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Interview with Linda Rader Overman by Tyler R. Tichelaar at AUTHORS DEN

https://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?AuthorID=31977&id=42835

Monday, December 7, 2009

Linda Rader Overman at author gathering at Lyon Books & Shasta College

 
Heather Lyon owner of Lyon Books in Chico, CA. and Linda Rader Overman holding Letters Between Us celebrating an author event night on Nov. 19, 2009!
 
A wonderful gathering of readers, authors, and those who honor the spoken word at Lyon Books. Many thanks to Heather Lyon and her wonderful staff who supported us and provided great snacks.

Thanks Jay & Jody!!
 
Prof. Kiara Koenig's Shasta College classroom with creative writing and literature students arriving for an author talk by Linda Rader Overman, author of the novel Letters Between Us, and Zu Vincent, author of A Lucky Place.
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Sunday, November 29, 2009

Linda Rader Overman appearing @ CSUN

Tuesday 12/1/09 1130AM
Prof. Eve Caram's Contemporary Literature
English 300
CSUN
Education Bldg 1127
18111 Nordhoff Street,
Northridge, CA 91330


Tuesday 12/1/09 2PM
Prof. Tina Love's Writing About Literature
English 355
CSUN
Sierra Hall 207
18111 Nordhoff Street,
Northridge, CA 91330

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Linda Rader Overman appearing Lyon Books & Shasta College

I will be signing copies of Letters Between Us at
11/19, Thursday from 6-8 P
Lyon Books
121 W. 5th Street
Chico, CA 95928
(530) 891-33381


Classroom Visit
Pro. Kiara Koenig's English 31: Intro Creative Writing
11/20, Friday from 12-3 P, Room 811
Shasta College
11555 Old Oregon Trail
Redding, CA 96003
(530) 242-7500

Monday, October 5, 2009

PhD Linda Rader Overman minds her cloud on Wordle -

To what extent does the act of ekphrastic narrative render the form of fictional memoir into a visual to verbal act of de-familiarizing re-memory?

Wordle - Linda Rader Overman: "Wordle: Linda Rader Overman"

Friday, September 11, 2009

Linda Rader Overman & PhD at almost 60...really!

It's the middle of a July afternoon. In Lancaster it's in the low 60's. I am listening to the graduate school director at University of Cumbria, Lancaster, in the UK describe the PhD process, and I wonder...what am I doing here?

I'm 58. Sixty sounds closer than I want it to. A child of the sixties is how I always think of myself. My novel Letters Between Us, published last fall, was in part a testament to living during that chaotic and free-love wielding generation, but also a testament to surviving the drugs, the sex and the rock 'n roll so prevalent in that time. Yet now at almost 60, I've begun a PhD in Creative Arts.

Classes are held in the summer over a two week period at UC Cumbria, Lancaster campus.
The degree is ultimately awarded by Lancaster University about an hour by train north of the city of Manchester.

It's raining. It rains a lot here. The rain is more of a light shower. It's not cold, just wet. Everyone wears summer clothes. I brought rain boots. I never wear them, mainly I wear flip flops to class. I carry my brolly (code is umbrella for those of us from America) constantly, a purse sized one that is no bigger than a brush. It allows for instantaneous opening and closing in a quick downpour or drizzle that lasts less than five or ten minutes, consistently.

I share a flat (a dorm) with three other bright and dynamic women. Two of them live in the UK and attend courses more regularly through the year. Both frighten me with their brilliance. My nearby roommate teaches with me at CSUN. Jacqui is completing her final year of a three year required attendance. I am just beginning. She has consented to hold my hand through this first trip of mine. She originates from South Africa and understands the system here. Jacqui celebrates her recent accomplishment in this UK system of Phd studies: a successful Transfer from MPhil to full blown PhD candidate. I am still considered probationary. I haven't been on probation since I was 17 and a juvenile delinquent.

