A few weeks ago I hosted a guest blog post by debut author Lynne Spreen and after reading and really enjoying her novel I wanted to share not only my review but revisit the blog post too.
Enjoy
Deb, thanks so much for asking me to write for
the General Fiction Forum. I’m honored. I’d like to talk about the writing
life, and also about my just-published novel.
Dakota Blues is about a middle-aged woman who thinks she's
got the world figured out, and then it explodes and she has to discover not
only what to do now, but who she IS now, at age fifty. Since all her
carefully-constructed lifetime strategies didn't work, what now? Where might
she go, what might she do, now that she's free to recreate her life?
I love this theme of coming
alive in midlife, but it wasn’t until I reached my own middle age that I
discovered it.
Ever since I was an
adolescent, I wanted to be a writer, but life interfered with that dream. Like
most of you I had to work. In my twenties and thirties, I raised my son, climbed
the career ladder and endured several divorces. All of this really interfered
with writing!
When I reached my late
forties, I was able to cut back to part time and start my novel, but I didn’t
realize how much a person had to know to write a whole flippin’ book! It took
me about ten years to write Dakota Blues because I learned while writing. Now
that the book is published and people are saying nice things about it, I feel
like I've graduated.
About the time I started to
write, the publishing industry began to change. New writers were told not to
query an agent until we had a platform. By platform they meant thousands of
ready customers for when your book was finally finished. We were told that we
had to do all of our own selling and marketing because unless you were John
Grisham no publisher would spend any money to publicize your book.
Most of us writers
panicked. I was very discouraged. But I vowed to do what was necessary to
launch my writing career, so I started platforming. I built my own website
using Dreamweaver. I get a headache just remembering that! It wasn’t very good.
Then somebody invented WordPress and things got easier. I started a couple of
practice blogs but eventually figured out my niche.
I could be mad at the traditional
publishing industry for kicking us new writers to the curb, but it’s not their
fault. Everything is changing. Because I worked so hard to develop a platform,
I discovered my passion: the idea that we are more powerful in the second half
of our lives than we ever knew. I began to write about the strengths of old
age, like not getting swept away by drama (because you've seen it all before),
and having more resilience in the face of adversity.
I
began to write about this and other benefits of maturity in my blog, AnyShinyThing.com,
and the response has been tremendous. It seems I'm not the only one celebrating
the glory of being older. Of course that means you have to shout back at the
commercials featuring 17-year-olds demonstrating the latest anti-aging
products! Or magazines that run articles about how not to look old, because old
is bad and young is good, right?
Well,
old is good in some ways. If I were a lamp, I'd be a priceless antique!
But
back to platforming. In her book, Get
Known Before the Book Deal, Christina Katz proposed we figure out what we
love and then write, speak, blog, and tweet about it. She said a book is only
one form of media, but the idea is the big deal. What is your passion, the
thing about which you must speak? It was a moment of awakening for me, because
like most writers, I thought it was all about the book. It isn't about the book.
It's about what you believe in.
I
wrote Dakota Blues because I'm obsessed by the idea that we create our own
prisons. Some men, but particularly women do this. We sleepwalk through our
lives, not realizing that were basically throwing away a great gift. We have
more freedom than we can imagine. Roll the world off your shoulders. Create a
new life for yourself. Walk away feeling light. This is the message of my
writing – the good news about the second half of life.
My
next book is a collection of short stories about that very thing. It’ll be
called, “The New Country – Stories of Midlife and Beyond.” I hope to have it
out just before Christmas. After that, a novel about a smug CEO who retires to
an affluent, age-restricted community, thinking she’s going to enjoy her
leisure time, only to receive a surprise package – an infant to raise, courtesy
of her estranged and newly imprisoned daughter. The working title is, Golden Years, My Ass. But I’ll probably
have to change that.
Deb,
thanks again for inviting me to blog for the General Fiction forum. I hope
we’ll get lots of questions and comments.
My Review of Dakota Blues
Dakota Blues
Lynne Spreen
Self-Published/CreateSpace
ISBN13:9781475191332
306 pages
Lynne Spreen
Self-Published/CreateSpace
ISBN13:9781475191332
306 pages
While attending her mother’s funeral in her North Dakota
childhood hometown 50 year old Karen Grace is facing some interminable changes
in her otherwise carefully mapped out life, her marriage is falling apart and
her highly stressful job of many years is in question, when she misses her
flight home she decides to take a small break and get to know the family that
remains and the friends she left behind. This impromptu visit causes a domino
effect of actions and reactions in Karen’s life so when the opportunity for an
adventure arises Karen decides to go for it. Thus begins a journey that will
have ups and downs, joys and danger and one that under normal circumstances
Karen would never have taken. But at the end of this endeavor will she have
learned anything or will she continue on the same safe path as before.
I would have not thought it possible for a 50 year old woman
to star in a coming of age novel, but thanks to debut author Lynne Spreen
that’s exactly what Dakota Blues is. And among re-learning attitudes and
readjusting approaches she gave me a delightful look into what one woman does
to re-invent herself at the age where most of us “of a certain age” are just
settling into the more comfortable second half of our existences. She tells her
story with uncomplicated, straightforward dialogue that flows effortlessly with
characters who are enigmatic, eclectic and interesting and from one 50
something to another I saw much of myself in her protagonist Karen and I wonder
if given the same situation I would be as courageous as she was, but then they
say that fact is stranger than fiction so maybe I would.
Thank you Lynne for the gift of the novel, the gift of your time on my B&N forum and this very precious gift of your story.
Thank you Lynne for the gift of the novel, the gift of your time on my B&N forum and this very precious gift of your story.
Debbie, I am thrilled to see Dakota Blues on The Reading Frenzy. I had fun spending the week talking with you and your readers on the discussion forum you host on the B&N.com website. Since you reviewed DB on Goodreads.com, I was highly motivated to join their author program; they accepted Dakota Blues and now I am populating my page with photos and trivia. Thanks so much for the gentle encouragement. I feel as if I have new friend. Best wishes in all you do.
ReplyDeleteIt was our pleasure Lynne,
Deletethank you for your attention to us for that week while you were very busy at home.
You do have a new friend.
deb
Im 29 weeks pregnant with my little girl Dakota Blue
ReplyDeleteShe is the only baby i want, i want to love her and give her absolutely everything she needs. I want her to be my one and only.. I dont want to share my love with any other child because she already means so much to me and she isn't even born yet!
Thanks for your comment hvac and congratulations on the upcoming birth of your little girl :)
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