Monday, March 16, 2009

Interview with Phyllis Schieber, Author of "Willing Spirits"

It's my pleasure today and for the next several days to talk with Phyllis Schieber. I'll be leaving this posting up for the next week or so. Please direct friends and colleagues to read this great interview with Phyllis Schieber, author of "Willing Spirits" (Penguin, 2009).


Without further adieu, welcome Phyllis Schieber...

SMW: What did you do before all of this, for a living?

Phyllis Schieber: I became a high school English teacher at twenty-one. I l already had completed my first graduate degree. I had a M.A. in Literature from New York University when I began to teach in the South Bronx at William Howard Taft High School. The English department had over sixty teachers. It was trial by fire, but I loved it. I was “excessed” a year later when New City cut thousands of teachers. I was devastated. I spent a year looking for another teaching job, but I couldn’t find anything. I sent out countless resumes. After a very frustrating year, I decided to return to school and get another graduate degree. There was a demand for teachers who could work with students with special needs.
I received a scholarship from Yeshiva University, Ferkauf Graduate School, and I became a full-time student again. I was only twenty-three, and I was married and unemployed. I spent a year and a summer in graduate school, and then I got a job at what was then The New York Institute for the Blind. It was in the era of deinstitutionalization, and I worked with children who had spent most of their lives in institutions. My charges were primarily rubella syndrome babies. They were deaf, blind and severely developmentally delayed. It was a challenge. The children lived at the Institute during the week and went home for the weekends. The days were very long, and I found that while I became attached to the students, I missed teaching English. A friend who was teaching at Norwalk High School in Norwalk, Connecticut told me they were looking for an English teacher. I sent in my resume, went through an intensive interview process and was hired. I gave my notice, and the following September I began to teach English again. I was in my element. I remained there until I became pregnant. Although I thought I would return six months after my son was born, I never went back to the high school classroom. I did a lot of freelance jobs while my son was a baby. I wrote pamphlets and edited and wrote curriculum. By the time he was in nursery school, I returned to work as a learning disabilities specialist, first at Seton Hall in Yonkers, NY, then at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY and finally at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, NY. I also taught Freshman Composition. Of course, through all of this, I was writing.

SMW: Wow, Phyllis. What an amazing background. When did you realize you wanted to write?

Phyllis Schieber: Always, always, always. My ninth grade English teacher wrote in my autograph book, “Keep writing.” I listened.


SMW: Did something in your life prompt your desire to write?

Phyllis Schieber: I don’t think any one thing prompted my desire to write. I was always a reader, so I admired writers. I loved the idea that it was possible to create a story and put it on paper for someone else to read. I wanted to be able to that, to share my visions. I talked a lot about being a writer. I talked about it for years. One day, a friend said, “When are you going to stop talking about writing and actually begin to write?” It sort of catapulted me into action. My father had recently died very unexpectedly. I was only twenty-six, and I was overwhelmed. I decided to take a class in fiction writing at The New School in Manhattan. I studied with Hayes Jacobs, a marvelous teacher who would become my mentor over the next twelve years. Studying with him was the beginning of my journey.

SMW: Give us the scoop - tell us what you did... before you were published.

Phyllis Schieber: I was a teacher and a mother. . . just like I am now! The difference is my son is grown, and I work privately with students.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Phyllis Schieber, author of "Willing Spirits"



About Willing Spirits:

Jane Hoffman and Gwen Baker, both teachers and in their forties, have a friendship that helps them endure. Years after Gwen is abandoned and left to raise two sons alone, she finds herself in love with a married man. After Jane is humiliated by her husband’s infidelity and Gwen must face her own uncertain path, the two women turn to each other.
Now, as each is tested by personal crisis, Jane and Gwen face new challenges—as mothers, as daughters, as lovers. And in the process, they will learn unexpected truths about their friendship—and themselves.

