Author Saralee Rosenburg’s birthday was just yesterday and as a belated Happy Birthday, I’m revisiting the article I wrote about Saralee Rosenburg. I met her nearly three years ago at the Syosset Public Library. It was the first time I had met a real, published author and I was beyond excited. Here’s the article:
Saralee Rosenberg, author of four novels including the most recent on Dear Neighbor Drop Dead made an appearance at Syosset Public Library on June 9, 2011 to talk about what it’s like to be a writer and the writing process.
Sitting in front of a crowd about twenty, Rosenberg admits that her best work comes from questions that scare her and keep her up at night as well as questioning why people do certain things. Though Rosenberg writes primarily for women she has a lot of male readers. She gets emails from men who admit that they start to read her books after finding their wives laughing out loud while reading.
Her stories are inspired by news articles as well as facts she hears from friends and events. Then with that information Rosenberg creates a whole world surrounding it. “I just make stuff up and hope it flies,” Rosenberg said. Her goal is to write honest portrayals and discussions within the characters in her books as well as entertain her readers.
Easily comfortable around a crowd and down to earth, Rosenberg jokes that writing is like driving in a car with a man “You know how men drive…they have no directions, there is no stopping for help but eventually they get to their destination,” Rosenberg said. Usually, when writing, she knows where she’s starting and where she wants to end but the middle is unknown.
At the beginning steps of writing a manuscript Rosenberg not only envisions the characters she working with but the audience she’s trying to reach too. She doesn’t ask what the book is going to be about but rather who. Whoever the character she creates is, Rosenberg will write their whole biography and then flushes out the characters that are involved in the main characters life.
Usually doesn’t know what she’s writing about at the beginning of a project. Writers, Rosenberg says, aren’t in complete control when they write. They think they are but in reality around page fifty the characters take the reins. She listens to the voice in her head which can take a story in a whole different direction.
Rosenberg’s most recent novel, Dear Neighbor, Drop Dead was written ten years and previously titled All in the Cards. The original book took three years to write and she took another year to find an agent. Though the agent thought they had a buyer, the deal fell through.
“I became bored with the story,” Rosenberg said about All in the Cards. “The world had changed, 9-11 happened and the story didn’t seem to fit anymore.” So Rosenberg decided to rewrite the whole thing over again. In the revision she changed what the characters went through and focused more on their expectations.
“I loved the book,” Jackie Ranaldo said. “I was literally laughing out loud when I read. It’s a great beach read.”
After all this planning and writing is finished, then what? She goes to Marshalls and wanders. Since she spends every day writing, when Rosenberg’s finished with a project she doesn’t know what to do with her day.
Currently Rosenberg is brewing up an idea for a manuscript. The title will be All on Her Plate and it’s about a woman with Anorexia. That’s all Rosenberg knows. She is also working on a middle-grade book called Hannah’s Help Hotline.
Happy Birthday Saralee Rosenburg! Thanks for opening my eyes a little more about the writing and publishing world.