I chose this PhD path...why was it again ...I wonder as the class comes to an end on July 17, 2009 at 3:15 p.m. I am among some of the best and brightest here. Students seeking PhD's in Medical Imaging Sciences, History, Geography, Education, Business Marketing, Contemporary Literature, and them there's me...Creative Writing.

I skip the class that covers the ethics of data collection for Subject Human Research. But they call it something else here, and my brain hurts so much I can't recall what that is. I skip the class to collapse in my twin bed and try to sleep just to feel some measure of rest and reassurance that I am doing the right thing. My God, I'll be closing in on 65 by the time I complete this doctorate. If I complete this doctorate . . .

I have to do it...I tell myself this all the way home on the plane even though my brain hurts from all the academic discourse forced upon it over this jam packed two weeks of three courses a day and constant discussion with my colleagues treading this same journey.

They are all so incredibly smart. Again I wonder ... what I have done as I sip my last airplane provided cup of hot tea.

Two months hence, I have done little work on this PhD...those three initials that will now rule my life every moment for the next five or six or seven years create an odd fit in my head. Balancing other aspects of my life intercede, teaching and prepping for fall courses at CSUN. Grading papers, remodeling a bathroom, buying a mountain vacation home (a surprise from my husband), supporting my two adult children emotionally and otherwise, facilitating care for an elderly relative, among other daily demands of being human exact their much needed time.

I am supposed to send two more chapters of my novel to my advisory team by October.

Does just thinking about it or feeling guilty about not working on it yet, count as doing something?

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Linda Rader Overman & Part 2--Letter to a friend upon disconnection of life support



Please RSVP to aidita2000@yahoo.com
Celebration in Honor of the Life of Albert De Francisco
A merry celebration of Al De Francisco's life will take place on
Sunday August 23 at 4pm.
Location is 3714 Latrobe Street Los Angeles, CA 90031 This is a
neighbor's home on Al's street.
Food, soft drinks, water and ice will be provided. Please bring any
other beverage of your liking.
Anyone having a great story about Al is encouraged to share it
with all of us.
driving, parking and entrance instructions below
Any questions regarding this event may be answered by:
Robert De Francisco--323.251.0674-bobde@tech-center.com
OR
Anthony Seta--818.352.6378-11am to 3pm-tonyjseta@yahoo.com
OR
Dave Thomas--323.842.3182
You may also RSVP to any of the above gentlemen.
Al’s Celebration August 23, 2009 4:00PM 3713 Latrobe St.


Directions to Celebration
1. North on the Pasadena Freeway (to AVE 43 Exit (Be careful, 5mph exit)
2. Go East (Soft right) on Ave 43, up the hill to Griffin Ave (Stop Sign)
3. Turn Left onto Griffin Ave and go to Montecito Drive (Stop Sign)
4. Turn Right on Montecito Drive and go to Sinova St. (Stop Sign
5. Turn Left on Sinova St. to Latrobe St. (Stop Sign)
6. Turn Right on Latrobe St. (You may want to use second gear)
7. Proceed up to 3714 Latrobe and start to look for a parking space.
8. Additional parking is available farther up Latrobe St.


Additional Parking


1. Go Past 3714 Latrobe St.
2. Go Past open gate with additional parking sign on it.
3. Turn Left on Montecito Drive to Stop Sign.
4. Turn Left on Montecito Circle and look for parking
5. If on Montecito Circle use the address of 1341 with sign on mailbox
6. Proceed down the long driveway to the open door with the welcome sign
7. Have Fun
Those of you traveling from the Alhambra area and coming up the back way:
1. South on Huntington Drive to Mission Road
2. Veer Right onto Mission Road to Broadway
3. Turn Right on Broadway to Lincoln Park Ave
4. Turn Right on Lincoln Park Ave to Flora Ave
5. Turn Right on Flora Ave to Sierra St
6. Turn Left on Sierra St to Roberta St
7. Turn Right on Roberta St to Montecito Drive
8. Turn Right on Montecito Drive to Montecito Circle
9. If on Montecito Circle use the address of 1341 with sign on mailbox
10. Proceed down the long driveway to the open door with the welcome sign
11. Have Fun


