Diane M. Denton, author of A House Near Luccoli, The Snow White Gift and other works, asked me to participate in this blog tour. To read her post, click here.
I’ve been asked to respond to the following questions about My Main Character in a Work In Progress.
1) What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?
My stories are primarily character-driven, with what I hope are strong settings and varieties of inter-relationships. My last book, Tally: An Intuitive Life (All Things That Matter Press 2013) is non-fiction, and could be seen as a character study. The main character, PJ, was a Greenwich Village Bohemian, one of the last of the early 1900s tribe by the time the other major character, Erin Yes (yes, from the Greek, erinyes, The Furies) meets him. With their mutual friend Rogue they become “entangled” as human beings who find one another interesting do, leading to a mental and emotional dance of ages.
Recently, I’ve been writing about Leila Payson, a fictional schoolteacher in Miami. It’s a complete change of pace for me. Leila is inspired by a woman I knew in New York City, and several other remarkable women.
2) When and where is the story set?
The story is set in contemporary Miami, specifically South Miami. This neighborhood is next to Coconut Grove and Coral Gables. Leila lives near Fairchild Botanical Garden and Matheson Hammock Park, one of the most popular parks, especially with locals, in Miami. She meets friends at a South Beach café. The setting allows me to write about Florida, a place I love.
3) What should we know about him/her?
Leila is forty-something. She is a Social Sciences teacher, with tenure and a Masters Degree that is also beginning to age. Teaching is her life, and most of her waking moments and a good portion of her REM sleep, are dedicated to her students.
In her work and everything she does, Leila tries to act in a way that does the most good and least harm. Upon graduating college, she works for a social service agency in inner city Miami for two years. Her boss is the energetic Sally Lacrosse. After this, Leila begins work as a public schoolteacher. After the first few rough years, she settles in and the work is exciting. In time, though, she feels the narrowing that comes with too much routine.
Leila joins a relief agency in a foreign country. While there she learns of the debate about giving aid to others and whether it fosters dependence rather than responsibility. The aids groups are re-evaluating their role, becoming more holistic in their approach. Leila also becomes the friend of and helps out an occupational therapist. What she learns she takes back to her job of teaching, and into her life. She revives a local playground, where she meets the neighborhood families. Her personal and professional aspirations and values are integrated, and that makes it a spiritual experience as well.
4) What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
After 15 years on the job, Leila wonders if she is “aging out” of being useful to her students and to the kids in the playground near her home. A world of opportunity has opened for women in her lifetime and she wonders if she is doing as much as she could. There are still stereotyped behaviors and attitudes toward women, especially women who engage in critical and philosophical thinking.
In her personal life, there have been several loves, but for some years, she has lived alone. She has close friends, who are younger and busy with their new ventures. After lunch with them one day, she sees at another café, a “man with a book.” She is surprised to see him again at a local art gallery’s exhibit of bird photographs. Is he a philosopher? An artist? An ornithologist?
Once again, she re-evaluates what she is doing and how it matches to her sense of a life worth living.
5) What is the personal goal of the character?
Leila is working to find just the right niche to maximize her abilities, particularly a way of living that enables her to use her wings and fly.
6) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
The working title is Leila: Bird of Inspiration. I am contemplating putting some excerpts on my blog once it’s nearly complete.
7) When can we expect the book to be published?
This is in the budding stage and will take months to complete.
And now, I’ve tagged these four extraordinary authors (and I don’t say that often) who have agreed to join the blog tour. Their Meet My Main Character blog post will be online May 19th.
Matthew Peters
Matt’s first novel, Conversations Among Ruins, is coming soon from All Things That Matter Press. His second novel, The Brothers’ Keepers, will be published by MuseItUp Publishing. Currently, he is working on his third novel. The link to Matthew Peters’ blog is: http://www.matthewpetersbooks.com/blog/ Read his Meet My Main Character blog post.
Marta Merajver-Kurlat
Marta is an Argentinean writer, translator, and psychoanalyst publishing with Jorge Pinto Books Inc., New York. She has written three novels, a self-help series, and other works. To learn more about her, please visit her Amazon page, and her website, and on Facebook. Read her Meet My Main Character blog.
Marylee MacDonald
Marylee writes literary fiction and creative nonfiction. Her book, Montpelier Tomorrow, to be published by All Things That Matter Press in 2014, is about a mother who would do anything to keep her family from harm. She blogs and writes about writing, long term illness, and caregiving on two sites: http://maryleemacdonald.org and http://maryleemacdonald.us
Jo Robinson
Jo is a South African writer and blogger. My 4-star review of her novel, African Me and Satellite TV, is on Amazon. Her new book is the science fiction/paranormal/fantasy novel, Shadow People. Please visit her website, African Colonial Stories.
I’m working on a sequel to Miami Morning, and this is the name of Leila Payson’s new group. She’s excited about the future, with her new love, Mark, and the start-up of this group. OccupyAbility is designed to 
The author’s descriptions of people, places and weathers are very evocative. Just as I know I’d like Leila, I know I’d like Miami, for example – urban, urbane, and both disturbingly and reassuringly tropical. The accounts of the high school students brought back (good and bad) memories of working with adolescent learners very vividly.
Mary Clark, Writer 