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Archive 08-19 GR Discussions
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The RDL ~ Questions For Author Chat w/ Lily Koppel!
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I have an image of her bridge friends around the table, mouths agape and cards all over the floor! And Florence sitting there, composed, cards in hand w/a bit of a smile on her face!
The book about your mother will be interesting......I'm looking forward to seeing what its like. Did your mother lead an extraordinary life like Florence's?
Mod
Fantastic for you Lily! A book about your own Mother! I've wanted to write one about my Mother and what she's been through but she's from the generation of 'you don't write things like that down' and so I've hesitated for many years now!
For the paperback book, I am working on a P.S. section, which will bring readers up to date on my experience with Florence so far. What makes it unusual, is that this book is a living, breathing story - I am here, Florence is, and Florence may update her diary for this (although she says she is just happy breathing and feeling more alive than she has in years). I saw Florence the other day. After being on The Today Show, she decided she needed a blonde wig, which she modeled for me. She looked great, but I said I liked her natural.
Mod
What has been meaningful to me is hearing people say the book has inspired them to read their old diaries or journals. Also, like Jo said, we all have stories or family members whose stories we have heard and wished we got up from the dinner table and jotted down a note.The challenge I have given myself as a writer is to write compelling works, which feel as escapist as fiction for readers, but are non-fiction built of true experience - and about REAL people, not celebrities, but are meaningful lives, like all of our own, which we can learn something from.
I look forward to the paperback edition! (I have the hardcover, but w/the update, I'll want to read that too!)
And The RLD did read more like a fiction book than non for me!"The challenge I have given myself as a writer is to write compelling works, which feel as escapist as fiction for readers, but are non-fiction built of true experience - and about REAL people, not celebrities, but are meaningful lives, like all of our own, which we can learn something from."
Kudo's Lily! Our world is too full of celeberties and their nonsense!
Tera - my GoodReads book list is not very long now (I have to update it), though I am sitting in my apartment, surrounded by books. I love Nabokov, I am reading for the first time (all the way through) Ada. I am also reading Rebecca my Daphne Du Maurier.I am also reading a lot to prepare for my new book. When I wrote The Red Leather Diary, I read everything Florence did, Hedda Gabler (tho not 10 times), The Well of Loneliness (which I recommend), Dorian Gray (again), as well as many histories, newspapers and mags from the time. I want to read Proust.
Mod
This is why I love to read the blogs of the women on this site. Real, down to earth women that truly have a story to be told and a voice to tell it even if it's not going to make the evening news.
That is a great goal to aspire to Lily....I'm glad that someone is finally going to start to put to rest this HUGE celebrity trend that has taken over.
Mod
That's why I lvoe it too Tera!! I've found so many women on here that have thoughts and ideas that make me want to make them my hero and its nice to know I'm not the only one going through the horrible things life has thrown my way.
Now that's interesting! Reading the popular works of the time period you're working on or more specifially, the works of your main 'character.' I did read Proust back in college, but sadly don't remember any of it ~ I have some memory loss due to health problems! I only know that the name rings a bell!
I know I'm always being told to write a book about my life but I wouldn't know where to begin. I'd get great satifaction out of just telling it to whoever wants or needs to hear it at the time and that's significant enough for me.
Oh yes! Book signings! Why didn't I think to ask about those?! Any more in NY?
Exactly. In many ways, this discussion is like a collective diary. Thank you for all of your questions, I feel like we are in this together. I will answer all of the questions posted by members who were not able to join us this morning. Please be in touch and don't hesitate to message me with other questions, which come up. One of the questions I saw frequently was that people wondered how the book changed my life, what life lessons there were. I feel many books nowadays, with our huge self help sections, bang readers over the head with messages. I wanted each person to take from The Red Leather Diary their own personal truth. I hope you have.
Mod
I think that is a great goal Lily and one we all can do by taking more interest in the people around us and we come in contact with rather than giving one minute of our time to gossip rags filled with Paris Hilton or Britney Spears. Our reality is so much more than the fiction they have created of themselves.
