Randy Susan Meyers's Blog, page 3

The Ugly Truth of Author Photoshop Botox

First, they put Vaseline on the camera lens. Next up was rose-colored lighting, shooting through pantyhose and soft focus. And then, just in time for my first author photo in 2010, came Photoshop. Few tell the truth, so for the “me-too-ism” of writers everywhere, I offer the unadulterated, unvarnished, un-photoshopped truth. These are the things ... Read more

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6 Easy Ways to Publish a Novel in 20 Years!

Recently, a thread in an online writer’s community popped up, beginning with someone (who hadn’t begun querying) asking why folks sent query letters to so many agents. Did they have that many “dream agents? Why not send to just one or two top choices? And, really, how long does it take? Answers flew in—achingly honest ... Read more

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Ferocious Love When We Need It

I started Jesse, A Mother’s Story twice. The stark beauty of this memoir hit me the moment I began. Marianne Leone’s narrative, written with an unrelenting immediacy, yanked me into her world. Leone’s son Jesse owned me from his first moment on the page. By the end of the prologue, Leone had so engaged me that ... Read more

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Are You Jammed Into a Literary Chokehold?

I love books; I love them more than bagels, jewelry, or cashmere sweaters, and that’s a lot. Reading kept me from teen pregnancy, heroin, and robbing convenience stores with a badass boyfriend. I’ve read great books, good books, mediocre books, and books so awful they damaged my eyes, and it was never the genre that ... Read more

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HOW TO PICK A HOLIDAY ADVENTURE (WITH EVENTUAL SUCCESS?)

Stories abound of Jewish people who grow up warm and secure in their faith. Those for whom the eight days of Hanukah didn’t compete with Christmas: Jewish nurses, firefighters, and doctors who take Christmas Eve shifts to ensure their Christian brethren are home for the holidays. These are the lucky Jews with traditions of Chinese ... Read more

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How to Fail at a Cookie Party

When I was newly married (19!), my then-husband and I moved to a farm between Binghamton and Ithaca, New York. His job was being a farmhand. Mine was reading, watching the only television station available (whatever was playing—whether competitive bowling or I Love Lucy re-runs), and gaining weight. The cookies below helped enormously in that last endeavor. We ... Read more

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Grandma Millie’s Stuffing: Childhood on a Fork (and the year we almost lost it.)

My sister and I didn’t grow up rife with traditions. On Halloween, we wore old shirts to represent that we were hobos or beatniks, depending on our mood.  When we hung our socks on Christmas Eve, seeing them flat and unfilled the next morning reminded us that Santa didn’t stop for little Jewish girls—but there ... Read more

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Terrified to Write THAT Book? Why You Should!

I played with the first line, “Everyone hates a fat woman,” for a decade (and published four other novels) before writing Waisted. The scale-obsessed women screamed in my head, but I kept the words locked away. Because writing it meant facing myself. Writ honest, the novel would have to include tales of self-loathing, food needs so intense ... Read more

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Obsessive Themes

Unless it’s in service to a story, I avoid deep thought. But avoidance only stretches so far; when it became time to write a think piece on why I wrote that particular book (hiding inside a marriage, traumatic brain injuries, coma, emotional abuse, rageful words—stop me!), the murky connective tissues of linking why I write any novel, in particular, confronted ... Read more

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Working with Batterers: What Does That Mean?

For ten years, I co-led groups for violent men.* I sat in a circle with a (usually) male co-leader and anywhere from 8 to 18 men who’d been violent with their wives, girlfriends, dates, sisters, or another woman in their lives—sometimes a mother. Their violence ran from emotional abuse to the most devastating physical viciousness—from ... Read more

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