Hello Friends and welcome. Today author Robin DeLisle is here as my guest blogger. She is the author of ‘Miranda.’ Come and meet this amazing woman.
Hi, everyone! I am happy to have this opportunity to say hello and share some information about my books. As I read the recent blog by Jax Meyer (A Marine Discovery), I was really pleased to see that the issues of mental illness, such as ADHD and Asperger’s, are finding a voice in lesbian fiction, or anywhere for that matter.
My first attempts at writing came in my late teens and through my twenties writing song lyrics. My discipline was in saying the most with the fewest possible words, next to haiku. Life took over and it wasn’t until after attending the LCLC in Palm Springs, hosted by Sapphire Books Publishing, in 2016 that I even considered writing a full-on novel. I listened to the questions being asked of the authors, and suggestions about what the readers would like to see more of in the lesfic genre. One of those suggestions was for more representation of older lesbians. Well, I was an older lesbian. I was somewhat fresh out of a twenty-five-year relationship looking for some direction. What do you do with yourself when you thought you were spending the rest of your life with someone and it just suddenly ends? Add to that your difficulty in connecting with people, because of your own ADHD and Asperger’s Syndrome. Shortly after returning from the conference I decided I had enough fodder to start my own attempt at writing. The result was Miranda, released in October of 2017 by Sapphire Books Publishing.
Miranda is very loosely based on my own experiences, but is about a woman, having just turned sixty, still working in a management position, who has ADHD and Asperger’s, and is just trying to navigate through life and start over after the end of her long relationship with her previous partner. Because she does have difficulty connecting with people in general, she spends much of her time alone, with the exception of her co-worker friend, Maggie, the only person she feels free to talk to honestly, and who doesn’t judge her but does try to encourage her to spread her wings just a little. Completely spent, mentally and emotionally, Miranda takes a thirty-day leave of absence to really focus on where she wants to go with her life. Just as she finds herself considering the idea of another relationship with someone, Grace, her one friend, Maggie, is stepping back to focus on her own life, leaving Miranda feeling a bit unmoored. But fate does step in with the discovery of an intriguing art gallery owner, Colette. Miranda will never be the same person she was when she stepped through the art gallery door in her first attempt to meet this mysterious woman. As it turns out, Colette becomes very instrumental in helping Miranda focus on seeing herself as still viable at sixty, in love and in life.
“Let me tell you something, Miranda.” Colette spoke softly. “In Japan they have something called kintsukuroi. When a vessel, a piece of pottery, is cracked or broken, rather than discard it they honor the damage by filling the cracks with gold. The cracks then become beautiful scars, and they believe the vessel becomes even more beautiful for having been broken.”
Miranda looked up at Colette. “You are my gold.” — From Miranda
As soon as I finished, Miranda, I felt I really wanted to learn more about the sixty-seven-year-old Colette. I wanted to explore her history, as she is originally from Paris, and fled Paris over thirty years prior. Why did she leave? What were the real circumstances? Why has she never returned to Paris? So, my second novel, and the sequel to Miranda, Colette was born, released in May of 2018.
In Miranda, Colette does have to return to Paris but is unsure if it will be for a summer, or for the rest of her life. In Colette, we follow her to Paris to see how she navigates through the summer. We learn the discoveries she makes while dealing with the reasons she left Paris in the first place because they haven’t gone away in all that time. Fortunately, she finds herself pleasantly distracted with a younger forty-seven-year-old, Lissa, who helps Colette put her own life into perspective, see what is truly important to her, and where she ultimately belongs. Of course, being a sequel, we still get to spend time with Miranda and see how the whole story of Miranda and Colette, and their bond with each other, come together in the end. It’s a different kind of love story that I think, through both books, readers will enjoy and appreciate.
Both books are available at Amazon, Goodreads, All Author, etc., as both paperbacks and e-books. E-books are also available directly from www.SapphireBooks.com
Visit my Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/R-D-DeLisle/e/B075DM47M1?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1580755388&sr=8-1
Visit my website for more information, or to connect with me, at www.rddelisle.biz
Thanks, Lynn, for this opportunity to share my books with you and the readers. So much appreciated! Let’s give away a copy of Miranda!
Thank you, Everyone, for visiting today. Be sure to visit next week when I’ll be presenting something new.
Until Next Time,
Lynn
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Lynn Lawler's Creative Artists' Blog 