Now that Eleanor vs. Ike, my first novel or "baby" as I like to call it, is launched into the world, I'm back to nonfiction. It's not an easy transition. I really loved combining fact and fiction in the story of Eleanor's run for President, especially with all that's going on in
politics now. I really enjoyed injected some of today into yesterday. I had Eleanor say things like "I'm in it to win it," which was one of Hillary's early slogans. I have Ike saying, "when Eleanor talks she'll remind men of their worst moments with their wives," which was something pundit and sometimes presidential candidate Pat Buchanan really did say earlier last year.
Figuring things out, like how Eleanor might have responded to Richard
Nixon's famous Checker's speech, where he invoked his dog for sympathy, was such great fun, but now it's back to reality, real facts or at least the best a biographer can do.
My next project, also for Harper, is a biography of the founder of Mattel and creator of Barbie, a woman named Ruth Handler. She's a terrific character. I probably couldn't have made her up. She built the biggest toy company in the world, creating one of the most recognizable American icons, battled breast cancer and being thrown out of her own company for fraud, and came back to be a heroine for breast cancer survivors before she succumbed herself in 2002.
I've done most of the research and interviews, but there are moments as I'm writing where I start thinking about "what if?" What if Ruth had met Eleanor Roosevelt and...and then I stop. Next year is Barbie's fiftieth birthday, and hopefully I can deliver a present that is a good, true story of an amazing woman. Maybe I'll even discover that she did meet Eleanor!
What if Eleanor Roosevelt ran for president? Eleanor vs. Ike is the featured book in Fictions Readers, a group to discuss contemporary women's fiction, books, women's issues and much more. Click here to join the group.
You can also learn more at www.eleanorforpresident.com and www.robingerber.com.
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Comments: 18
Keep us "posted".
I have ordered it from Amazon.
I've ordered your book and look forward to your biography of Ruth Handler.
If you prefer to purchase the book online, you can click on the image of the book at the bottom of this article.
Of course if you get tired of nonfiction, you could have Barbie run for president! :) I think it would be fabulous with a world where even smart women want to at least APPEAR to be Barbie...
Seriously though, work hard so your next book can be finished. And I'm still looking forward to reading your current book!
I love anything to do with history.
I would enjoy reading something like this.
Feel free to post any writing: prose and poetry besides a book review to the Book Nook!
http://booknookftl.gather.com/
Now if I could figure out how to start my Memoir that Jane C. and Kate V. convinced me to write, I'll have something to post on my own site, instead of disjointed snipets.
Looking forward to your book!
while in college and again as a Grandmother, so Barbie@ is going to look really good at 50. Maybe there could be a Grandma Barbie?