FAMILY BEACH READ

Brenda, Bobbie, Christy, Michelle

SPRING BREAK

Twelve in a condo. 

Five girls in the ocean. 

Three men on computers. 

Four women on the beach.

What fun!

NICOLA'S BOOKSTORE PRESENTATION

Many friends turned out for my reading and signing at Nicola’s Bookstore in Ann Arbor. It felt like a celebration. I explained that an abused woman I had worked with as a psychotherapist inspired me to write the novel; that my protagonist Tulip lived in Ypsilanti in the late 60's when John Norman Collins, serial rapist and Killer, was on the prowl, At that time there were no services for battered women. Fast forward to today and we have the incredible Ann Arbor Safe House Center which serves over 4,000 women, children and men each year. During the discussion, Julaine Le Duc, Resource Development Director at the facility, answered questions about the program.  

Three dollars of each novel purchased will be donated to the local Safe House Center. Nicola generously split the contribution with me. Thank you, Nicola!

My greatest supporter and critic, husband Murray, photographed the affair. Murray has figuratively allowed Tulip and her brood to live at our home for the past four or five years and has read every draft before my writing groups. I am indebted to him as I am to my writing colleagues. He told me to enjoy the reading, and I did. 

The Next Step:  Contact local libraries and deliver books.

If you read Four Walls and a Leaky Roof, I'd appreciate your commenting on Amazon Books and/or Good Reads. I'd appreciate comments on this blog also. 

The Next Step:  Contact local libraries and deliver books. 

The Participants 

 Dan Minock WCC Creative Writing Professor

Lynn Riehl Events Coordinator,  Bremda  Meisels,  Julaine Le Duc Safe House

         

Middle Front, Writing Partner Susan Morales

Four Walls and a Leaky Roof  is Available

Three dollars of each purchase will be donated to a domestic violence program.

A couple of weeks ago I opened my door to find the second proof copy of Four Walls and a Leaky Roof  but also a box containing fifty copies of the first proof. Very complicated. Since my husband thought I was neurotic when I found errors in this first proof, I was relieved that he was not  home. After I calmed myself, I called Createspace, who immediately acknowledged their error. A few days ago fifty copies of the corrected novel arrived on my doorstep.

Four Walls and a Leaky Roof will be available at Nicola’s Ann Arbor bookstore, Createspace, and Amazon Books. Or, I have fifty copies—and fifty proofs. I'm wondering, should I sell the proofs at a discount or would people laugh at the six obvious errors?

READING: NICOLA’S BOOKSTORE ANN ARBOR SUNDAY FEBRUARY 9^th 3:00p.m.

The following is an announcement for Nicola's bookstores website.

For Walls and a Leaky Roof is a psychological novel about an abused woman’s growth and redemption. It begins on an icy winter night, when Tulip stuffs clothing in paper bags, gathers her three young children, and flees her husband. Set in Ypsilanti, Michigan in the late 1960s, Tulip is terrified of her abusive husband and also of the serial killer John Norman Collins.

Tulip impulsively purchases a dilapidated house, the eyesore of the neighborhood. Her genteel neighbors are appalled by this brassy woman and her unrestrained children.

Will Tulip’s feisty can-do attitude, her hard work, courage and humor be enough to revive “Old Grouchy” and create a home? Or will she need help from an unexpected source?

About the Author:

Brenda Meisels is a retired social worker psychotherapist living in Ann Arbor with her husband Murray Meisels. In 2009, she published Family at Booknook, about a reclusive, single mother’s love and her feisty daughter’s determination. Ms. Meisels states that she writes to keep sane but that her husband chuckles and states that it does not work.

Four Walls and a Leaky Roof Temporarily Unavailable

I found some errors. I was devastated, as though I had a leaky roof and no way to repair it. I panicked. Humiliation rained down on me, so much so that my husband wrote an essay, “The Day My Wife Became Neurotic.” He assured me that there are almost always errors in books; that people read for content, not errors. However, I was obsessed with fixing the roof.

My publisher, Createspace came to the rescue with a computer, not a hammer. With a click of a key, production was stopped. Repairs are being made. I am so impressed. Createspace is user friendly. Calls are answered quickly, the editors competent and expedient. Occasionally I even get one to laugh.

During this turmoil, I read Louise Erdrich’s award winning novel, The Round House. An Indian woman is raped and it is not possible to bring the white perpetrator to trial. Written in the voice of the woman’s thirteen-year-old son, it is he who sees that justice is served. A riveting story. Perhaps because I was in editing mode, I noticed five errors. I'm relieved to report that the errors did not detract from my enjoyment of Erdrich’s book.

Four Walls and a Leaky Roof should be life in about three weeks. 

FOUR WALLS AND A LEAKY ROOF LIFE

The day before I was to read from my novel at the Tecumseh Library, long time writing friends, Peggy Singer, Susan Morales and I were sitting around my dining room table. I was lamenting the fact that I had no book to display at the reading. As if on cue, the doorbell rang! Peggy snapped a  picture.

Four Walls and a Leaky Roof is now life on Createspace, soon available on Amazon. It took four years to build four walls. I hope the roof holds.

Tecumseh Library Authors Night, 215 North Ottawa Tuesday, November 12, 2013 7:00p.m.

I'm excited to meet and present with three Michigan Authors at the Tecumseh library.  I will speak about and read from Four Walls and a Leaky Roof. Also I will mention my first novel, Family at Booknook, in which a traumatized teenage mother, a cantankerous older man and a precocious child create an unlikely family.  Dearest Catherine by Dr. Annette Perkins: takes place in the Victorian Era, where a heart broken woman examines her heart and her relationship with God. Upon the Eastern Sun by Jonathan Perkins: As the Civil War rages, two men from opposite sides enter the bloody fields of Pennsylvania. The Big Thing About Charlie Dog by Ruth Spigiel is a heart-warming story of a small dog with a big, warm heart.  It should be interesting.

COVER DESCRIPTION

I just sent the proof of the cover to the publisher. 

Four Walls and a LeakyRoof should be available by November, hopefully in time for Tecumseh Library's Michigan Author night, where I will be speaking.  

Four Walls and a Leaky Roof

On an icy winter night, Tulip stuffs clothing in paper bags, gathers her three young children, and flees her husband. Waitressing in a run-down diner, determined to build a new life, she is terrified of further abuse and plagued with fears from her past.

Tulip impulsively purchases a dilapidated house, the eyesore of the neighborhood. Her genteel neighbors are less than welcoming of this brassy woman and her unrestrained children.

Will Tulip’s feisty can-do attitude, her hard work, courage and humor be enough to revive “Old Grouchy” and create a home? Or will she need help from an unexpected source?