NEED HELP FINDING OUR LOCATION?? CALL DAVE AT 323.842.3182
FOR HELP IN LOCATING THE CELEBRATION

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Linda Rader Overman & Letter to a friend upon disconnection of life support

Dear Al,


By now you have
probably embraced that light we all hear about upon death...having been drawn into that final tunnel infused with it, after your older brother Bob (on the advice of doctors who said "there isn't anything more we can do") had to give the word to shut down life support and say goodbye and face the unfaceable: letting go of a loyal younger brother, a devoted son to a father who won a Silver Star in World War II (who married the woman he loved to become the mother you adored), a faithful boyfriend, a friend to the many from long ago Hollywood High school days, and much before that Blessed Sacrament School.


By now you probably also have finished reviewing your life from end to beginning as so many experts say right after death, and those who judge you from on high have pronounced that you did your best with honor, elegance, and grace just as your parents taught you.



I always knew you as dependable, reliable, funny, candid, charming, chivalrous Albert De Francisco--the guy who I always knew if I needed anything, anything at all, you would provide it free of charge other than with the love your heart carried, especially when we were kids around 15 and 16 who thought we knew it all.



I remember how we loved each other then as young teenage friends do with virtuous passion, friendship, equanimity, and innocence. Yes, we were naive, but never about our devotion to each other or to the rest of our friends who comprised the crowd we hung with so long ago.



I remember while traveling over Laurel Canyon in the Hollywood hills in your Triumph motor cycle, my long black waist-length hair tangling in the wind while wearing one of my many hippy dresses, and barefoot, high on a certain drug of fashion in those Swinging Sixty days, I never once worried about whether or not we would make it to the bottom of that twisty turny road so carefree with the craziness of the night, of the times. We didn't wear helmets then (God help us), my mascara ran making ghastly streaks on my face which prompted you to whisk me over to the local IHOP on Sunset Boulevard across from our high school to wash my face. You simply wanted to take care of me. You didn't wish me to make a fool of myself. And you never ever cared about what others thought when it came to your allegiance to friends. You simply wanted to be there when called upon. Maybe that is why I never called upon you. I knew you would be available to save me from any situation if I dared request it. But I couldn't. You took such a task with great seriousness, in those days, I took nothing seriously, least of all myself. But you defined the word serious in the way your word was your bond. So unusual for a teenage boy in 1968.



I remember that through the passing decades we drifted apart and then back together as waves lapping randomly on the shore sometimes hitting the same mark twice, sometimes not...but each year, on my birthday, you would call and leave me a happy birthday greeting, considering that April 18 is your brother's birthday also, it was easy to remember me on that day as well. What I can't forget is that even during the years that we didn't necessarily talk you would still always call me. I mean for years. And I, stupid and self-absorbed, never called you back to thank you, I merely marveled at your recall and your consistency, and smiled upon hearing the grin in your voice.

I remember the one year you didn't call me, I called you, finally, and bawled you out for forgetting this task you had set up for yourself with annual precision. One which I looked forward to and sincerely missed. We laughed and chatted for a long long time and then met for dinner to which you brought your parents who were elderly and still very much in love, they'd always held a fascination for me, a girl who grew up in a divorced home, whose father had abandoned her at four years old. Mr. and Mrs. DeFrancisco, which are the only names I ever called them, were so much in love and were so esteemed by you and your brother, I always prayed I would have the same loving marriage. Your mother was a small sexy little drop of a brunette who held her cigarettes erotically like play toys and your father--in one look at her--would drink her up in one small gulp. She was his and he was hers. No doubt about it.