Mod
Thank you so much for doing this Lily and for taking time out of your day to chat with your readers! I'm going to have to go ladies but look forward to reading the rest of this chat later on. Have a great day!!
"I feel many books nowadays, with our huge self help sections, bang readers over the head with messages." I couldn't have said it better myself!Again, I want to thank you Lily for taking some time to do this with us! This has been an amazing experience for me this month! I know you said to message you with any more questions we have, but could we also post the questions on your GoodReads RLD Discussion group? I'd love to keep this going! I can't believe an hour has passed so quickly!
Thank you Holli and Tera for meeting Lily and I here today!
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
Florence would have loved to be here - she just got a laptop and is learning...not so different from her old trusty lavender Remington. Here are my next tour dates and signings, come say hi!!See: Click on AUTHOR and BOOK TOUR:
All Events
Promoting The Red Leather Diary
Monday, June 02, 2008
07:00 PM
WATERFORD PUBLIC LIBRARY
49 Rope Ferry Road Waterford, CT 06385
Thursday, June 05, 2008
06:00 PM
57TH STREET BOOKS
1301 E 57th St Chicago, IL 60637
Saturday, June 07, 2008
10:00 AM
CHICAGO TRIBUNE PRINTERS ROW BOOK FESTIVAL
University Center 3rd FL 525 S State St Chicago, IL 60605
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
EVERGREEN PARK PUBLIC LIBRARY
9400 South Troy Evergreen Park, IL 60805
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
07:30 PM
WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST
Swedish American Museum Cente 5211 No. Clark Chicago, IL 60640
Thursday, June 12, 2008
07:00 PM
BORDERS BOOKS & MUSIC
830 N Michigan Ave Chicago, IL 60611
Thursday, June 19, 2008
12:00 PM - 02:00 PM
DENVER PRESS CLUB
1330 Glenarm Place Denver, CO 80204
Thursday, June 19, 2008
07:30 PM
TATTERED COVER BOOK STORE
Tattered Cover Bookstore 9315 Dorchester ST Highlands Ranch, CO 80129
Saturday, June 21, 2008
01:00 PM - 04:00 PM
KATE'S PAPERIE
125 Greenwich Ave Greenwich, CT 06830
Monday, June 23, 2008
06:30 PM
MID-MANHATTAN LIBRARY
The New York Public Library 40th Steet and 5th Avenue New York, NY 10016
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
04:00 PM - 07:00 PM
KATE'S PAPERIE
140 West 57th Street New York, NY
Thursday, June 26, 2008
SQUARE BOOKS
160 Courthouse SQ Oxford, MS 38655-3914
Friday, June 27, 2008
05:00 PM
LEMURIA BOOKS
STE 202 Banner Hall 4465 I-55 N Jackson, MS 39206
Sunday, June 29, 2008
02:00 PM - 05:00 PM
KATE'S PAPERIE
72 Spring Street New York, NY
Monday, June 30, 2008
01:00 PM - 04:00 PM
KATE'S PAPERIE
1282 Third Avenue New York, NY
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
06:30 PM
THE TENEMENT MUSEUM
108 Orchard Street New York, NY 10002
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
07:00 PM
RJ JULIA BOOKSELLERS
768 Boston Post Rd Madison, CT 06443
Saturday, July 26, 2008
06:30 PM
EAST END BOOKS
53 The Circle East Hampton, NY 11937
Thursday, September 18, 2008
JCC MANHATTAN
334 Amsterdam Ave at W 76 ST New York, NY 10023
The women I've found on GoodReads are truly amazing and I am thankful for your stories, discussions and friendship! It's a connection I think we as women all need!
Again, thanks, I'm signing off, thanks Jo for organizing and all of you. This has been my first GoodReads chat and a great experience. Have a lovely, relaxing weekend and keep on writing.xx
Lily
Mod
Lily, thank you for your schedule! I'll forward it onto my girlfriend in Chicago and I'm going to really try to make a NY date!
