Saturday, April 8, 2023

Diane Bergner pens a mystery of high society

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Most of us write based on experience. Some of my books are set in suburban Boston because that's where I live; I've taken writing detours to Hollywood because that's where I grew up. Oh, and New York City where I went to college. I've been lucky with my places!

Diane Bergner is lucky in that way, too. In her dishy new novel, ROYAL COCONUT BEACH LUNCH CLUB, she's writing a place she knows, firsthand. She grew up in New York but now she's put down roots somewhere else, somewhere that makes a great setting for a crime novel. 

I'll let her tell it... 


DIANE BERGNER: There’s no place like Palm Beach. Internationally known for its exquisite mansions, famous landmarks, streets lined with stately palm trees, yachts, glistening turquoise ocean, galas, black-tie parties, and shopping on posh Worth Avenue it’s considered paradise by many.

The colorful characters – captains of industry, financial titans, mega-entrepreneurs, socialites, rich widows -- who thrive on an active social life revolving around country clubs, fine restaurants, and the charity circuit add to its glamour.

After decades of experience as a professional fundraiser in Palm Beach, I intended to write a nonfiction book about fundraising. But the idea to show fundraising through a fiction lens intrigued me. Why not marry my professional experience with a fictional town, like the stunning, glamorous Palm Beach? 

I knew fundraising. I knew what it took to navigate an exclusive social milieu. I loved writing. Swept away with inspiration, boldness, and a dose of audacity, the journey to write this novel began.

Once I started writing, I had license to imagine something wholly outside my reality was liberating. Intoxicating. Topics that intrigued me from my experiences, both professional and personal – the role money plays in relationships, marriages, ambition, strong women, romance, and feminist sensibilities – all became a commotion in my mind. I opened my eyes like never before. I became a keen observer, paid attention to details about people and places. I took notes. I wrote. 

It became an intellectual awakening. I became immensely daring and imaginative. I dreamed big. I surprised myself constantly. It was never easy, but utterly fulfilling. 


My dad was an educator and was always reading and learning. He instilled in me his passion for learning, yet my appreciation of this wasn’t fully realized until now. I was busy living my life. Writing this book woke up an intellectual side of me that had been dormant.

Creating members of the Lunch Club – two high-stakes matrimonial attorneys to the rich and powerful, a wealthy decorator, and a fundraiser created the perfect group to develop my interests: What defines a strong, successful woman? What do you want out of marriage? What role does money play in these dynamics? 


I had no idea that I had the capacity to create different voices for each, let alone weave together plots and sub-plots.

Part of the joy and surprise of fiction writing for me is being able to streamline, edit, and create a polished manuscript with a clear story arc. Thanks to my legal education (I was a lawyer years ago), I was able to distill what I wrote, making logical sense and put it all in an orderly fashion, and control the chaos.

It was just the beginning.

I was fortunate enough to have an extraordinary editor take me on. After she received the manuscript, I checked my mailbox for weeks, convinced that there’d be a torn check with a note: “I’m sorry, I’ve made a terrible mistake and cannot work with you.” Instead of that, her red pen became my new best friend. It was all a very humbling but again, I learned so much and am grateful. Here’s an example of her edits. Yikes!



HALLIE: Though I know from working with many aspiring writers, it takes a particular kind of talent and strength and resilience to be able to take suggestions and make changes. Results show. Congratulations, Diane!

And isn't it encouraging somehow that someone with as much obvious success as Diane has had can start over and blast off, from apprentice to pro?

In your life, who has made a difference and helped you clear new hurdles?

35 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Diane, on your book . . . this is just fascinating. Perhaps you might tell us a bit about the story and its main characters?

    I suspect that most of us had a colleague who helped us when we were new . . . for me a wonderful mentor teacher [and friend] when I was just beginning my career. Of course, over the years, you have the opportunity to pay that back by becoming the mentor for someone new . . . .

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    1. Thank you, Joan. The story centers around the protagonist Julia. She is in her second act career as a fundraiser, but doubts it from the get go. Her boss is having an affair with a prominent donor (is this what it takes to raise money?), someone's trying to sabotage her at work, and the demanding donors are impossible! But she gets seduced by the glamour of it, and her own values and marriage are shaken to their core. Then she finds a dead body! Her strong willed friends from the Lunch Club keep her grounded as she becomes an unstable mess. Oh, and she begins a "fling" with a debonair with a Latin billionaire, no thanks to her husband who has become very dismissal.

      Regarding mentors, I've been fortunate in each of my careers. And, as I lead a fundraising team in my real life, I strive to hire great people (even if inexperienced). A big joy is serving as a mentor. It's a very rewarding to payback.

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  2. I love that you discovered a love of writing fiction, Diane. Isn't it wonderful to just make stuff up? Brest of luck with the new book!

