I also am obsessive about exercise. I workout in some way every day - either at the gym or taking long walks in my beautiful beach neighborhood. Working out and writing were instrumental in saving my life after my son Paul died by suicide in 1999. Since my son's death I've also become obsessive about working toward erasing the stigma of mental illness and helping to prevent suicide. I've volunteered and participated with others whose mission aligns with mine. I've also written much about mental illness and suicide here and in my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On. This coming June 27-28, I'll take an amazing journey in Boston - another way to memorialize my son and show what I stand for. The Out of the Darkness Overnight Experience is a 16-18 mile walk over the course of one … [Read more...]
Writing work check-up
On January 5, 2015, I wrote a short writing to-do list for the coming few months. Today, since it's almost the end of January, is a good time to take stock. I'm pleased to report that I'm moving right along on my novel revisions. I've incorporated my red lines and yellow highlights into my online Revision 4 chapter files up to page 124. That means I have only 54 single-spaced hard-copy pages to go. Of course that doesn't mean that I'm finished finished. As I've revised I've tagged many many pages that I need to go back to. Like yesterday for instance. I was working on Chapter Seventeen which required that I add a new subsection at the chapter's end. I wrote it. I stepped back from it, I thought about how John Updike writes incredibly detailed descriptions, and I realized I wrote only the bare bones so far. I need to go back to that little subsection and add and add and add more. Remember the old adage - show don't tell? Well my bare bones only tell. I haven't written the … [Read more...]
Is an alcohol free January right for you?
I've never forgotten the first time I decided to stop drinking alcohol during the month of January. It was the morning after a particularly boozy month of December and yet another boozy New Year's Eve party with friends in Santa Barbara. I felt so terrible that I declared to my husband that I needed a break. He felt the same way, and together we decided we'd abstain from all alcohol wine, beer, hard booze for the entire month. And it felt so good after that first fast, we actually added another month July. We decided to take an alcohol break every six months. We continued that tradition together for the next several years, and then he dropped out. But I was not dissuaded. Today, January 24, I'm twenty-four days into my 2015 fast. I'm pleased to say I've been alcohol free in January (and July) for the last twenty years at least. Now you must think that I'm quite a boozer otherwise. Actually I'm not. I drink a glass of wine or two most nights, but that's it. I never drink … [Read more...]
Saying thank you to a reviewer pays off
After three years since its launch, my book, Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother's Memoir of Living with Her Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide, is still getting some wonderful reviews on Amazon. I can't help sharing this latest one: Incredible Book! This memoir is simultaneously heart-wrenching and incredibly hopeful. Madeline's story is a true triumph of the human spirit's ability to endure even the most nightmarish of scenarios. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone - whether you live with mental illness, have a loved one who does, have lost someone to suicide, or just looking for a beautiful story illuminating the human condition, you should read this book. Exquisite. This review touched me so much that I was moved to thank the reviewer. In doing so I found out more about her and her family: Oh wow, it's an honor to have you read my review and reply back to me! Your book has had such an impact on my life, being diagnosed with bipolar disorder … [Read more...]
Character description
As I go through my novel chapters during this revision I'm continually checking back to the character descriptions I wrote up prior and during my writing process. One of the main considerations is keeping the characters' descriptions and actions and attitudes consistent throughout or revealing how they have changed as time goes by. One of my four main characters is described below (though a bit haphazardly). I've been told she is the most interesting. Please let me know what you think. Ruth Schuman, wife of Ira, mother of Charles and Ava Physical appearance: heavy-set, huge breasts, smooth white pale skin, short about 5 feet, Always wears an old tight-fitting black dress usually with a dirty apron over it until she transforms. Wears a wig at first, then her hair pinned in a bun until she gets it cut in a modern 1920s style Dark brown eyes At first all for going to America until the death of her three sons changes her so that she doesn't want to leave Sokolow and the … [Read more...]
Revisiting John Updike
It's a given that reading is just as important as writing or maybe even more so. I'm always reading something. In the last month I read the first two novels that John Updike wrote about Rabbit Angstrom (Rabbit, Run and Rabbit Redux). My intent is to read some well-known and well-regarded books written by people of my generation. Philip Roth is on my list as well. I have no doubt I can learn a thing or two about novel-writing from these books. I won't get into a discussion of plot and characters here. I am more interested in Updike's writing style. The books are long. I bought old paperback editions and the typeface is so tiny I could barely get through five to ten pages at a sitting. Recently new novelists have been told to vary the length of their chapters and sentences and paragraphs and use a lot a dialogue instead of long narratives. Updike consistently breaks those rules. The two books I read had long, long chapters, paragraphs and sentences and little dialogue. … [Read more...]
