HOW THE STORY OF 'LILIAN' GOT ITS START AND
HOW IT'S MADE ITS WAY INTO PAPERBACK FORM
STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS
ON A 1997 road trip in the desert, Bill Jones and I invented plot, characters and settings for what would eventually become the novel “Lilian’s Last Dance.” We determined to visit and research every “location” and did -- on happy treks across the U.S. to Montana, crossings to England, journeys to Europe and South America.
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| Bill Jones and Christene Meyers in the late 1990s, researching "Lilian's Last Dance" in Europe. |
Bruce Keller, my partner of nearly eight years, got me back on the "Lilian" horse in 2011.
The work survived the vicissitudes of illness and death – including Bruce’s and Billy’s -- and is a project both of revision and resurrection. Others whose knowledge helped shape scenes and characters have also “gone on to the next camp.” Their contributions live on in this book.
* * *
THE STORYLINE follows the adventures and mishaps of a troupe of entertainers and film
makers from 1907 to just before America's entry into World War I. The troupe's ambitious journey takes them from New York to Los Angeles, through the American West and to Europe. The backdrop shifts from Vaudeville and silent movies, to talkies and the present-day film industry. An explosive art movement and changes in mores, movies, fashion and “women’s place” all play into the plot, which features love affairs, betrayals, loyalties, murder and revenge.
A bit about me, in third person:
CHARACTERS include a captivating French sharpshooter (the title character, Lilian), a pioneering British film maker and a dashing American bank robber with a passion for southern California. Both the bandit and the Brit are in love with Lilian. A flamboyant Peruvian artist on the rise spices the plot. The action-packed tale of passion, vengeance and honor features cameos by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith and other Hollywood luminaries, along with Conrad Hilton, Ty Cobb, Pablo Picasso, Edith Wharton, Gertrude Stein and “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Outlaws, reporters, ranchers, actors, artist and ex-patriots converge, fall in love, perform, do battle and occasionally break the law in the story which Meyers co-wrote with the late William Jones during their tenure as film critics.
MEYERS and her artist partner Bruce Keller completed a six-week international book tour in Australia (one of the supporting characters is Aussie) with interviews there and in New Zealand, Fiji and elsewhere. They are giving readings and signings in Montana, Wyoming, Georgia, Arizona and California and will travel to each of the other American states which figures in the novel. Readings are also planned in the book’s European locales and in New York City, where the story begins. Other settings range from Provence, Paris and Hollywood to New Mexico and ranches in Oklahoma and Montana.
The Amazon ebook price is $3.99, with a free Kindle download or free app to other devices. The paperback is Amazon and other outlets, or directly from the writer: lilianslastdance@gmail.com. A "multiple copy" price break is available through the author. Write her for orders, lectures, workshops, signings or more about the novel at lilianslastdance@gmail.com Check out the book blog at www.lilianslastdance.com for tour schedules, reviews and the engaging story of the book’s evolution.
lilianslastdance.com also features regular updates and newspaper articles on the novel.
More to come: In other "pages" here at www.lilianslastdance.com, we'll tell where we went to develop the characters and settings for this historical novel (1907-1917). How we did the research and developed the characters through museum visits, interviews and wandering the streets, ranches and forests of the world. How we fit real-life cameos into the plot twists and turns. Our hopes for the "FBM," Famous Broadway Musical, and the other musicals developed from famous novels.
www.lilianslastdance.com will also feature regular Saturday theater pieces.
THE STORYLINE follows the adventures and mishaps of a troupe of entertainers and film
 |
| Christene Meyers is teaching memoir workshops during her summer in Montana, in tandem with readings and signings for her paperback novel, "Lilian's Last Dance." |
A bit about me, in third person:
Christene Meyers has written for newspapers and magazines for many years. She is a seasoned musician and arts reviewer and her blog, www.whereiscookie.com, features worldwide travel, cruising, dining, recreation and nature pieces.
MEYERS teaches memoir and poetry writing workshops in California, Arizona and her native Montana. The novel, called “vivid, stunning and monumental,” is garnering praise for prodigious research and “ambitious interweaving” of real-life figures with fictional personalities in art, film and the still wild West. Europe on fire during the Great War and trans-Atlantic travel also figure into the plot.
MEYERS teaches memoir and poetry writing workshops in California, Arizona and her native Montana. The novel, called “vivid, stunning and monumental,” is garnering praise for prodigious research and “ambitious interweaving” of real-life figures with fictional personalities in art, film and the still wild West. Europe on fire during the Great War and trans-Atlantic travel also figure into the plot.
CHARACTERS include a captivating French sharpshooter (the title character, Lilian), a pioneering British film maker and a dashing American bank robber with a passion for southern California. Both the bandit and the Brit are in love with Lilian. A flamboyant Peruvian artist on the rise spices the plot. The action-packed tale of passion, vengeance and honor features cameos by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith and other Hollywood luminaries, along with Conrad Hilton, Ty Cobb, Pablo Picasso, Edith Wharton, Gertrude Stein and “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Outlaws, reporters, ranchers, actors, artist and ex-patriots converge, fall in love, perform, do battle and occasionally break the law in the story which Meyers co-wrote with the late William Jones during their tenure as film critics.
MEYERS and her artist partner Bruce Keller completed a six-week international book tour in Australia (one of the supporting characters is Aussie) with interviews there and in New Zealand, Fiji and elsewhere. They are giving readings and signings in Montana, Wyoming, Georgia, Arizona and California and will travel to each of the other American states which figures in the novel. Readings are also planned in the book’s European locales and in New York City, where the story begins. Other settings range from Provence, Paris and Hollywood to New Mexico and ranches in Oklahoma and Montana.
The Amazon ebook price is $3.99, with a free Kindle download or free app to other devices. The paperback is Amazon and other outlets, or directly from the writer: lilianslastdance@gmail.com. A "multiple copy" price break is available through the author. Write her for orders, lectures, workshops, signings or more about the novel at lilianslastdance@gmail.com Check out the book blog at www.lilianslastdance.com for tour schedules, reviews and the engaging story of the book’s evolution.
lilianslastdance.com also features regular updates and newspaper articles on the novel.
More to come: In other "pages" here at www.lilianslastdance.com, we'll tell where we went to develop the characters and settings for this historical novel (1907-1917). How we did the research and developed the characters through museum visits, interviews and wandering the streets, ranches and forests of the world. How we fit real-life cameos into the plot twists and turns. Our hopes for the "FBM," Famous Broadway Musical, and the other musicals developed from famous novels.
www.lilianslastdance.com will also feature regular Saturday theater pieces.
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