HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: So all this week we've been talking about reinvention: Gigi's recovery from cancer and her new outlook on life; Alice's cleaning out her basement, finding those old photos and transforming them into plots; Cindy Cavanagh's watching her book transform into a TV show; and Becky Masterman beginning a whole new career. So how did they do it? And is there a roadmap to reinvention?
Nancy Cole Silverman has some suggestions for that very adventure--including jewelry!
Nancy Cole Silverman has some suggestions for that very adventure--including jewelry!
When my father retired he was given a gold watch. Times
change, and as I approached retirement, I was looking for a brass ring. After nearly twenty-five years in radio the
station I worked for was merged with another, and like many of my colleagues, I
was purged; thrown out like yesterday’s newspaper and forced to reinvent
myself.
In my debut novel, Shadow
of Doubt (Henery Press 2014) my protagonist, Carol Childs, a
middle-aged, single mom, is working for a talk radio station and has left her
secure position as an account executive to pursue her dream job as a reporter. However,
her enthusiasm to reinvent herself isn’t matched by her new boss, KCHC’s
boy-wonder, Tyler Hunt, who considers her the world’s oldest cub reporter, in
search of a good story.
Reinvention is never easy. There are always those closest to
us that refuse to see us in a new light.
But along the way I’ve picked up a few tricks that helped me find my way
as a novelist.
 |
| not this kind of radio, of course... |
So, here’s my bag of tricks.
#1. Identify who you want to be and what you want to do.
Look around, dig deep inside yourself for those lost dreams and hobbies you
never had time to pursue and go after them.
# 2. Match your skill sets to that of a new profession. Are you organized? Detail ordinated? Goal
driven? If you’re a writer, chances are
you possess a wealth of skills you’ve never thought about and that many
companies need.
# 3. Talk about what
you want to do in the present tense. Focus on the future, not the past. Will
Rogers, famous for his social commentary, said it best. I’ll paraphrase: If you want to know the direction a man is going, don’t just listen to
what he says, look where the tips of the boots are pointed. So often people
say one thing and do another. The fact
is we can’t move forward if we continually have our feet pointed in the wrong
direction.
This brings me to my forth trick and with it a word of
caution.
# 4. Warning! I don’t
advise this for everyone, but I threw away my business rolodex. It’s too easy to look backwards and talk
about yesterday. If you plan to move
forward, your time and your conversations must be about what you’re doing now.
Not about what once was. Make new
friends, seed your new database with people who can help you to advance in a
new direction.
And, speaking of politicians, Sheila
Kuehl, once known as Zelda Gilroy, Dobbie Gillis’ wannabe girlfriend, today is
a member of the LA County Board of Supervisors.
Nobody said reinvention was easy. The path is frequently peppered with problems,
and like my protagonist, Carol, we’re sometimes faced with difficult questions
and decisions that may challenge the very things we thought we knew and held
dear.
In SHADOW OF DOUBT, Carol is faced with
a dilemma. Her next door neighbor,
Samantha, is the niece of a top Hollywood talent agent and has become an
invaluable source for insider industry news. But when Sam comes to Carol with
news of her aunt’s death, things take an unexpected twist, and Carol starts to
wonder if she’s being played by Sam to cover up a murderer.
I love that as a novelist I’m able to twist the facts and
turn up the heat on my characters -something I could never have done when
working in a news room. I hope you enjoy
my new novel shadow of doubt. After
years of writing broadcast copy and news, it’s been nice to reinvent myself as
a novelist.
HANK: How about you, Reds? What steps have you ever taken to
reinvent yourself--as a writer? as a reader? As a person?
**********************************
Nancy Cole Silverman credits her twenty-five years in news
and talk radio for helping her to develop an ear for storytelling. But it
wasn’t until 2001 after she retired from news and copywriting that she was able
to sit down and write fiction fulltime. Much of what Silverman writes about
today she admits is pulled from events that were reported on from inside some
of Los Angeles’ busiest newsrooms where she spent the bulk of her career. In
the last ten years she has written numerous short stories and novelettes. Today
Silverman lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Bruce and two standard
poodles.
When a top Hollywood Agent is found poisoned in the bathtub
of her home, suspicion quickly turns to one of her two nieces. But Carol
Childs, a reporter for a local talk radio station, doesn’t believe it. The
suspect is her neighbor and friend, and also her primary source for insider
industry news. After a media frenzy pits one niece against the other—and the
body count starts to rise—Carol knows she must save her friend from being tried
in the court of public opinion.
But even the most seasoned reporter can be surprised, and
when a Hollywood psychic shows up in Carol’s studio one night and warns her
there will be more deaths, things take an unexpected turn. Suddenly nobody is
above suspicion. Carol must challenge both her friendship and the facts, and
the only thing she knows for certain is that the killer is still out there. But
the closer she gets to the truth, the more danger she’s in.
