"I'm a literary late bloomer," Ellen Meeropol said. The new author, whose novel House Arrest appeared last month from Red Hen Press, was a nurse practitioner for many years, and although she thought about writing fiction, she did not begin until 2000, when she arranged a writing sabbatical on an island off the coast of Maine for her husband, who was writing a book. "I was spending two months there," she says, "and suddenly it struck me that this is my time."
Four years later, as she continued to write, Meeropol gave up her nurse practitioner career and began working at the Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, Mass. She and Odyssey co-owner Joan Grenier had been friends for many years. "I bought so many books there and sometimes wrote shelf talkers that we had a running joke about me working there," Meeropol said. For several years, Meeropol was the events coordinator, but when she wanted more time to write, she began working part time. Eventually she wanted to write full time and cut her hours even more. Yet she remains busy at the store as a book group coordinator, fiction workshop leader and organizer of the annual book group meeting. She reads ARCs for signed first editions, introduces authors sometimes and helps at offsite events. "I love the store and very much want to continue being a part of it," she said.
Working at the Odyssey helped Meeropol deal with some of the hard realities of the publishing business. After an agent shopped House Arrest to large publishers, who passed on it, she told Meeropol that the book was a small press book and Meeropol should seek a publisher on her own. "Certainly it was pretty discouraging for most of the time," Meeropol said. "But all it takes is one editor saying, 'This is pretty good and I want to publish it.' " Happily, Meeropol found that editor at Red Hen Press.
Her knowledge of the business has helped even more now that she is promoting House Arrest. About four years ago, when she was Odyssey's event coordinator, she spoke at a writers' conference from a bookseller's point of view about what authors should do and not do on tours. "Two months ago, I went back to look at my notes for that talk," she said. Laughing, she added, "It's not so easy to put into practice! But it is fun to think of them as notes to myself. Part of the fun of being an author is being a bookseller as well."
No surprise about where House Arrest's "wonderful" launch party was held last month: the Odyssey Bookshop. Meeropol is appearing, too, at other bookstores such as Broadside Bookshop, Northampton, Mass., the Bookstore, Lenox, Mass., and Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, Wis. On March 22, she will make a joint appearance at Porter Square Books, Cambridge, Mass., with Randy Susan Meyers, author of The Murderer's Daughters. (The two books share similar themes.) She will also appear at several book fairs, including the Virginia Festival of the Book and the Maine Festival of the Book.
The best part of the experience of having her book published is the interaction with readers, Meeropol said. "Writing a book, I spend years and years with characters in my head and on the page, and it's hard to imagine them in anyone else's head. Now I'm getting comments and e-mails and hearing from people in person. It's such a thrill."
In House Arrest, home-care nurse Emily Klein is assigned to make weekly prenatal visits to Pippa Glenning, a young cult member under house arrest for the death of her daughter during a solstice ceremony. Reluctant, Emily is determined nonetheless to provide the best care, but soon she faces a dilemma: Pippa Glenning must dance for Isis at the winter solstice ceremony but if she is caught leaving the house she won't be able to keep her baby. She needs Emily's help, and Emily confronts a range of questions involving rules, justice and healing.
Meeropol has another novel that's being shopped around at the moment. "Here we go again!" she said. The book is tentatively called Her Sister's Tattoo and is about two sisters in 1968 who lead a demonstration against the Vietnam War. "Something bad happens and they become estranged from each other," she said. "It's the story of the intersection of their political beliefs and family loyalties."
Despite all that's going on with her two books, Meeropol is not resting: she's revising a third book. She explained: "I started late and have to make up for lost time!"--John Mutter