A native New Yorker, I have lived in the city for much of my
life. My first jobs after graduating from NYU were jewelry design and case
worker for the Departments of Welfare of New York City and Cambridge,
Massachusetts. This was followed by
co-ownership of a children’s boutique (Czar Nicholas and the Toad) and a
restaurant (Duck Soup) in Cambridge
near Harvard Square. I then
worked as an industrial purchasing agent in New Jersey,
and for the last 25 years have been a real estate broker in Manhattan,
accumulating stories of the wonder and madness that is this city. I published a
book of short stories (When Any Kind of
Love Will Do), wrote two children’s books and a memoir (Czar
Nicholas, The Toad, and Duck Soup),
and am currently working on a novel.
For
More Information
- Visit Elisabeth Amaral’s website.
- Connect with Elisabeth on Facebook.
- Find out more about Elisabeth at Goodreads.
- Visit Elisabeth’s blog.
- Contact Elisabeth.
Thank you for this interview! I’d like to know more about you as a person
first. What do you do when you’re not
writing?
I read a lot, everything from mysteries to travel adventure
to natural disasters. I enjoy movies,
especially in a mostly empty theater in
the afternoon. And I love to explore the sections of New
York City that I’m unfamiliar with, even after having
lived here for much of my life.
When did you start writing?
I started writing in college, short stories and the dreams
that I was able to remember in the morning. And in 1984, after being laid off
from a job that I had thought would be mine until my retirement, decades in the
future, I found solace in writing (on a huge, red Selectric IBM typewriter) a
romance novel called Kiss of Fire. My nom de plume wavered between Gladys WhyMe
and Felicity Glands. By either name, it was truly dreadful, but it was great
fun to do. I also began to write short stories, but with no sense of purpose or
discipline until I took a Method Writing class in 2005. That turned it all
around for me. I began to write for several hours each morning before work, and
there was a new determination, with an end result. I published my first book, a
short story collection called When Any
Kind of Love Will Do, two years later.
As a published author, what would you say was the most
pivotal point of your writing life?
Seeing that first book in print was pivotal for me. The
excitement of seeing it in print was so thrilling that I would stop strangers
on the street and show them a copy. If they had a nice face I would beg them to
buy it! I’m not kidding. At the time, I was a real estate broker in New
York City, and those were peak years for the market. I
often worked six or seven days a week. Then in 2008 the market crashed, and
there was no work for months. At the same time, my mother’s health began to
fail, and I took that time to be with her and to reassess my life. Writing
became my true focus.
If you could go anywhere in the world to start writing your
next book, where would that be and why?
I could see myself starting a new book in Madrid.
It has an energy that I’m comfortable with, food that I like, fast trains to
the rest of the country, and I speak passable Spanish.
If you had 4 hours of extra time today, what would you do?
Four extra hours a day would give me fewer excuses for
avoiding the gym, so there goes an hour of that free time. But then I would have
three extra hours a day to browse in bookstores or to read.
Where would you like to set a story that you haven’t done
yet?
Montreal or Quebec
City, in the dead of winter.
Back to your present book, Czar Nicholas, The Toad, and Duck Soup, how did you publish it?
I self-published it. I had first sent it to an agent, who
had called it a little gem. Another agent liked it but suggested changes that I
couldn’t agree with. She also advised me how long the process would take. I
compiled query letters and agent lists, but before I was able to send them out
I had a heart attack. My outlook changed. I wanted my memoir to be published on
my terms, with the photographs and recipes as is, and I felt an urgency to
complete the process as quickly and professionally as possible. I went with
iUniverse, and it was a joy. They awarded my book their own internal
recognition, and I received excellent editorial advice. My husband and I did
the proofreading, which was tedious but ultimately rewarding. My ex-husband
supplied most of the photographs, including the cover, of me as a young mother
with our ten-month old son.
In writing your book, did you travel anywhere for research?
I did not. I had planned to go to Cambridge,
where my ex and I had our children’s boutique (Czar Nicholas and the Toad) and
our restaurant (Duck Soup). However, I was able to locate enough people from
that era who were able to fill in or verify my memories.
Why was writing Czar
Nicholas, The Toad, and Duck Soup so important to you?
The mid sixties to mid seventies was a truly remarkable era in
which to be young. It was the Woodstock
generation. The sex, drugs, rock and roll generation. To have been a part of
that, and also to have been fortunate to operate two unique, ahead-of-their
time businesses while raising a son in and around Harvard
Square, was too much of a legacy to ignore. I
wanted this story for my son, and for his little girl. Becoming a grandmother
made me wish I had known more about my own grandparents. Their journey from Belarus
to Brooklyn. Their dreams and their fears. In effect, I
have written a family history, be it a bit bizarre!
Where do you get your best ideas and why do you think that
is?
I’m a child of the sixties. The source of many of our best ideas
wasn’t always legal.
Any final words?
My actual final words will be “Thanks for stopping by,” but
that’s for the urn. For my readers, and I do hope you are out there, stay
strong and hopeful. My coming-of-age story represents a real journey. There
were great times and there were potholes. My first husband was gay, my second
wasn’t so nice. I learned to leap, and that’s how I met my third husband. He is
my charm.
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