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 forthe General Fiction Forum. I’m honored. I’d like to talk about the writinglife, and also about my just-published novel.Dakota Blues is about a middle-aged woman who thinks she'sgot the world figured out, and then it explodes and she has to discover notonly what to do now, but who she IS now, at age fifty. Since all hercarefully-constructed lifetime strategies didn't work, what now? Where mightshe go, what might she do, now that she's free to recreate her life? I love this theme of comingalive in midlife, but it wasn’t until I reached my own middle age that Idiscovered it. Ever since I was anadolescent, I wanted to be a writer, but life interfered with that dream. Likemost of you I had to work. In my twenties and thirties, I raised my son, climbedthe career ladder and endured several divorces. All of this really interferedwith writing!When I reached my lateforties, I was able to cut back to part time and start my novel, but I didn’trealize how much a person had to know to write a whole flippin’ book! It tookme about ten years to write Dakota Blues because I learned while writing. Nowthat the book is published and people are saying nice things about it, I feellike I've graduated. About the time I started towrite, the publishing industry began to change. New writers were told not toquery an agent until we had a platform. By platform they meant thousands ofready customers for when your book was finally finished. We were told that wehad to do all of our own selling and marketing because unless you were JohnGrisham no publisher would spend any money to publicize your book. Most of us writerspanicked. I was very discouraged. But I vowed to do what was necessary tolaunch my writing career, so I started platforming. I built my own websiteusing 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 ofpractice blogs but eventually figured out my niche.I could be mad at the traditionalpublishing industry for kicking us new writers to the curb, but it’s not theirfault. 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 halfof our lives than we ever knew. I began to write about the strengths of oldage, like not getting swept away by drama (because you've seen it all before),and having more resilience in the face of adversity.
Ibegan 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 celebratingthe glory of being older. Of course that means you have to shout back at thecommercials featuring 17-year-olds demonstrating the latest anti-agingproducts! Or magazines that run articles about how not to look old, because oldis bad and young is good, right?
Well,old is good in some ways. If I were a lamp, I'd be a priceless antique!
Butback to platforming. In her book,
GetKnown Before the Book Deal, Christina Katz proposed we figure out what welove and then write, speak, blog, and tweet about it. She said a book is onlyone form of media, but the idea is the big deal. What is your passion, thething about which you must speak? It was a moment of awakening for me, becauselike most writers, I thought it was all about the book. It isn't about the book.It's about what you believe in.
Iwrote Dakota Blues because I'm obsessed by the idea that we create our ownprisons. Some men, but particularly women do this. We sleepwalk through ourlives, not realizing that were basically throwing away a great gift. We havemore freedom than we can imagine. Roll the world off your shoulders. Create anew life for yourself. Walk away feeling light. This is the message of mywriting – the good news about the second half of life.
Mynext book is a collection of short stories about that very thing. It’ll becalled, “The New Country – Stories of Midlife and Beyond.” I hope to have itout just before Christmas. After that, a novel about a smug CEO who retires toan affluent, age-restricted community, thinking she’s going to enjoy herleisure time, only to receive a surprise package – an infant to raise, courtesyof her estranged and newly imprisoned daughter. The working title is,
Golden Years, My Ass. But I’ll probablyhave to change that.
Deb,thanks again for inviting me to blog for the General Fiction forum. I hopewe’ll get lots of questions and comments.
My Review of Dakota Blues
Dakota Blues
Lynne Spreen
Self-Published/CreateSpace
ISBN13:9781475191332
306 pagesWhile attending her mother’s funeral in her North Dakotachildhood hometown 50 year old Karen Grace is facing some interminable changesin her otherwise carefully mapped out life, her marriage is falling apart andher highly stressful job of many years is in question, when she misses herflight home she decides to take a small break and get to know the family thatremains and the friends she left behind. This impromptu visit causes a dominoeffect of actions and reactions in Karen’s life so when the opportunity for anadventure arises Karen decides to go for it. Thus begins a journey that willhave ups and downs, joys and danger and one that under normal circumstancesKaren would never have taken. But at the end of this endeavor will she havelearned anything or will she continue on the same safe path as before.I would have not thought it possible for a 50 year old womanto star in a coming of age novel, but thanks to debut author Lynne Spreenthat’s exactly what Dakota Blues is. And among re-learning attitudes andreadjusting approaches she gave me a delightful look into what one woman doesto re-invent herself at the age where most of us “of a certain age” are justsettling into the more comfortable second half of our existences. She tells herstory with uncomplicated, straightforward dialogue that flows effortlessly withcharacters who are enigmatic, eclectic and interesting and from one 50something to another I saw much of myself in her protagonist Karen and I wonderif given the same situation I would be as courageous as she was, but then theysay 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&Nforum and this very precious gift of your story.Buy the book here visit the author's website here
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