    When you were describing the wealthy, glittering side of Palm Beach, I was waiting for mention of all the non-glittery who make it happen behind the scenes. The woman who runs the catering company. The female groundskeeper. The strong woman who corrals the housekeeping staff. Did you include anyone like that?

    I agree about a good editor. The late Ramona DeFelice Long did so much to make me a better writer in my historical mysteries, and author Sherry Harris read and improved many of my cozies for a while. I owe them both and have worked hard to internalize their lessons.

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    1. It's DIANE BERGNER responding (I can't get around this "Anonymous" word in the post). Thank you, Edith. In reality, those real everyday people make the show go on, so to speak. In the novel, they are there: Floria, the housekeeper, plays a major role in confirming Julia's suspicions. There's the tech director who helps Julia find her way out of the basement. But the crux of the novel is those glittering folks in Royal Coconut Beach, and how the protagonist, a down to earth professional woman has to navigate this world -- so different from the "mere mortals" that she is as well as the people she interacts with in her everyday life at work and at home are.

      So great that you had a wonderful editor. As I work on my next novel, my editor's voice is in my head. She's still alive and I will have her look at the draft, but I learned so much.

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    2. Diane! It's not just you... Blogger is a royal pain. I haven't been able to log in as ME for months so I use the URL option. Yes, a good editor is worth (usually "her") weight in gold. I've had several and they've ranged from "petty and annoying" to "gifted and brilliant" - fortunately more on the positive end. Mentors are harder to come by and I've been lucky there, too. Diane I agree on what a pleasure it is to nurture along talent.

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    3. Diane: Thanks for responding, Hallie. Glad it's not just me (when it comes to technology, I assumed it was me). Re: Editors, you're smart to separate the wheat from the chaff. Then run with the best.

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  3. Congratulations Diane! It sounds like you had so much writing this, and also editing. Good editors mean everything, in my opinion!

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    1. DIANE BERGNER writes: Thank you, Lucy. Yes, a good editor means the world!

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  4. I cannot wait to read this book! Many years ago I worked for Miami City Ballet - so many years ago that it was essentially a "start-up" and the non-dancers did everything, including fundraising. It was an eye-opening experience. While I'm sure the players have changed since those long-ago days, I bet the milieu hasn't!

    I've been fortunate enough to have several mentors at different stages of my life. Sr. Marie Therese, my sophomore high school English teacher who taught me the bones and convinced me I might have talent, Jean Raines, my surrogate mother, who encouraged me to keep at it, Sisters in Crime and the Guppy Chapter of that organization who always have writers' backs no matter where they are in their journey. All have been instrumental in my life.

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    1. DIANE BERGNER WRITES: Thank you, Katie. Miami City Ballet is a great company! They are going strong, and I believe hired a new Executive Director.
      I agree with what you say about mentors. They get you to where you need to be. "Keep at it" is critical - and so are having mentors to remind you of that and keep you on track. Thanks for sharing your story!

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    2. Kait, I'll BET that was a great experience! I'm a huge ballet fan but I've never had the experience of working behind the scenes. Must have been fascinating. And boy oh boy you certainly have been fortunate with mentors. I'm teaching a class right now for the Guppies and there are quite a few VERY talented writers in there.

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    3. DIANE BERGNER: Kait, good for you for being a mentor to up and coming writers. Re: Behind the scenes, there is so much that happens there, both in fundraising and literally backstage. Everything is a production! But at the end of the day it has to seem effortless.

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  5. Congratulations and best wishes for future success. You've chosen a compelling setting and world-beating characters. Can't wait to read your debut.

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    1. DIANE BERGNER: Thank you, Margaret. I love that you say "World-beating characters". So true! I have to remember that phrase for the future.

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    2. Yes, potential double meaning there!

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    3. DIANE BERGNER: This gives me a super idea for my next novel. Thank you.

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  6. Who has made a difference and helped me clear new hurdles?

    Most recently, it's Sarra Cannon and her course Publish & Thrive for those who plan to self-publish.
    My biggest stumbling block? Business structure.

    Let's just say, last year, as I wrote out my initial applications and forms with giddy excitement and some trepidation, mistakes were made.

    Sarra is a former elementary education teacher. She not only breaks down complicated info, she offers enthusiastic support: "You made it this far. I'm so proud of you." Instead of prompting me to feel like a hysteric to be patronized, I felt like that stray puppy who now had a comforting human, steady meals, and a sofa in the sun.

    The bottom line is I learned what questions to ask to get help without hyperventilating ... and I'm able to poke a little fun at myself to share a laugh with my subject matter experts.

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    1. LOL, Rhonda! "questions to ask to get help without hyperventilating" - could be a course in and of itself.

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    2. DIANE BERGNER: Having a sense of humor throughout the process of trying to get published is essential. Don't forget to celebrate the little hurdles, too, as small as they seem. Rhonda, in your case, finding Sarra alone was a huge hurdle. Great that you found her to help.

