Monday, December 30, 2013

Five Things You Might Not Know About Charmaine Gordon

Picture this: Wearing only a blanket with panties underneath, on stage in a play Off Broadway, I sat on the bed with my lover. Act 1. I had said blanket tucked under my arms and toga style slung over one shoulder. The full audience laughed, enjoying the comedy drama before them but the biggest laugh came when I stood up and crossed while talking, forgetting to clutch the blanket. What happened next you ask? Left breast exposed for all who paid to see, I didn’t miss a beat as I covered up and finished the scene. Heart beating a bit too fast. When my stage lover asked for a peek at my right breast, I slugged him with a script. Not too hard. We had to get ready for Act 2.

Before I had total left hip replacement, I built patios. Show me a rock and I’d drag it home. We drove upstate NY where flagstones abound. I’d yell, “Stop the car and open the trunk.” Out I’d run looking this way and that like a thief in the night only it was daytime on a country road, no homes for miles around. My husband didn’t get it or me; my need to create and build with found material. I’m bereft since I can’t do that anymore. On the plus side, all my creative juices flow into writing.

Born in the thirties, yes my secret is out, girls were expected to be good daughters, wives, and mothers. I, the first girl, lived in a world surrounded by men, brothers, cousins, uncles, a virtual sea of male domination. Women were designated slaves to the kitchen and home. Secretly I wanted to be a triple threat; dance, sing, act. Years flew by as I fulfilled everyone’s wishes except mine and then when my youngest and only daughter turned sixteen, I developed wings and became an actor to work professionally in NYC. Not a star. Just a ripple in a large pond but I did it on my own.

There I was on set in Working Girl. “Don’t talk to the stars.” During a break, I sauntered over to Harrison Ford and he smiled that crooked grin. We shared a hot dog and sang “Don’t know much about history. . .” He didn’t care about rules nor did I. Anthony Hopkins, call me Tony, invited me to lunch with him one day on the set of another movie at Lake Mohunk. Nice gentle man.

My book To Be Continued has been optioned for a television movie. YIPPEE!

About the Author:
Charmaine Gordon writes books about women who Survive and Thrive. Her motto is take one step and then another to leave your past behind and begin again. Six books and several short stories in three years, she’s always at work on the next story. The books include To Be Continued, Starting Over, Now What?, Reconstructing Charlie, Sin of Omission and The Catch. Plus four long/short stories in a new series of Mature Romances. Young at Heart, Instant Grandpa, Before the Final Curtain and now No Time for Green Bananas.

“I didn’t realize at the time while working as an actor in NYC, I’d become a sponge soaking up dialogue, setting, and stage directions. I learned many tools of writing during the years watching directors like Mike Nichols and actors including Harrison Ford, Anthony Hopkins, and Billy Crystal. And would you believe, I was Geraldine Ferraro’s stand-in leg model, my first job giving me entrĂ©e into all the Unions needed to work. When the sweet time ended, I began another career and creative juices flowed.”

You can reach Charmaine at http://authorCharmaineGordon.wordpress.com
And on her FB page http://www.facebook.com/charmaine.gordon

My latest release is book four in a series of Mature Romances, a relatively new genre. Since I’m a senior (when did that happen?) I know about the good life we still have.

AVAILABLE IN ALL EBOOK FORMATS

NO TIME FOR GREEN BANANAS
by Charmaine Gordon
Series: The Beginning…Not the End, Book 4
Celeste Hamlin, the seventy-five year old widow, CEO of O.U.R. Airlines specializing in chartered vacations, has a goal... She needs to once more conquer the six mountains in the Saranac Lake region before deciding what to do with the rest of her life.

Sixty-two year old Professor Paul Harris, is on sabbatical to hike and relax. When he meets the dynamic Celeste, he recalls the last words his wife said before she passed. “Find another love and begin again.”

What happens next between an older woman and younger man is a story of gentle passion and discovery of The Beginning... Not The End.

Buy the book at Amazon, All Romance, Smashwords, Apple, or Barnes and Noble.

Check out the book video:

6 comments:

  1. I bet Charmaine has lots more to reveal. . .oh, that's me. Thanks for the opportunity to be your guest today. It was great fun recalling the sweet time, a different era in my life. Wishing all of you a Happy, Healthy New Year.

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  2. Patio builder? That one I definitely didn't know! You're a multi-faceted woman, Charmaine. So fun - and inspiring! - learning about all the episodes in your life.

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  3. When I'd say to the husband, "I want rocks," he'd shake in his boots thinking OMG, she means diamonds--I wouldn't turn those down either-- and I meant boulders, flagstone a trip upstate where they are to be swept away into my arms and later to weaken shoulder rotator cuffs etc. Thanks for stopping by, Elizabeth.

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  4. Miss Charmaine, you are a world of wonders. Love the patio building -- only you, darling, only you.

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  5. Elf, dear friend, as one actor to another, we know accidents happen on stage. I did get a big laugh from my small breasted reveal off Broadway. Now we write as creative juices flow. Happy New Year to you and your loved ones. See you soon.

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  6. You sound like such a fun lady, and your book sound great too. I with Amazon had a category for Mature Romance, so it was easier to find them mixed in with the teens and twenty-somethings.

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So... inquiring minds want to know: what do you think?