What inspired you to write your memoir?
My memoir is a little different because it’s a fusion of my diary and dream journal from the year 1999, when I was an 18-year-old high school student. That was the only year of my life I kept a diary, and when I found it this January (15 years later!), I became oddly hooked. I was intensely into the New Age movement back then. As an adult child of an alcoholic, I’d just started healing my inner child when an older man caught my eye–a teacher at my school. Looking back as an adult, it’s easy to see what was really going on, but at that age? Well, we don’t always see clearly. I decided to weave together my diary with my dream journal from the time and publish it firstly as a case study, but, more significantly, to share my experience with other adult children of substance abusers who may be able to relate to my experience.
About your Book:
True confessions of a real-life high school student on the cusp of a new millennium.
On the eve of the year 2000, high school student Giselle struggles with spirituality, ambiguous friendships, a family dealing with the aftermath of substance abuse, and deepening feelings of attraction toward her English teacher, a married man more than twice her age. Over the course of one school year, she shifts from seeing Lawrence as a father figure to falling obsessively in love.
Is Giselle making a total fool of herself, or will her teacher return her affection? Having an affair with a student would easily cost Lawrence his career, his wife, and his kids, not to mention his sanity. Will a by-the-books teacher sacrifice everything to indulge Giselle’s teenage crush?
LIKE IT’S 1999 is the actual, unabridged, honest-to-goodness diary of a teenager in love with her teacher.
How did you decide how to publish your book and where is it published through:
I’ve been writing professionally since 2006, but I only started self-publishing ebooks and paperbacks last year. I decided to self-publish “Like It’s 1999” because it’s such an unconventional book. It’s also my first non-fiction title. The presses I generally work with are fiction publishers. Also, self-publishing allows the author significantly more control over the book in terms of pricing, timelines, etc. It was the right choice for this book.
Author Bio:
Giselle Renarde is an award-winning Canadian author and contributor to more than 100 short story anthologies from such diverse publishers as Chicken Soup for the Soup, Oxford University Press, Simon and Schuster, and Cleis Press. Her book The Red Satin Collection won Best Transgender Romance in the 2012 Rainbow Awards. Giselle loves a geeky girl and lives with two bilingual cats.
Website(s)
Author Home Page Link
Link To Book On Amazon
Link to Book on Barnes and Noble
Link to Book for sale via other sites
Your Social Media Links
http://twitter.com/gisellerenarde
http://pinterest.com/gisellerenarde
