Please help me welcome Laurie Boris as today's Wednesday's Guest, as she chats with one of the characters from her latest book, Don't Tell Anyone. Meanwhile, I'm over at the Blood Red Pencil with some tips from Kristen Lamb about writing prologues.
Hi, Maryann. Thanks so much for inviting me here today with Estelle Trager, one of the central characters from the book. She recently had enough of my questions and wanted to ask me a few of her own.
LB: I get
around. My grandmother used to feed me choice words, and my mother remembered a
lot of it. But my editor, a nice Jewish lady, oy, did she get on my tuchas
if I got a word wrong.
Estelle: You
got my chicken soup recipe right. Most people forget the parsnips. A very
important part! Why don’t you cook a little more? That husband of yours is
looking too skinny.
LB: I love to
cook. Unfortunately I can’t seem to find my kitchen at the moment underneath
all the unopened mail and dirty dishes. You and your family have been keeping
me a bit busy.
Estelle: It’s
that Cara, I’m sure. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a doll, but I don’t know how she
gets any work done. She’s always over at the house having coffee with my
daughter-in-law. She’s probably in your head right now, gossiping away. So,
tell me. Am I really gonna be a grandma?
LB: I think it might happen.
Estelle: We better not talk about it, then. It’s bad luck to talk
about it. So tell me the truth. Which of my two boys did you like better?
LB: It’s hard not to fall in love with Charlie. Handsome,
charismatic, quick with a joke…
Estelle: I know. He’s like a ray of sunshine, that boy. What’s not
to love? Now, my Adam…
LB: He has
his own good qualities. He’s responsible, he’s a good provider, and he adores
Liza. Okay, he’s a little angry, but you did kind of throw him for a loop.
Estelle:
Everyone blames the mother! I’m tired of everyone blaming the mother. That hot
streak comes from his father, the schmuck, may he rest in peace.
LB: Estelle, you didn’t tell Adam about the cancer.
Estelle: I didn’t want anyone to make a fuss.
LB: You sound like my mother-in-law.
Estelle: And a lovely woman she is.
LB: You’ve met her?
Estelle: Of
course I met her. Her…whaddya call it, ghost, spirit, whatever, likes to visit
your writing room. Don’t tell my Adam, but we shared a cigarette once. Okay,
maybe twice. We tried to open the window, but, well, you know how that goes.
There’s not much a ghost and a voice in your head can do about moving something
that heavy.
LB: Did she tell you about her cancer?
Estelle: Eh,
a little. She doesn’t like to talk about that. She talks about you, that you
should finish the new book so she’ll have something good to read. Are you done
yet?
LB: Almost. Sliding Past Vertical is coming out in September.
Estelle: And I hear the star is a nice Jewish girl? Maybe she should
meet my Charlie.
LB: I think Charlie would rather meet a nice Jewish boy.
Estelle: So
he says, too. Eh, as long as he’s happy. Speaking of sons, your mother-in-law
told me few more things. You should make sure your husband eats once in a
while. She doesn’t want her ashes sitting around on top of the entertainment
center. And then she told me a very funny joke about the hand grenades.
LB: Hand grenades?
Estelle: You
know, the drain thingies. When she had her bosoms cut off. When the nurse was
helping her get dressed the day you came to pick her up from the hospital, they
had to pin the drains from the surgery—they kind of looked like plastic hand
grenades—to the outside of her blouse. She thought up the joke and couldn’t
wait until you came walking into her room.
LB: “What do you think of my new jugs?”
Estelle: So
you knew it already? Well, you could have said something. Still, I gotta
remember that one. It’s gonna kill at my canasta club.
---------
Bio:
Laurie Boris is a freelance writer, editor, proofreader, and
former graphic designer. She has been writing fiction for over twenty-five
years and is the award-winning author of four novels: The Joke’s on Me,
Drawing Breath, Don’t Tell Anyone, and Sliding Past Vertical, due
out in September 2013. When not playing with the universe of
imaginary people in her head, she enjoys baseball, cooking, reading, and
helping aspiring novelists as a contributing writer and editor for
IndiesUnlimited.com. She lives in New York Hudson Valley
A family accidentally learns that their matriarch, Estelle,
not only has breast cancer but also intended to take it to her grave. Now
that the secret is out, Estelle decides to ask Liza, the daughter-in-law
she once called a godless hippie raised by wolves, to kill her. A
horrified Liza refuses but keeps the request from her husband and his
brother. As the three adult children urge Estelle to consider treatment,
their complicated weave of family secrets and lies begins to unravel. Can
they hold their own lives together long enough to help Estelle with hers?
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