P.S. Jo and Chicks - I invite all of you to join The Red Leather Diary group on GoodReads, let's post all the questions there and continue this dialogue about the found diary, Florence and our own lives.Jo - if you could connect the group or help "move" any threads over, I would appreciate. Let me know...
:)
Aaawww Tera! Thanks Tera! I'm glad this all came together!
Lily, I'll definately let the group know & we'll start up over there soon! Thanks!
i just got here and read EVERYTHING!!! Thanks Jo Chick for organizing! And I'm glad Tera and Holli were able to attend. Big hugs to y'all!:)
Dear Terri,1) When I first discovered the diary what drove me to track down Florence was the authenticity of how she wrote and approached life. She was ahead of her time and lived spontaneously and fearlessly.
2) I feel as if I were meant to find the diary. I was searching, like we all are, for love and meaning in my love. So was Florence although three quarters of a century ago. Our paths crossed. We found each other. (Pre-Internet serendipity...a chance encounter.)
3) I have the flapper dress, a while collection of vintage purses. I wear the tangerine Bergdorf's coat and feel as if I've slipped into Florence's world as I walk down the street. The diary, which I returned to Florence, of course is the most meaningful. The other objects gave me a whiff of the past, the diary was a person's story, real, and she was alive! Florence will turn 93 on August 11.
4) Finding the diary, Florence and writing the book has changed my life in many ways by becoming the subject of my first book, which allowing me to connect with Florence--at first a stranger--in an extraordinary way, as well as change her life. The diary has become a virtual fountain of youth to Florence. Any regrets Florence harbored about not pursuing a career as a writer have influenced me to never give up on my dream. The Red Leather Diary is an important book for all of us because it is about the significance of all of our lives.
5) Movie. Florence has her heart set on Meryl Streep to play her older self. I think Scarlett Johanssen for a younger Florence. I can see her in 1930s clothes. The Red Leather Diary is like a more contemporary--AND TRUE--Titanic. I'm not sure who would play me yet any suggestions?
~Thank you for being a part of the continuing story.~~Lily
Responding to Amanda (and Tera):-Anyway, I reiterate Tera's question about whether the book has changed Lily at all.
It has and it continues to. The diary was a portal into Florence's glamorous, forgotten 1930s world, into her world today, into my own life. The fact that we are all her connecting was the result of a 75-year-old diary rescued from the dumpster and a life pieced together from its pages. I still have to pinch myself to remember this is true. Life is magical and unpredicable. The diary was a gift. The Red Leather Diary is about the significance of all of our lives, emotions and written words.
-Also, I'd like to know what her current relationship is like with Florence. Is she still Lily's new 'grandmother'?
I see Florence as often as I can. We have been on book tour together. We were on the Today Show. Florence is both a best friend and a grandmother. I first knew her, so intimately through the pages of her diary from 14 to 19, so now, almost 93, I still see platinum blonde Florence sitting across from me. She is still very open-minded, intense ad thoughtful.
-What are Lily's future plans? Continue to write for the Times? Or is the future unwritten? What is she working on right now?
I continue to write for The New York Times and other publications. I have begun a new book, also about excavating al life, in this case my mother's.
Lily, Thank you for your additional responses! Is there actually a movie or is it wishful & hopeful thinking?! If so, how absolutely exciting!
"Any regrets Florence harbored about not pursuing a career as a writer have influenced me to never give up on my dream." How truly inspirational you are, Lily, to those of us (like me!) who write!
~Jo
Jo asked if I have had a "book comedown" or such. I love The Red Leather Diary. It is a true life fairy tale, which changed my life. Getting to know Florence in her diary and today has inspired me to live life to the fullest, to fill myself with books, music, people, experiences--to challenge myself always to go one step forward than where I might be comfortable. I also met this amazing woman who pointed out that life is also made of compromises--but these also make life rich and real.
Inspired by Florence and her daughters response, I am working on a second book about my mother. I also continue to write for The New York Times, searching out interesting characters, usually in NY, but also around the country.