I remember the day prior to your bone marrow transplant at City of Hope hospital, we talked on the phone as you walked around one of the large and brightly lit lobbies dragging your tree (you called it) with requisite IV plastic bags of sustenance hanging like Christmas ornaments (you had about 5 or 6 while other patients, you said, carried 10 bags or more). You were getting a little exercise and talking about how your house remodel was almost finished and how glad you were that your brother had relocated from Hawaii with his new wife and kids to care for you during the long awaiting recovery process. We laughed a lot that day and revelled in each other's voices and relished in the longevity of our friendship and the joy in knowing that you would come through this immense passage in your fight with leukemia.



Instead, at not quite 59 years of age, you have joined your parents in that great divide between this world and the next. I know they met you with a great white blinding light of love and elation as they embraced your spirit. And most likely have shared with you the answers to the many mysteries of life that those of us who are left behind still wonder at.

And now I will always remember how each day since you are no longer able to return my messages or hear my voice I still call your house twice sometimes three times a day just to listen to you say, "I'm not home right now, leave me a message and I'll call you back."

I won't forget that I can no longer do so and that you can't call me back, that I will never hear your happy birthday message again or hear your smile and your laughter and that no amount of wishing I could will change a thing.

The world feels emptier without you. But because of you I can still remember.

A celebration of Al DeFrancisco's life:

Sunday Aug. 23rd at 4:00 P.M.

At the home of his neighbor Dave

3714 LATROBE ST LOS ANGELES CA 90031.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

We're not in Kansas anymore: Linda Rader Overman attempts PhD-oh my!


Never in my wildest dreams did I think that this Yank (actually I am a Chicana, but nevermind) would be back
in school, but here I am. I just returned from attending summer classes at the University of Cumbria-Lancaster campus in the lovely town of Lancaster, Lancashire, UK. PhD studies pulled me there and I realize now that I might as well be climbing an academic Mt. Everest. Well, one of my tutors (here we'd call him Professor but in the UK he is a lecturer), said, "build it in bits"...and that is what I will do.

Each bit will be one step closer to this goal. A PhD in the Arts at Lancaster University. What am I thinking?!
Who knows...I may be toasting this event closing in on the age of 65 by the time I complete this journey, but I will be turning that age eventually....(it's a while yet, for the curious) so why not?

Bishop's Walk is tree lined and an engaging path to take when returning from downtown Lancaster and a trip to Marks & Spencer for groceries. The view out of my dorm window is softened by lace curtains...can't imagine lace curtains in any dorm in the USA. Walking from my residence hall up to the classrooms is another tree laced view of Morecambe Bay.


And standing under a sign directing me back to campus is my colleague and schoolmate Jacqueline who talked me into this endeavour in the first place. Actually she didn't have to try very hard.

It has been an intense set of weeks, and I am just beginning to realize what I must do to make this happen...set a timetable, set a schedule...between teaching, writing a sequel to my novel, Letters Between Us, writing a children's book, setting time aside for my PhD will just be like a second, unpaid, job.
Well why the heck not?

Met lovely flat mates all smarter than I am...looking forward to seeing them next year....if I live through this one.
Geesh.
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Sunday, June 7, 2009

Linda Rader Overman featured speaker at SAGE Society Forum

SAGE Society Forum attendees gathered Friday, June 5, 2009 at Knollwood Country Club in Granada Hills, CA to hear Linda Rader Overman's talk, "If It's Written in First Person It Must be True....Well Guess What? -- It Isn't!"

Linda was very impressed with the diverse group of retirees from many walks of professional life.

"SAGE operates under the auspices of California State University, Northridge as part of the College of Extended Learning and is designed to provide learning in retirement programs."
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Linda enjoyed meeting Janet Schulz and Blanche Wentworth attendees who were so gracious and engaging sharing their life experiences.

