Marlys Marshall Styne
May 29th, 2007Marlys Marshall Styne, author of Reinventing Myself: Memoirs of a Retired Professor, graciously took time to interview me last week. This morning she posted the interview on her award-winning blog, “Never too Late!” (first place award from the Illinois Woman’s Press Association in 2007)With the first round of questions, Marlys sent this note:
|
 |
“Since my blog is generally serious and partly about writing, I want to include things I honestly want to know about you. Writing a “puff piece” is just not what I do.”
I’m hoping you enjoy the different approach.
“It is never too late to be who you might have been.”–George Eliot.
“I live in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago. I retired in 1999 after 40 years in the English Department of Wilbur Wright College, on Chicago’s Northwest Side, where I was department chair for 7 years and Wright’s Distinguished Service Professor for 1995-96.
I advocate writing for everyone, and hope to encourage my fellow senior citizens to write. I am a member of the Illinois Women’s Press Assocation, the Story Circle Network, the Authors Marketing Group, and the Chicago Writers Association and a volunteer at the Chicago Cultural Center.
Abstract:
“Retired seven years, widowed six years, childless, seventy-three years old, depressed, the author set out to find contentment through reflection and writing. Reinventing Myself: Memoirs of a Retired Professor is a series of personal essays recounting that quest and some of the experiences that came before it.” [Infinity; ISBN: 0-7414-3208-0]
Reviewed by: Margot Wallace (6/25/2006)
“Few people have the imagination and fortitude to reinvent themselves. Marlys Styne had not only the will but the talent to become a writer. Clearly the process of exploring memory has resulted in a the beginning new memories. As she and we reexamine her life, we discover that gumption has been there all along. How many professional women don leather suits, fling a leg over a back seat, and hang on for miles and days as hubby drives his motorcycle all over the world? How many widows see themselves as interesting, separate from a spouse? How many retirees find a second calling? In the reinventing of Professor Styne, the tense is important. She didn’t reinvent herself in a gush of self-discovery, she’s been doing it quietly all along. As for her current iteration as a writer, pay close attention. Her style is straightforward and unadorned, which may speed you past the not inconsiderable wit of a life well observed.”
Visit Marlys’s blog today and please leave her a note that you stopped by.
| Return to or visit Cheryl Hagedorn's web site |
Thanks so much, Cheryl! You’ve increased interest in my blog. You’re obviously better than I am at creating links, too. All this is really a lot of fun for an old retiree (me).
Comment by Marlys Styne ? May 30, 2007 @ 6:40 am