BIO: See "Bio/Videos/Pics" Tab
PR WEB NEWS RELEASE LINK: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/3/prweb10550621.htm
AUTHOR INTERVIEW VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIUm9e7NRKc
Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years: Find Joy, Excitement, and Purpose After You Retire
LOGLINES & SYNOPSIS
Short: How to Find Joy, Excitement, and Purpose After You Retire
Medium: This is a guide for retirees and seniors in this new stage of their lives called retirement. Not a one-size-fits-all approach, it addresses how to identify activities and pursuits for each individual based on their own likes and comfort level, and where to find them. The author learned the secret the hard way and finally transitioned from retired probation officer to actress, author, speaker, and blogger. Audience members at her lectures on senior reinvention requested a book on the subject. Here is the content of those talks and six years of posts from her blog of the same name.
Long: Have you retired or are about to and have no clue what to do next? Don’t succumb to isolation and depression as so many have. This book offers a detailed guide for retirees, those soon to retire, baby boomers, and seniors to reinvent themselves in this new stage of their lives by finding joy, excitement, and purpose in their retirement. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach but instead highlights how each individual can identify and locate gratifying activities and pursuits based on their own interests and comfort level. The author learned the secret the hard way and finally transitioned from retired probation officer to actress, author, guest speaker, and blogger. Audience members at her lectures on senior reinvention began requesting a book on the subject. This is the result, and it contains the content of those talks as well as six years of posts from her blog. Her lectures, blog, and this book are all titled, “Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years.” Don't waste away in an unfulfilling retirement. This book could have a major impact on the rest of your life!
LOGLINES & SYNOPSIS
Short: How to Find Joy, Excitement, and Purpose After You Retire
Medium: This is a guide for retirees and seniors in this new stage of their lives called retirement. Not a one-size-fits-all approach, it addresses how to identify activities and pursuits for each individual based on their own likes and comfort level, and where to find them. The author learned the secret the hard way and finally transitioned from retired probation officer to actress, author, speaker, and blogger. Audience members at her lectures on senior reinvention requested a book on the subject. Here is the content of those talks and six years of posts from her blog of the same name.
Long: Have you retired or are about to and have no clue what to do next? Don’t succumb to isolation and depression as so many have. This book offers a detailed guide for retirees, those soon to retire, baby boomers, and seniors to reinvent themselves in this new stage of their lives by finding joy, excitement, and purpose in their retirement. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach but instead highlights how each individual can identify and locate gratifying activities and pursuits based on their own interests and comfort level. The author learned the secret the hard way and finally transitioned from retired probation officer to actress, author, guest speaker, and blogger. Audience members at her lectures on senior reinvention began requesting a book on the subject. This is the result, and it contains the content of those talks as well as six years of posts from her blog. Her lectures, blog, and this book are all titled, “Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years.” Don't waste away in an unfulfilling retirement. This book could have a major impact on the rest of your life!
Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter's Journey Through a Senior Acting Class
LOGLINES & SYNOPSIS
Short: “On Golden Pond” meets “Tuesdays with Morrie”
Medium: A retired probation officer and her overbearing, elderly father attend an acting class for seniors, explore their life-long, love-hate relationship, and bond while performing the scenes she writes for them in the class showcases which launches her into a second career as a professional actress as his health deteriorates.
Long: A 60-year-old, retired probation officer attends a senior acting class with her recently widowed, overbearing, 85-year- old-father. They bond more than ever as they rehearse and then perform the scenes she writes for them in the class showcases. She eventually stands up to her father, conquers her lifelong, stage fright, and goes on to become a professional actress as his health deteriorates and he enters a nursing home.
Synopsis: Based on a true story, this is a comedy about a 60-year-old, retired probation officer suffering from life-long stage fright who mistakenly enrolls in an acting class for seniors. A few weeks later, her mother dies, and she invites her grieving, 85-year-old father to come to class with her. They attend together for three years, bonding more than ever as they rehearse and then perform in the class showcases the scenes she writes for them. She eventually conquers her stage fright, stands up to her overbearing father, and transitions into the world of professional acting. As her fledgling, second career starts going uphill, her dad’s health starts going downhill. She recounts to him each of her new experiences while sitting beside his bed at the nursing home where he resides in his final years, basking in the pride he shows toward her.
MEDIA QUESTIONS
1. What motivated you to start attending a senior acting class?
2. Why did your father start attending the class with you?
3. Writing the humorous scenes and performing them with your father in the acting class showcases seems to have
been a bonding experience between you both. Tell me about it.
4. How did attending the acting class affect your life?
5. You had a 37-year career as a Probation Officer prior to becoming an actress. What was that like?
6. Tell me about your current career as a senior actress. What are some of the strangest roles you've played?
7. Why did you write this book, and why did you think the public would be interested?
8. You talk in the book about waking up in the middle of the night with the entire framework of the book in your mind after
not having thought about it for a few years. Please discuss the process of writing your book.
9. You wrote about some painful moments you had as a child relating to your father. Did attending the senior acting class with
him resolve some of those issues? Do people want some type of closure before their parents die?