About Author Phyllis Schieber:
I graduated from George Washington High School. I graduated from high school at sixteen, went on to Bronx Community College, transferred to and graduated from Herbert H. Lehman College with a B.A. in English and a New York State license to teach English. I earned my M.A. in Literature from New York University and later my M.S. as a developmental specialist from Yeshiva University. I have worked as a high school English teacher and as a learning disabilities specialist. My first novel , Strictly Personal, for young adults, was published by Fawcett-Juniper. Willing Spirits was published by William Morrow. My most recent novel, The Sinner’s Guide to Confession, was released by Berkley Putnam. In March 2009, Berkley Putnam will issue the first paperback publication of Willing Spirits.



Win A Free Book from Phyllis Schieber!



Free books will be awarded during the tour.Each comment on any of the blogs in the tour will offer a chance to win a free copy of Willing Spirits or Sinner’s Guide to Confession. A couple of people who make a real impression on Phyllis during the tour will be chosen to win a free book. We’ll see you on the virtual blog tour trail.



For full details about Phyllis Schieber’s virtual tour, visit her tour home page - http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2009/01/willing-spirits-by-phyllis-schieber.html



Order Your Copy here



Penguin Publishers : http://us.penguingroup.com/






You can visit Phyllis Schieber at http://www.phyllisschieber.blogspot.com/

Phyllis Schieber Author Bio
The first great irony of my life was that I was born in a Catholic hospital. My parents, survivors of the Holocaust, had settled in the South Bronx among other new immigrants. My mother was apparently so nervous she barely slept the entire time she was in the hospital, fearing her fair-skinned, blue-eyed newborn would be switched with another baby. When my paternal grandfather, an observant Jew, came to see his newest granddaughter in the hospital, he was so uncertain of how to behave around the kindly nuns that he tipped his yarmulke to them each time one passed. It was in this haze of paranoia and neuroses, as well as black humor, that the makings of a writer were initiated.



In the mid-fifties, my family moved to Washington Heights, an enclave for German Jews, known as “Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson.” The area offered scenic views of the Hudson River and the Palisades, as well as access to Fort Tryon Park and the mysteries of the Cloisters. I graduated from George Washington High School. Among its famous graduates was Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State (my grandmother played cards with his mother at the YMWHA on Nagle Avenue).



I graduated from high school at sixteen, went on to Bronx Community College, transferred to and graduated from Herbert H. Lehman College with a B.A. in English and a New York State license to teach English. I earned my M.A. in Literature from New York University and later my M.S. as a developmental specialist from Yeshiva University. I have worked as a high school English teacher, a special education teacher, and as a learning disabilties specialist in several college programs.



Reading was the first line of defense against anything I did not want to do. “I’m reading,” was an excuse my parents never challenged. Education was paramount in our home. There were weekly trips to the library, and the greatly anticipated Friday afternoon story hour. Everything about words seemed interesting and important.. I could make sense of the world if I put it on paper. I could even make the world better; people could become smarter and more attractive, and I could make people laugh and cry at will. Writng was powerful. I thought in stories, answered questions in my head and added, “she said” at the end of a sentence. I still do.



My first novel, Strictly Personal, for young adults, was published by Fawcett-Juniper. Willing Spirits was published by William Morrow. My most recent novel, The Sinner’s Guide to Confession, was released by Berkley Putnam on July 1, 2008. In March 2008, Berkley Putnam will issue the first paperback publication of Willing Spirits.



I live in Westchester County, New York where I work privately with students, teaching writing. I am currently working on a new novel.



Book Summary
Phyllis Schieber’s graceful debut novel is the story of two friends leading lives most women will find familiar. As Jane Hoffman and Gwen Baker attempt to understand their roles as daughters, wives, mothers and lovers, they depend on their friendship to cushion their disenchantment and to celebrate their triumphs.



Jane Hoffman, a schoolteacher in her forties, is forced to confront her reasons for remaining in an unhappy marriage when she finds her husband, Arnold, has been unfaithful. His indiscretion hurls Jane into a new life that is alternately terrifying and gratifying. Her love for her daughter Caroline is also tested when an unforeseen event forces Jane to prove that a mother’s love has no boundaries. As Jane negotiates her own murky logic for making the choices she has, she comes to see herself as far more able than she had ever thought.



