Eric
Joseph and Eva Ungar (Grudin) were teenage sweethearts in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, who set a wedding date
when they turned 15. The last time they saw each other they were 21 years old.
Three years ago they reunited, around the time of the 50th high school reunion.
Although their book is a work of fiction, it's about a couple like them, who
fall in love again, almost instantly, via email.
Eric is in public health, a consultant/educator at hospitals and
clinics, concentrating his career on Native American health services across the
country. Eva is an art historian who taught at Williams College in Massachusetts for 40+ years. She
specialized in African and African-American art; the history of European
painting: also Holocaust Studies - memorials and museums; In addition, she has
performed in and written Sounding to A,
a multi-media work about inheriting the Holocaust. It premiered at the Ko
Festival of Performance in 2004.
Learn more about Eva and Eric
and their history together by visiting hargrovepress.com
- At the website you'll find memories about their time together in the late
50s, early 60s, as well as interviews from today.
Their latest book is the
literary fiction, Save
The Last Dance.
For More Information
- Visit the authors’ website.
- Connect with authors on Facebook and Twitter.
- Find out more about the authors at Goodreads.
Title:
Save The Last Dance
Author: Eric Joseph & Eva Ungar Grudin
Publisher: Hargrove Press
Pages: 360
Genre: Literary Fiction
A tale of the power and peril of first love
rediscovered.
Adam Wolf and Sarah Ross were teenage sweethearts who grew up in Cleveland Heights,
Ohio in the late 50’s and early 60's. They set a wedding date when
they turned fifteen. The day came and went. For most of their lives the two
were out of contact.
With their 50th high school reunion approaching, Adam and
Sarah reconnect. Email exchanges - after the first tentative "hi",
then a deluge- five, ten- by the end of the week twenty emails a day. Soon
Sarah admits, "All my life I've been looking for someone who loves me as
much as you did".
Written entirely in email and
texts, Save the Last Dance allows the reader to
eavesdrop on Sarah and Adam's correspondence as their love reignites. It also
permits the reader to witness the reactions of significant others, whose
hum-drum lives are abruptly jolted by the sudden intrusion of long-dormant
passion. Can Sarah and Adam's rekindled love withstand the pummeling they're in
for?
For More Information
- Save The Last Dance is available at Amazon.
- Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
- Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.
Thank you for this interview! What do you do when you’re not writing?
Eric still works in public health-management and education.
Eva is an art historian. She lectures and writes about art, and visits museums with Eric - for instance, the recent exhibition of American art 1930s, and the great new Kara Walker show at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
In what's left of our free time, Eric is an avid skater and hockey player, and is a full-fledged fan of Film Noir. Eva likes to exercise with a form of movement called NIA. She loves to read, hang out with friends, and stay in touch with many former students she's taught over the years.
When did you start writing?
We both wrote a great deal of fiction and poetry, even as
kids. When we were together as teens going steady, we read each other's work.
Eric wrote movie reviews (for himself) starting at age ten, and a novel when he
was fifteen. Though we published many articles and books in our own fields, Save the Last Dance allowed us to return
to our first love, fiction.
As a published author, what would you say was the most
pivotal point of your writing life?
Our own reunion after fifty years was the catalyst for our
writing a novel. Within a few weeks of reconnecting, we saw that our emails had
a literary flair and wondered if we could write an entire novel based on emails
and texts. The pivotal point came when we decided we could do it - and gave
each other the courage to go ahead.
If you could go anywhere in the world to start writing your
next book, where would that be and why?
Actually, for our next book, we're going to spend a lot of
time in Washington D.C.
digging through government files. We're planning to write a novel, based on a
true story, about a kid who discovers his father is a double agent. Anyway, Washington's
a great place to hang out.
If you had 4 hours of extra time today, what would you do?
If we had four extra hours today, we'd spend two hours
writing and the other two hours erasing what we wrote and starting over.
Where would you like to set a story that you haven’t done
yet?
Currently we're storyboarding a novel that starts in the
locked psychiatric wing of a Chicago
medical center.
Back to your present book, Save the Last Dance. How did you publish it?
On the recommendation of writers we knew, we first sent our
book to one of their agents. She told us she loved Save the Last Dance, but explained that an intimate exploration of
people's lives, doesn't suit the big publishing houses these days. Following an
enthusiastic Kirkus review, our novel was picked up by a small start-up press.
In writing your book, did you travel anywhere for research?
We've lived in many of the places that appear in the novel -
Chicago, Cleveland,
La Jolla. We were able to revisit them via the internet
to get up-to-date and precise information. For example, we went online to find
out how the rooms at the Del Coronado look now, and what their dinner menu
offers.
Why was writing Save
the Last Dance so important to you?
In our day we had always wanted to be writers. When we
rediscovered each other, we also rediscovered our passion for writing. Working collaboratively was actually part of
our own re-bonding. Granted we're late bloomers, but we believe you stay young
by never thinking you're too old to revisit your dreams.
Where do you get your best ideas and why do you think that
is?
By working together we're able to identify and develop our
best ideas. Our goal in writing is authenticity. In collabotating, we often
explore episodes from our own lives and together decide if they'll fit the
narrative.
Any final words?
While Save the Last
Dance is for all adult readers, it speaks especially to the parents of many
reading this blog. People closer to our generation might be uplifted by a story
of first love rekindled. And our book may help people of all ages find the
courage to change.
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