Featuring guest authors; crafting tips and projects; recipes from food editor and sleuthing sidekick Cloris McWerther; and decorating, travel, fashion, health, beauty, and finance tips from the rest of the American Woman editors.

Note: This site uses Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

HEALTHY LIVING--AUTHOR CHARMAINE GORDON ON HOW LIFE ISN'T OVER 'TIL IT'S OVER

Charmaine Gordon spread her wings at age fifty-four to drive alone to New York City and find a career as an actor. She worked on One Life to Live for eleven years, All My Children for two, and Another World. She also has roles in many movies, including Working Girl and When Harry Met Sally. She had fun with Harrison Ford, lunched with Anthony Hopkins, and sang with Carrie Fisher. Then one day while performing on stage, she noticed her voice felt odd. The next day, a voice specialist confirmed she had spasmodic dysphonia, which put an end to her acting career. That’s when Charmaine started writing. Today she stops by to tell us why age is just a number. Learn more about her and her books at her website.

No Time for Green Bananas

Writers get their ideas from strange places. While visiting with a dear friend in Chicago a while back, she told me about a cousin who mentioned the phrase “No Time for Green Bananas” and laughed his head off. He stretched it out to say, “I’m too old for green bananas.” I found it funny yet true. After I returned to New York, the words blossomed in my head. A story was born. At least the title held firm and I fleshed out two characters to fit. I pictured a seventy-five-year-old woman, now widowed, who owns an airline for pleasure trips. Very upscale. The man is a sixty-year-old widower whose wife’s last words were, “Find a good woman to be with.” They meet on the trip to the Saranac Lake Region where people enjoy scaling the mountains and dancing by night.

So far so good, I thought, and start a new story. This is how it begins every time. I fall in love with my characters as they fall in love with each other. It’s a joy to create and write. I never realized this would be a career until I lost my good voice and could no longer be in show business. I’m a woman who believes in Survive and Thrive. That’s what I do. No matter what happens, chin up, smile, and get over myself.

“No Time for Green Bananas” is one of three stories of mature love, passion, and suspense in The Beginning…Not the End. I never dreamed a 5-star review would appear after publication. To dream the impossible dream is not out of reach, dear readers. The Golden Years can sparkle with love and romance combined with humor. Thank you for helping my dreams come true, and all you had to do was turn the pages to be swept away with the knowledge that life isn’t over ‘til it’s over. So enjoy every moment.

My name is Charmaine Gordon, a senior and the author of these Mature Romances. Welcome to my world.

The Beginning…Not the End
Three stories of mature love, passion, and suspense

“No Time for Green Bananas”—Celeste Hamlin, seventy-five year old widow, has a goal to conquer the six mountains in the Saranac Lake region before deciding to do with the rest of her llife. Sixty-two year old Professor Paul Harris meets the dynamic Celeste, and recalls the last words his wife said before she passed. "Find another love and begin again." Will they begin again?

“She Didn't Say No”—Grace didn't say no to the Big Man On Campus, Scott Dwyer. And then her life changed...Years later. a too-close encounter of an unpleasant kind with a skunk and Scott's German Shepherd reunites the former lovers. What happens in between are their stories of beginnings and endings and love lost, then found.

“Dr. D and the Dad”—A trip over a mound of sand on the beach begins a journey for Diane O'Rourke and Tony Flannigan. She's a pediatrician, a bit over weight; he has a foster care home with three children under his sheltering wing...and a dark secret. Can they overcome the past and make the future work for them? They might just find the initial trip was well worth it.

No comments: