ABOUT THE NOVEL:
Pam Miller-Townsend, an introverted adjunct theatre professor and only moderately successful playwright, experiences a mid-life meltdown triggered by the sudden and unexpected death of her famous mother, Laura Miller, a musical theatre star. An adopted multi-racial child, Pam has struggled her whole life with identity issues, living always in the shadow of her celebrity parents (her late father, Rafe Townsend, was a famous composer and lyricist). Through a series of events that include not only the loss of her parents, but a break-up with her live-in boyfriend, the loss of her precarious adjunct university teaching job, and her 40th birthday, Pam is forced to confront her own self-sabotage and refusal to thrive. As she deals with the heart-breaking death of her mother, she has to learn to shoulder the responsibility of handling the estates of two enormously famous parents. Pam slowly comes to terms with the ways in which her life choices were born of intimidation caused by their success and her own identity issues. Facing her 40th birthday, she finally acknowledges her own desire to live a successful and fulfilled creative and intellectual life. With the help of her best friend Cindi, a successful theatrical costume designer, her spirited New England aunt Betsy, an accomplished visual artist, and the (at first undesired) promise of new love, Pam goes about the business of moving herself and her life into a more joyous place.
The story moves between the elite theatre world of Manhattan and the quaint seaside village of Stonington, CT, where her mother's family has kept a home for many generations, and where her Aunt Betsy lives full-time. In fits and starts, with some unwelcome surprises along the way, Pamela finally discovers her own strengths and talents just in time to make her dreams come true.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Born when her father was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Debra Leigh has always considered the South to be the true home of her heart and soul. In Miss Thompson's third grade class, she wrote that her life's aspiration was "to be an author," and she, indeed, began writing in elementary school. She's toured as the lead singer of a rock/jazz fusion band, and has performed The American songbook repertoire in cabaret venues. She's been a service rep at Bell Telephone, a legal secretary, an educator, a residency artist, an educational activist, a homeschool parent. For several years, Debra Leigh has been working with her co-producer to complete a docu-series about the corporate takeover of American academia, called 'Junct: The Trashing of Higher Ed. in America. She's writing the companion book of the same name. Debra Leigh is also the Founding Director of Hidden River Arts, an international interdisciplinary arts organization with the motto "Dedicated to Serving the Unserved Artist."
Her first book, a story collection, OTHER LIKELY STORIES, is a powerful collection of inter-related short stories. The lives of two sisters, military brats during the anti-war Vietnam era, and their orphaned bi-racial cousin, are followed from the 1950s, through the tumultuous '60s, to April 30, 1975, the day of the Fall of Saigon. These times of great political and cultural rupture are backdrop for the stories of personal chaos. Against the setting of historical change, dark family troubles - incest, addiction, violence, and mental illness are shot through with the incandescent hope for happiness and love.