Dear Reader,
Watch for Ann Napolitano's upcoming January novel, Dear Edward. Today's guest author, has also written A Good Hard Look and Within Arm's Reach. She is the Associate Editor of One Story literary magazine.
Ann received an MFA from New York University; she has taught fiction writing for Brooklyn College's MFA program, New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies and for Gotham Writers' Workshop. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.
Authors love to hear from readers. Ask a question, or simply say hello and welcome Ann Napolitano to the book club.
Email: queries@annnapolitano.com
I'm fascinated by first memories. How old were you, and what happened? That first memory is, after all, the start date of your consciousness, and the first story you remember in your life. This event or moment was intense enough to imprint itself into your mind, when no earlier memory found traction.
My first memory is my third birthday party. My birthday is close to Halloween, so when I was very young my birthdays tended to have a costume theme. My third birthday party was at our house, a blue colonial in suburban New Jersey. My little friends were dressed up as witches and ghosts and we had just finished playing games in the back yard. We were seated at card tables covered with cheap tablecloths and had just been served cake when the doorbell rang. The doorbell is loud in my memory. Ding-dong. One of my parents must have said, "Oh, I wonder who this is?" so that fifteen preschoolers would look up from their plates to see. When the door swung open, an eight-foot-tall Big Bird walked into the house. You remember Big Bird from Sesame Street? Super tall, yellow feathers, and orange legs? That's who stepped into the room.
What I remember next is a pause, a collective intake of breath. Big Bird may have even said something, like, Happy Birthday. But all I remember is first the silence--the bad kind of silence that happens just after a baby falls and bumps his head--and then fifteen preschoolers started to scream. Some ran out of the room. Others hid under the table. Big Bird had appeared with no advance warning, he'd just walked in off the street as if that was an okay thing for a television character to do. It didn't help when my parents explained that it was supposed to be a fun surprise. It didn't help when Big Bird took off his head and revealed himself to be the teenage boy who lived across the street. Nothing helped. My guests were literally inconsolable, and the party ruined. Parents had to be called to come early and take their devastated children home.
That memory starts the movie of my childhood, and is appropriately saturated in a kind of 1970s color palette. I wonder what my children's first memories will be, and which of my mistakes will possibly feature in them. I wonder during which moment their consciousness locked in, and which moment will start the story they'll tell for the rest of their lives. What is your first memory?
How did your story start?
--Ann Napolitano
Email: queries@annnapolitano.com
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
AUTHORBUZZ: Click here to discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win.
THE OPEN DOOR (Fiction) by Laurelin Paige
This year, I had the opportunity to return to one of my favorite couples, JC and Gwen from the Found Duet. They are some of my most passionate characters, people who love each other deeply and have the most amazing chemistry. I wondered what came next--after kids, when life got the better of them. The book is a sexy, edgy, very romantic story about two people, anchored to each other in every way, who want to explore the boundaries of that love in a safe, consensual setting.
Go to: AUTHORBUZZ click on THE OPEN DOOR to read more and to email author Laurelin Paige, you'll get a reply.
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