Notes from Nadir: The Second [Expanded] Edition

NOTES FROM NADIR the second edition will be available in eBook and paperback formats on November 5, 2013. 

It has been updated and expanded and is approximately 290 pages/88,000 words.

"Notes from Nadir" is an amusing and poignant look at a Los Angeles-based writer who returns to her Midwestern home due to financial difficulties. Moving back in with Mom in a semi-retirement community, she looks for jobs that pay far less than the wages she earned back in L.A.  From working at a bakery where she hopes to get to know the boss a little better, to finding a job at an online auction site, the author introduces us to a wacky assortment of characters. Along the way, she deals with Mom's declining health, unsympathetic relatives, and rediscovers a place she left many years ago when she dreamt of becoming a screenwriter. The narrator struggles with being in Nadir, both the place and the state of mind. 

A new excerpt will be posted next week.

eBook cover

Paperback cover

If you would like an ARC [PDF] so that you can post a review on your blog or on an online bookstore, please send me an email at: Lisa_Maliga@msn.com 

Out of the Blue ~ A Coming of Age Book

Out of the Blue is the second novel I ever wrote and finished. I was in the midst of working on Leaving Nadir, when the Olympics distracted me. So what does that have to do with writing? Seeing so much about the U.K. reminded me of the manuscript I'd been working on since the 1990s. It went from being on DOS to making the transition to Word for Windows to a 98,000-word contemporary romance in 2002 and to further revisions and a new title in 2008. So it was sitting on my hard drive as a future book file, which I'd work on whenever. Only whenever happened to be the summer of 2012.

What's it about? As you can see it has a tagline: A story of two drifters who have no clue about what they are searching for... and it takes place during the 1980s and mostly in a small, scenic village in the U.K. You'll find no mention of cell phones, Prince Harry, i-anything, 9-11…back then people actually smoked in pubs and ashtrays were even provided.

OK, without any more of an intro, here's the blurb:

Sylvia Gardner is a naïve cashier who lives with her psychologically abusive mother in Richport, Illinois. Vivian Gardner repeatedly tells her daughter not to trust men because they only want to use her. Upset with being dumped by her first boyfriend; Sylvia later falls in love with an English actor after watching him on a PBS drama. For two years, she researches Alexander Thorpe's life and career, saving her money to travel to his Cotswolds village, intent on meeting him. Staying in the village's only inn, she gets room and board in exchange for working at the Windrush Arms Hotel.

Alexander is going through a personal career crisis, as he wants to continue making art films. He still hasn’t embraced the notion of “going Hollywood.” Additionally, the walls of loneliness and booze are closing in due to a long stint between acting gigs.

Complications ensue when the drunken hotelier, Harry Livingstone, takes a fancy to Sylvia. As in her fantasies, Sylvia and Alexander get together—but with unexpected results. 

OUT OF THE BLUE is available on Amazon, B&N Nook, Smashwords and Kobo.

On December 4th, Out of the Blue will be available as a paperback!