Janet wrote and published some 60 novels with Harlequin in the Special Edition category romance genre under the
nom de plume of Tracy Sinclair...but she has decided to slow down now. Compared to my one published novel so far Linda did feel like the underachiever with this crowd of accomplished professionals.
However, Linda was quite touched that some of the attendees bought copies of my novel: Letters Between Us. Linda so appreciates it as does her publisher Plain View Press.

Thank you to Jeanne Polak-Recht & SAGE for inviting Linda Rader Overman to be the featured speaker and share ideas and discourse with this august group!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Linda Rader Overman & Letters Between Us feted at 6,000 feet!





My gratitude to Susan Reep (a Hollywood High alumni as I am) and Mark Smith who invited me to bring Letters Between Us to their open house where guests celebrated the beauty of an artfully crafted tongue-and-groove knotty pine mountain vacation home in Alta Sierra, CA 6,000 feet above sea level.

Susan even had a signing table ready for me with a stand up of my book and my photograph! I stand here between two Susans, my host on the left, and her dear friend Susan on my right.

Jennifer, their daughter, is a fan of my novel and posed for me with a potential reader, her adorable son, Joseph, who needs to mature just a bit before he reads it--but he was very willing to pose next to his literary loving mom.

The day couldn't have been lovelier (a comfortable high 70's F.) and the magnificent mountain weather at that altitude was splendidly assisted by the surrounding forest of fragrant pine trees. Susan even even tied balloons along the way for the attendees to find this jewel of a house. I felt like we were standing in a Hansel and Gretel highrise with only beautiful people.



Thank you to Mark and Susan and the guests who were gracious enough to buy my book.
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Monday, May 18, 2009

Finalist Honor for Letters Between Us & Linda Rader Overman

Letters Between Us was selected as a "Finalist in Novella" and "Finalist in Best Cover Design Fiction" categories of the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards!
Linda is especially pleased for her son Michael who created the cover for Letters...all those art classes paid off...Yay!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Letters Between Us & Wonderful Review on J. Kaye's Book Blog

Thanks to J. Kaye's Book Blog for the wonderful review and comment on Letters Between Us and its verisimilitude! It really helps and makes me proud.

"Letters Between Us by Linda Rader Overman is an emotional roller-coaster story of two women and their lives. From the start of Laura and Kitty’s friendship in 8th grade in the 60’s to Kitty’s death at age 39 from mental illness, this story is one of ups, downs and self-discovery. The setting is Los Angeles in the 60’s thru 80’s and both girls were from low middle-class dysfunctional families. Both were different in looks and temperament. . ."
Read furtther at J. Kaye's Book Blog

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Letters Between Us & Linda Rader Overman in Prof. Caram's CSUN English class

Letters Between Us and Linda Rader Overman received a thorough vetting today in writer & Prof. Eve Caram's English 300 Class at CSUN. The students were ready with a load of challenging questions about the characters, the plot, the writing process! It was easy to tell that Prof. Caram had prepared the students well to interact with my novel and boy they did put me on the spot with some hard questions for which I am very grateful along with the interest and ensuing discussions.

It appears that papers will be written on Letters by some of the students and I hope they go easy on me, gulp! Thanks so much Prof. Caram for allowing me to visit your class and for teaching Letters Between Us again this semester.

A second time she has been so gracious to use Letters on her required reading list!!

Thanks to all of her students who were ready for me and enjoyed receiving my shameless self-promotion pens and had me sign copies of the novel. It was a privilege.
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Saturday, May 2, 2009

Letters Between Us & Linda Rader Overman appeared @ Brandeis National Cmtee's 20th Annual Words Wit Wisdom luncheon



Linda Rader Overman presented from and signed copies of her novel, Letters Between Us, at the 20th Annual Words, Wit & Wisdom Authors & Book Luncheon for the Brandeis National Committee San Fernando Vally Chapter.
The Ahmanson Ballroom at the Skirball Cultural Center provided an outstanding venue for this event.