Writing work resolutions for 2015
I'm finally back to real work after a nice long new year's holiday rest. And it's about time. Of course I didn't stay exactly idle. I've thought long and hard about how to proceed with my writing life this year, and I've made a preliminary list. I'm sure I'll add more things in the weeks and months to come. Keep slugging away at my novel revisions. I'm about to start Chapter Six only Twenty-one chapters to go. In other words I'm on page forty-one of one hundred and seventy-nine single-spaces pages. It's going to be a long haul. Write blog pieces for Choices that are more about my writing work and writing advice for others. Write for other websites: Naturally Savvy, Aging Bodies, and Cate Russell-Cole's CommuniCATE Resources for Writers website. I feel so honored that she asked me help her out while she works on her own memoir. Write more poetry. In the last few months I've let my poetry writing go by the wayside in favor of working on my novel that's not good for my … [Read more...]
Happy New Year!
The year 2014 was a little bumpy although it's ending on a good note. To get in the mood for a much better 2015 I wish you all a very Happy New Year (I'm wishing myself a Happy New Year as well). You are all in my heart. … [Read more...]
Joe Bunting’s favorite writing quotes
I love Joe Bunting's blog The Write Practice. I read it everyday and I save every post in their own folder with my other saved emails. I also love to collect quotes myself, so Joe's piece on December 19, 2014 absolutely resonated with me. Please note that I attribute the following quotes about writing to Joe's blog The Write Practice. Joe says: "Some of these quotes, I've been collecting for years, others I found only recently, but all of them speak to universal truths about why people become writers and how to become a writer. I hope you enjoy the quotes as much as I enjoyed discovering them. I hope you'll find some value in them as I did." Please click on his blog to read more of his thoughts about writing and what these quotes mean for writers. And finally a quote by Joe Bunting: … [Read more...]
Time Capsule – have you ever buried one?
"Time Capsule," a short film starring and written by my son Ben Sharples, is very loosely based on a true story. Ben and a young friend buried a time capsule as kids. In the film shown below two long-lost friends reunite to dig up a time capsule they buried as kids, only to find that the house where it is located now is occupied by psychotic, dangerous meth heads. Time Capsule premiered at the Festival Regards sur le Cinéma du Monde in Rouen, France last year, then screened at the HollyShorts Film Festival. It was directed by Ben's childhood friend Clint Gardner, who also worked with Ben in writing the script. Ben's bio: Ben Sharples is an American actor known for his role as Jack Hafey, best friend of Brad and Pia Martin (Ryan Kwanten and Amy Smart), in the Takashi Shimizu horror movie 7500 (2014). He played real estate mogul Stephen in the underground romantic comedy hit film X's & O's (2007), reported by the New York Times to be downloaded over 150,000 … [Read more...]
The work-in-progress blog tour: about my novel-in-progress
During this Hanukkah and Christmas season I can't help feeling grateful for all that this past year has provided. I'm especially grateful to my dear writing friends - some I've met in person and some not - who have brought me continued wisdom about the writing process and such joy in knowing them and their writing work. First of all thanks to Kathy Pooler, author of her new memoir: Ever Faithful to His Lead: My Journey Away From Emotional Abuse, for tagging me to participate in this blog tour. Kathy's memoir is a must read if you haven't yet. So here goes: My Work in Progress Synopsis and story idea : My novel, Papa's Shoes, is the story of a family immigrating to America in the early 1900s and a daughter's coming of age in the 1920s in downstate Illinois and Chicago. Some other things going on in the book life in a Polish stetl, early 19th century Chicago and Illinois, a woman's role in society at that time, religious prejudice, interfaith marriage, and a feisty … [Read more...]
Why LA?/Pourquoi Paris? – a perfect holiday gift book
Although I've lived in Los Angeles since 1961, and I've visited Paris many times since 1969, it never occurred to me to compare the two cities. Fortunately author Diane Ratican has. In doing so she has created a wonderful book, Why LA? Pourquoi Paris?: An Artistic Pairing of Two Iconic Cities that highlights the features of both cities with short prose pieces and colorful and whimsical illustrations by Eric Giriat and Nick Lu. This is a book to treasure on your coffee table and use as a resource when visiting either city. I've found out about places in LA that I've never visited and must and places in Paris that I can't wait to return to. The information in this book is invaluable. Ms. Ratican has divided her book into seven sections having to do with cityscapes and landmarks, culture, fashion and style, sports and leisure, art and culture, cuisine and dining, and how people get around in each city. For example, in her section called Cityscapes and Landscapes she pairs the LA … [Read more...]
Time to build a new version (Revision 6) of my novel
After going over a hard copy of my novel three times: once to find too much telling and not enough showing, once to address my beta readers comments, and once to improve my verbs change as many to be verbs to action verbs and improve the actions verbs that already existed I took the marked up copy of my novel off the wall. Amazing! After having the book on my storyboards for almost three months, it took me just thirty-five minutes to take it down, remove the push pins, and carry the foam boards into my garage. My next step is to start incorporating all of my mark ups into a new version. That means inputting any editorial changes I made with my trusty red pen, deleting material that I highlighted with my yellow marker, and adding chapters and sections where indicated again with my red pen. However, I'm going to give myself a couple of days off to let the enormity of the upcoming task sink in. I'll be back at it on Monday, hopefully creating a new version that will be good … [Read more...]