Gwen Baker, also a teacher and in her forties, survives a rigid Southern upbringing only to marry an egotistical and cruel professor who later abandons her, leaving her to raise their sons, Matt and Ethan, alone. And while she occasionally takes a lover, nothing really satisfies her. It is Jane who ultimately coaxes Gwen out of her isolation. Together they discover that the conflicting and binding roles women assume be endured without other women. Even after Gwen meets Daniel, a colleague’s husband, and finds love, it is Jane who offers the spiritual solace that only another woman can.



Willing Spirits is no ordinary love story. It is a sensual and understanding story about the struggle to heal from failed maternal relationships, the passionate love women feel for their children, the lure of sexual desire and attachment to men who consistently disappoint, and the bond women share that makes it all tolerable. Suffused with humor and tenderness, Willing Spirits is a celebration of love in all its guises—between man and woman, between parent and child, and above all, between women.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Author, RD Larson

Some people come into your life, stay for a while then leave. Others come and linger in your heart. That's what RD Larson has done with me so it's with great pleasure I introduce you to author, RD Larson. RD is a true artist. She works her craft with abandon and loves what she does. She makes no excuses and lives the life. I hope you enjoy getting to know her as much as I have.
An Interview with Author, RD Larson
SMW: Do you believe that truth is stranger than fiction?
RD Larson: No, I think science fiction is stranger than truth. I also think that strangers are not truthful and sometimes they are fiction-type characters.


SMW: When do you find writing is easiest, in the morning or in the evening? And, why?
RD Larson: I write mostly at night, after ten, when I'm very conscious of images in my mind and lurking in the forests of my dreams. In the morning I answer emails and do rewrites. In the afternoons I do research and "tweaking" for my stories.


SMW: How do you feel this economy will affect the publishing industry in the next five years?
RD Larson: I actually think more people will use their hand-helds, like mini-computers and cell phones to read short stories or chapters. It's easier and it's instant. The reader doesn't have to wait for the book to arrive by carrier pigeon or drive to the library. I like to think it's a straight shot from the mind of the author to the mind of the reader. They have a contract. The writer promises to write the best story he/she can; the reader promise to open his/her mind to the story, put belief aside, preconceptions aside, and live in the story. If the reader is satisfied with the story than the writer has done her work. Or his work. That's what I call my deal with my readers.

SMW: When you start a new story do you start with a character or a setting?
RD Larson: Neither. I start with a conversation that I either hear or imagine. Then I begin to wonder what happened after the words. What action occurred because of those words? That's the story or at least part of the story.


SMW: In your opinion, how is an author responsible to his or her reader?
RD Larson: A writer is either going to write for the reader or for himself. If he writes for himself, he may love his work. But he will be lonely. A story is meant to be shared. An author wants to tell about a piece of life, an accident or an event, where things went wrong, and what the character thought or desired or did. If the writer does it well then the reader will like it. If not ,the reader puts it away and forgets the writer's name.


SMW: What is your writing studio like?
RD Larson: It's a mess. Disks and paper, my dog, and files -- everything around but I know where every single thing is. So I don't mess with the mess.


SMW: Do you find it difficult to write during any particular seasons?
RD Larson: No, I write all four seasons, all year around, including holidays and weekends. A day without writing is a day without worth for me.


SMW: What are some of your favorite words?
RD Larson: Words like blithe, auspicious, bastard and squirm are a few of my favorite words. The other words I like start with l like livid, lost, levitated, lethal and love.


SMW: Do you study other languages?
RD Larson: Oh kind of. French and also some Latin. And dialects. It isn't good to write in dialects because it's too hard to read. I just sprinkle a word in here and there. My mother used the work "poke" to mean a bag. It's a southern word but I never have had the opportunity to use it in a story. Yet.


SMW: Why do you suppose you feel the need to write?

RD Larson: I am driven by unknown and unseen forces from distant and nearby galaxies and books that I've loved and readers that I have loved back and because I don't want to do anything else (much!) except write.


You can learn more about author RD Larson by visiting her website at: http://www.rdlarson.com/ and her blog at: http://www.rdlarson.blogspot.com/.