Brandeis University has 60 some chapters and this very active one honored writing and reading with presentations (in order) from Linda Rader Overman (Letters Between Us), Leonard Felder, Ph.D. (When Difficult Relatives Happen to Good People), Kate Jacobs (Friday Night Knitting Club), Carol Tavris, Ph.D. (Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me), Mark Sarvas (Harry, Revisited), and Susan Straight (The Friskative Dog).

Many thanks to Mary Millman, and Fran Shuster (enjoyed sitting at Fran's table), Program Vice Presidents and Naomi Javitz, Luncheon Chairperson, among many many other amazing women who oversaw this worthy event.
Funds from the luncheon and book purchases are donated to the Library at Brandeis University to encourage and enhance knowledge of the written and spoken word,
hence the title of this luncheon.


It was a pleasure meeting all the writers (I am sitting between Mark Sarvas and Kate Jacobs at the signing table) and the incredible group of dedicated women who are the motivating force for this exciting and uplifiting day!!

Please consider sending your love and donations to Library at Brandeis University if you honor reading and writing.


Many thanks also to my dear friend Ann Fuller who drove up from Huntington Beach to attend, take these photographs and have me sign her copy of Letters.
And love to Sandy Struman, a colleague from CSUN,
who also attended and was most encouraging.

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Letters Between Us & Linda Rader Overman joined Authors' Coop @LATimes Festival of Books


At UCLA on Saturday 4/25 (& Sunday 4/26) Letters Between Us and Linda Rader Overman was thrilled to be part of the Authors' Coop in Booth #610 during LATimes Festival of Books!...The weather was splendid and the dozen or so of us who were privileged to share booth time and sell & sign copies of our books of various genres couldn't have been luckier to be a part of this wonderful event that is a testament to the written and spoken word. Here I am standing with writer Julie Spira who I was happy to meet and discuss our passion for writing with. I was also thrilled to meet writers: Janet Golinger, Linda Ballou, Anne Megowan, and Loren Woodson in person.
Posted by Picasa The booth was faciliated, gracefully and with class, by poet, Christine Alexanians and writer, Carolyn Howard-Johnson. Many people dropped in to take a look at our displays, ask questions, talk about reading and writing---a favorite subject for all of us---and buy a book and take away a freebie from our collectively donated pile. There were readers walking by who stopped in to purchase a copy of Letters such as Bill and his daughter Danica. Also colleagues and friends stopped by to obtain signed copies of Letters!
Many thanks to Mary Marca, Ren Colantoni, Terri Silverberg and Marsha!
It was an envigorating experience and I am grateful to have been part of it.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Haunted By Her Photograph by Linda Rader Overman


Haunted By Her Photograph
Earlier today, I was sifting through an old photo album. I found it among my mother's possessions, household items cobbled together and sitting in our garage. There among the dusty boxes and cloth-draped antique furniture stood artifacts of a 96 year-long-life lived. Since her death, they have been gathering dust along with their memories. Mother saved over a hundred photo albums capturing images of family and friends, but this particular 3x5 color photo drew my eye immediately. It was something in the background that made me stop and look again and again. In the foreground are two old girlfriends (today they'd be designated as BFFs, I suppose), one I'd worked with at NBC decades ago when my life mattered in behind-the-scenes television, the other I'd known since middle school, but had lost track of. We were barely in our twenties then. I was the photographer, and I snapped this shot in the den of Mother's home, yet I remember little of what we were doing just prior to, and following the snap of the shutter.

The standout photograph in this act of remembering is not the one I was holding in my hand, but the photograph within this photograph. Hanging on the wall just behind one of my BFF's, who is holding a lit cigarette (everyone smoked back in the 1970s), is a black and white portrait of another schoolmate. She, too, was probably in her twenties when this was taken by a professional, but she looks to be about sixteen in this rest-her-cheek-upon-her-hand pose. I can't really make out where she is in this image inside an image, but her hair is long and she is smiling. I have not seen any photographs of her in years.

