Fellow San Diegan Dee DeTarsio is a friend of mine and the author of the 2013 San Diego Book Award Finalist, “Haole Wood.” Dee claims that she always wanted to be a soap opera writer. For this interview she described how her new book, “All My Restless Life to Live,” let her fulfill that dream. She also described her newest women’s fiction novel as, “A soap opera writer unravels mysterious communications from her dead dad’s computer in a ‘divinely’ funny journey.”
Once she’d settled on her new character, the “what ifs” began to multiply. She said, “ What if . . . she thinks she’s getting clues from the ‘other side’ from her dead father’s laptop? What if . . . she’s in danger of losing her job and needs to come up with a great plot to get better ratings to save her show? What if . . . she falls for a real doctor, and one who just plays one on TV?”
Dee knows well that the “what if” about the doctor is a soap opera cliché. And that’s exactly why she chose the question. She said, “My favorite books laugh at the sadness of life. With a belief that the universe always gives us clues, I had fun trying to laugh at the sadness of life by questioning how people look at life’s big finale.”
A graduate of the Ohio State University and a product of television news and production, Dee is almost always looking for humor. She even applies that approach when describing why she only goes back to visit her family in Ohio for two days in early October. She said, “[I’m] equally scared of tornadoes and getting trapped in a snowstorm.”
Book synopsis
Life is a soap opera, especially for Elle Miller, who writes for one. (Ellen dropped the “n” in her name in hopes of finding a better ending for herself.) When her laptop crashes, she borrows her recently deceased dad’s computer and gets way more than she bargained for.
Elle unravels mysterious communications from his computer, while her mom decides to give Internet dating a try. As Elle tries to save her career at I’d Rather Be Loved with a storyline featuring a trip through Atlantis, she takes a trip to the Emmys, and finds herself in the middle of a romance between a real doctor and a hunk who just plays one on TV. Friends, family, and clues from “the other side” all help Elle figure out the difference between living the good life and living a good life.
More information
There is one thing that Dee feels is important for readers to do when they get a copy of the book. “Please read the damn prologue! I beg you! It is one short paragraph, but it sets the scene. And all the writer police can just shut up! Since I broke that rule, I figured what the heck, and defied another convention: it will only be the readers who read the prologue, who know what really happened, in a tongue-in-cheek secret—one that Elle never does figure out!”
Though I have a pink cover, with heart-shaped sunglasses, please know that women’s fiction can make you smile, and make you think! Learn more about Dee DeTarsio on her website at www.DeeDeTarsio.com.
