Starting Over with Shirley Goldberg

I’m happy to welcome back Wild Rose Press author Shirley Goldberg. Today, Shirley chats about second acts and her Starting Over series.

Here’s Shirley!

Since my series, Middle Ageish and Eat Your Heart Out, is called Starting Over, my characters are familiar with second acts. Their first acts ended in breakups or divorce; one character is a widower.

They all reinvent themselves, change their work, their love-lives, but also their attitudes about themselves. One of the biggest challenges, when you are of a certain age––as the French call middle age or older––is acceptance. This means accepting oneself as well as others. The time for molding others––if that was ever possible–––is over.

In A Little Bit of Lust, we meet the two main characters, Lucy and Deon, and their friend, Phoebe, at O’Donahue’s, their Sunday afternoon hangout and dance spot. It’s named after Donahue’s, a restaurant in Madison, CT I used to frequent. Yes, on Sunday afternoons in real life. There’s nothing like dancing in the late afternoon when the sun is setting on the beach across the street, and you’ve got a great view from the dance floor.

To show how second chances happen when you least expect them, here’s a micro-scene from the beginning of the book. Lucy and Deon, friends for four years, are dancing.

“I haven’t felt like singing for…a while anyway.” Deon turned her gently and pulled her in again, sang about rivers flowing and fools rushing. “I am annoying you, aren’t I?”

“Not at all.” Dancing with Deon was…intimate. Lucy lifted her head. His lips were six inches away, full lips.

“You have Elvis lips,” she said and put her head back down on his chest.
In A Little Bit of Lust, the characters have to work hard to come together. No spoilers, but second acts are almost never smooth. What would be the fun in that for the reader?

Author Bio and Links

Shirley Goldberg is a writer, novelist, and former ESL and French teacher who’s lived in Paris, Crete, and Casablanca. She writes about men and women of a certain age starting over. Her website offers a humorous look at dating in mid-life, and her friends like to guess which stories are true. A Little Bit of Lust is her third book in the series Starting Over, although all her books are standalone. Shirley’s characters all believe you should never leave home without your sense of humor and she agrees.

***Middle Ageish and Eat Your Heart Out are on sale for $0.99***