This picture startled me because this fragile and childlike BFF died long ago. This photograph is also long gone, presumed dead, as I have no memory of where it currently rests. Oddly, after her death, I started writing my epistolary novel Letters Between Us in fits and starts. The idea of losing my girlfriend who shared much of my formative years with me left a gaping hole in my heart back then. Mostly, because I felt as if part of me-that infantile, naïve, silly, curious, giggly and gangly child that I was, died with her. As we grew, we discontinued our communication, which often happens to old friends, so when I learned of her passing, I did not believe it. I thought it was a mistake. I knew she had been ill, on and off, for several years. Sadly, that illness ultimately took her away from her loved ones. It was nobody's fault.

Her death caused a gap in my life; she was an absence in my memory as was that part of my adolescence. To revive it, I wrote about those days in the early 1960s, those make-peace-not-war days, those burn-your-bra days, those hell-no-we-won't-go days, and it felt like talking with my long lost friend all over again. The characters in my novel have much of the same passion I had expressed in my youth, yet in no way resemble me or my dead BFF. Curiously, though, while crafting Letters, I found myself feeling those same familiar rebellious feelings I had felt as a young hippy protesting the Vietnam War. Fast forward some forty years: now I am left holding this photograph of her photograph, which brings back her presence in the way seeing a welcoming light guiding me through a foggy passageway might-a light I have chosen to forget. It haunts me.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Linda Rader Overman interviewed on Fascinating Authors Blog

Read my interview on Fascinating Authors Blog....secrets about my novel revealed!
They were very nice to interview me and let me shamelessly self promote
Letters Between Us

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Letters Between Us read by BC: Housewives of Encino




Last Wednesday evening, I was fortunate to have been invited to the stunning Encino Park home of my friend and CSUN colleague Julie Todd. This terrific book club of seven erudite and well-to-do women took the time to discuss Letters Between Us and take a trip back to remember those swinging sixties. They asked me many questions about the whole process of writing and publishing this first novel of mine. The gourmet food and elegant wine helped me unwind and get over my nerves at being queried about this novel which is so close to my heart.

We all enjoyed remembering those years when President Kennedy was assassinated...those difficult and challenging years of an unwanted war and the whole counterculture lifestyle that so predominated that decade.

As you can tell by these photos we also enjoyed the libations not to mention that all of the food was green except the corned beef tacos and the chocolate cake..since it was the day after St. Patricks....erin go bragh ladies... and thank you, Julie, for inviting me to share a wonderful discussion with such great women. Thank you all for allowing me to read excerpts from the novel as well. As it turns out one of them-Debbie-and I knew each other a while back when our kids were in elementary school together in the nineties (was it so long ago?). Six degrees of separation never ceases to amaze me.
Thank you so much to all as shown in second picture:
l to r top row--Debbie Spino, Marijo Demattos, Eileen Kaires, Tish Amborn.
bottom row--Julie Todd, Ann Egan, Nancy Futterman, Anita Rezzo.

Monday, March 16, 2009

P.S. for Letters Between Us from the BC: Housewives of Conn.


Imagine my surprise when my colleague and friend Prof. Meg Florio who facilitated a rousing discussion of my novel in January with her Connecticut book club--sent me this photo. No pictures were taken of the event at the time as all were too busy discoursing about Letters Between Us!
Thankfully, I think that is because they all actually liked the novel, which was a great complement to yours truly! Not to mention that Prof. Florio was hosting this salon in her gorgeous NYC apartment on the Hudson in the middle of a snowy and icy evening in January to which all of these women drove in from Connecticut to attend.
Subsequent to that book club the following month, they met to discuss yet another novel but wanted to take a photo with mine, which I appreciate wholeheartedly!
Thanks to all of you lovely ladies who honored me so (seated): Kate, Meg, Anne, and (standing) Debbie, Suzy and Denise.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books Featured Authors: Find Us (& Linda Rader Overman) in Booth 610


Signing Saturday and Sunday, April 25 and 26
Booth #610. It's by the food booths! Yay!