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  7. Congratulations on your first book, Diane! Thrilling to keep reinventing ourselves as life goes on!

    As for who has made a difference: first, my mother, who told me that the only things in life she had regretted were the things she had not done (subtext: so do everything [while staying safe]); and second, my teaching friend Teresa, who told me when I returned from a truly dismal class where nothing had gone to plan that she had been there, too, and that it happened to the best of us and that I would make it in the end -- just remember, she said, that students remember much more how we make them feel than they do what we try to teach them; so be yourself. Two grand pieces of advice that continue to inform my living today.

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    1. DIANE BERGNER: Reinventing oneself can be a wonderful (albeit challenging!) experience. In my case, being a writer is now for life. It's a must! Terrific pieces of advice to soak in. Sometimes certain peoples actions help guide my decisions.

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  8. Diane, wondering if real people you've had to work with show up in your storytelling, or how you handle that because surely they're the source of inspiration, good and bad.

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    1. DIANE BERGNER: So many people ask me this! Yes, some are a source of inspiration. But that's a jumping off point. For example, there was an edgy, demanding donor, so I got the idea to create a mean donor-character. Then I wanted to get rid of him in the novel, but couldn't let him go. So I made him into a real villain. Fiction is always based on some reality, right? Then you get to go crazy with your imagination. I've been on several yachts for work (events). So I was inspired to write the first chapter on a yacht. What happened there NEVER happened at all. To me, fiction writing can be drawn from everyday life, but then it's all virgin territory to create whatever it is you want. It's so fun, too.
      (By the way...do you know how to get my name on my replies instead of "ANONYMOUS"?). I love this blog, it's awesome. Thanks for including me.)

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    2. Diane, Blogger has a mind of its own. Regardless of what many of us have tried, what works sometimes will not work others. It is not that any of us don’t welcome you. Great sounding writing experience. Can’t wait to read your book! Another anonymous aka as Elisabeth.

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    3. And BTW at its whim, blogger refuses to post comments at all. Elisabeth

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  9. Oh, hurray, this is inspirational! And I so agree that a terrific editor can make all the difference--someone who wants you to be the best YOU that can be. It's absolutely empowering. And I love the idea that you observed your world in a different way. Like being a reporter on your own life! Perfect, and definitely eye-opening. Let's all have lunch in Palm Beach! xxx

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  10. Okay, first of all, I love books about the lives, loves and misdeeds of the very wealthy. When I was a teen/college student, I devoured all those Judith Krantz novels about passionate rich girls with improbable problems, and I've missed that genre since it's gone away!

    Second, I'll jump on the bandwagon of editorial love and say there's nothing like an editor who will tell it to you straight. If you can put your ego out of the way, a good editor will be the best friend your book has ever had. Congrats on the debut, Diane!

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    1. DIANE BERGNER: Thanks for your comments, Julia. First, I love your name, which is the name of the heroine in this novel. I'm with you about enjoying the lives, loves and misdeeds of the wealthy. And they're problems, oh boy! It's a great playground. I'm not sure why this genre has disappeared.
      Re: A good editor. My editor told me the brutal truth, but always with kindness. Even when I wasn't in total agreement I let me ego go. She's the professional, she knows best. At the end of the day it served me so well. So yes, GREAT POINT about letting go of the ego. Well said.
      Thanks, Julia.

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  11. This sounds like something I'd devour in Vanity Fair - I am all in, Diane! Also, I adore my editor. She's tough but fair and I so value that.

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  12. DIANE BERGNER: You hit the nail on the head by referring to Vanity Fair - my favorite magazine, for obvious reasons. I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for your kind words.

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  13. Congratulations on your first novel, Diane! You are so fortunate to have found a good but tough editor--they are worth their weight in gold. I've been fortunate to have had three terrific editors over the years, but the first, Susanne Kirk, was legendary. She was tough but encouraging and working with her gave me the tools to suceed in this business. I hope you a similar experience!

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    1. Diane here. Thanks, Deborah. Three terrific editors is a charm. To have one who is legendary is like magic. Giving you the tools to succeed says it all. I do have to brag for a quick second: I loved editor, and offered up a testimonial. She put it up right away on her website, with NO edits! I felt like I arrived - ha! Thank you again.

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  14. Susan C Shea here. Congratulations. I look forward to reading this. Like you, I was a fundraiser to the rich and therefore powerful. I channeled that into my first series, the Dani O'Rourke Mysteries and, like you, I bet, there's so very much more we can do with that cast of characters!

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    1. Diane here. Thanks for your comments. It's always great to hear from a fellow fundraiser, You're the first I've met who has channeled that into a series - wow! I will dive into your series. It's such fertile ground for more - colorful backdrop, colorful characters. The sky is the limit.

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