10. You discuss your lifelong stage fright, and your book seems to be a catharsis in dealing with some of the pain of growing
up. Can you elaborate on that?
11. You talk about reinventing yourself in your senior years and wanting to inspire others to do the same. Tell me about that.
BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS
1. Are seniors vital members of the community? Do they contribute to the general welfare? How?
2. How do seniors benefit from staying active and engaged? How do those close to them benefit? How does society benefit?
3. Why was the father in the book such an angry, insecure man? Discuss his relationship with his own father.
4. What is the stereotypical First Generation (naturalized foreign born) experience and the Second Generation (children of
those parents) experience? Discuss the similarities, differences and conflicts between them. Is this different from parents
and children both born in the same country?
5. What is the father/daughter dynamic in this memoir? Discuss parent/child dynamics in general.
6. Why was the author’s sister never able to forgive their father?
7. What is the common thread running through all the acting class, comedy scenes that the author wrote? How do those
comedy scenes relate to the author’s real-life relationship with her father?
8. Why was the author willing to do anything she could to keep her father alive? Discuss the impact on a child of the loss of a
parent. What are the similarities and differences depending on the child's age?
9. What was the attraction between the author’s father and mother? How did their personality types influence her?
10. How did the author’s mentally challenged child impact her life? How did her normal child impact her life?
11. Why are insecure people attracted to acting? Discuss the paradox that insecurity can manifest itself in opposite behaviors:
always wanting to call attention to yourself versus never wanting to call attention to yourself.
LOGLINES & SYNOPSIS
Short: “On Golden Pond” meets “Tuesdays with Morrie”
Medium: A retired probation officer and her overbearing, elderly father attend an acting class for seniors, explore their life-long, love-hate relationship, and bond while performing the scenes she writes for them in the class showcases which launches her into a second career as a professional actress as his health deteriorates.
Long: A 60-year-old, retired probation officer attends a senior acting class with her recently widowed, overbearing, 85-year- old-father. They bond more than ever as they rehearse and then perform the scenes she writes for them in the class showcases. She eventually stands up to her father, conquers her lifelong, stage fright, and goes on to become a professional actress as his health deteriorates and he enters a nursing home.
Synopsis: Based on a true story, this is a comedy about a 60-year-old, retired probation officer suffering from life-long stage fright who mistakenly enrolls in an acting class for seniors. A few weeks later, her mother dies, and she invites her grieving, 85-year-old father to come to class with her. They attend together for three years, bonding more than ever as they rehearse and then perform in the class showcases the scenes she writes for them. She eventually conquers her stage fright, stands up to her overbearing father, and transitions into the world of professional acting. As her fledgling, second career starts going uphill, her dad’s health starts going downhill. She recounts to him each of her new experiences while sitting beside his bed at the nursing home where he resides in his final years, basking in the pride he shows toward her.
MEDIA QUESTIONS
1. What motivated you to start attending a senior acting class?
2. Why did your father start attending the class with you?
3. Writing the humorous scenes and performing them with your father in the acting class showcases seems to have
been a bonding experience between you both. Tell me about it.
4. How did attending the acting class affect your life?
5. You had a 37-year career as a Probation Officer prior to becoming an actress. What was that like?
6. Tell me about your current career as a senior actress. What are some of the strangest roles you've played?
7. Why did you write this book, and why did you think the public would be interested?
8. You talk in the book about waking up in the middle of the night with the entire framework of the book in your mind after
not having thought about it for a few years. Please discuss the process of writing your book.
9. You wrote about some painful moments you had as a child relating to your father. Did attending the senior acting class with
him resolve some of those issues? Do people want some type of closure before their parents die?
10. You discuss your lifelong stage fright, and your book seems to be a catharsis in dealing with some of the pain of growing
up. Can you elaborate on that?
11. You talk about reinventing yourself in your senior years and wanting to inspire others to do the same. Tell me about that.
BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS
1. Are seniors vital members of the community? Do they contribute to the general welfare? How?
2. How do seniors benefit from staying active and engaged? How do those close to them benefit? How does society benefit?
3. Why was the father in the book such an angry, insecure man? Discuss his relationship with his own father.
4. What is the stereotypical First Generation (naturalized foreign born) experience and the Second Generation (children of
those parents) experience? Discuss the similarities, differences and conflicts between them. Is this different from parents
and children both born in the same country?
5. What is the father/daughter dynamic in this memoir? Discuss parent/child dynamics in general.
6. Why was the author’s sister never able to forgive their father?
7. What is the common thread running through all the acting class, comedy scenes that the author wrote? How do those
comedy scenes relate to the author’s real-life relationship with her father?
8. Why was the author willing to do anything she could to keep her father alive? Discuss the impact on a child of the loss of a
parent. What are the similarities and differences depending on the child's age?
9. What was the attraction between the author’s father and mother? How did their personality types influence her?
10. How did the author’s mentally challenged child impact her life? How did her normal child impact her life?
11. Why are insecure people attracted to acting? Discuss the paradox that insecurity can manifest itself in opposite behaviors:
always wanting to call attention to yourself versus never wanting to call attention to yourself.