 Get a FREE book with your purchase of any book while supplies last.
 Browse books of other authors.
 Sign for Free handouts on promotion, editing and more (to be sent by e-mail).

UCLA Campus, Sat. & Sun, April 25 and 26
FREE Admission/Parking $9.
Easiest Parking at Structure 3 near Hilgard & Sunset Boulevard, Westwood (Los Angeles Area), CA.
Use the map of the on-campus event: http://www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/eventmap.html.
Look for the Authors Coop banner above booth #610.

Booth Sponsored by:
Marshall Turner's WebforAuthors.com, Red Engine Press, HowToDoItFrugally.com Series of Books for Authors, 4RVPublishing

Gift with Purchase Books Furnished by:
Leora Skolkin-Smith, Diana Raab, Philip Henderson and others.

Scheduled Authors Saturday 04/25/09
10:00 AM Loren Woodson
11:00 AM Lynn Goodwin
12:00 PM Janet Goliger
1:00 PM Marilyn Meredith
2:00 PM Anne Megowan
3:00 PM Linda Overman
4:00 PM Julie Spira
5:00 PM Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Christine Alexanians


Scheduled Authors Sunday 04/26/09
10 am Linda Ballou
11:00 AM Lynn Goodwin
12:00 PM Janet Goliger
1:00 PM Marilyn Meredith
2:00 PM Anne Megowan
3:00 PM Pamela Kelly
Poetry Reading Hour
4:00-4:15 PM Sona Ovasapyan
4:15-4:25 PM Don Kingfisher Campbell
4:25-4:35 Pardis Bagherzadeh
4:35-4:50 PM Carolyn Howard Johnson
4:50-5:00 PM Christine Alexanians

Sunday, March 8, 2009

At Butte College students stop for a chat with Linda Rader Overman & her writing colleagues-Part 2

According to the Press Release touting a Butte College Master class on Friday Febrary 27: "Presentations and Q & A session for Linda Rader Overman, Letters Between Us (Plain View Press 2008) epsitolary novel, Zu Vincent, The Lucky Place (Boyds Mills 2008) literary novel, and Bryan Tso Jones, Raking the Hollow Bones (Bedbug Press 2008) poetry occured where each author spoke for about 20 minutes, mixing in readings from their own work with discussions about point of view, storytelling, revisionist mythmaking, structure, character development and inspiration.
Bryan focused on how poets (and fiction writers) reuse old stories and myths, and adapt them to their lives, connecting that larger literary discussion to some of his own poems, which use Chinese myths.

Linda discussed creating distinct character voices and the epistolary form, along with the necessity to record or journal one's own experience.

Zu used excerpts from her own novel and contrasted them with Joyce Carol Oates' "Where are you going? Where have you been?" to draw attention to how writers use setting, pyschic distance, anticipation, and overall effect (or 'singular effect') in fiction."

After the class, Prof. Kiara Koenig's students stayed for quite a while to chat and get autographed copies of the three different works, which they are required to read in her Intro to Literature and Creative Writing classes.

Letters Between Us & Linda Rader Overman joined a panel of writers in the Butte College classroom: Part 1



Poet & Professor Kiara Koenig (of Butte College) invited a panel of writers to teach a Master Class on Feb. 27 from 1-3:30p @ the Chico Center in Butte College. The idea for the class was in part formed to bring more multicultural and contemporary literature into the classroom.

With her particular group of Intro to Literature
and Creative Writing students in mind,

Prof. Koenig invited poet Bryan Tso Jones

and


novelists

Linda Rader Overman,

and Zu Vincent

to participate in a joint presentation / Q&A session
on aspects of writing and literature.
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