Gathering Roses - Softcover

Weisberg, Ellen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847471188 ISBN 13: 9781847471185

Publisher: Chipmunkapublishing, 2007

Synopsis

In Gathering Roses, introverted and studious Lori Solomon meets nonconformist Grateful Dead follower, Nick Warren, and soon finds herself on a seemingly endless carnival ride with him. Although not always apparent to Lori, it is Nick's precarious health condition that seems to underlie his outlook on life, influencing what he expects to get out of it as well as what he feels he needs to put into it.  Lori's quirky, roller coaster relationships with cynical, substance-abusing Rutherford Gimby and borderline, melodramatic Angela Allen season the stew, their faults and vices mirroring Lori's own shortcomings. 

The main characters in Gathering Roses share in common a neediness/dependency on something outside of themselves that they all lean toward to fill an agonizing emptiness. For Lori and Angela, low self-esteem and a poor self-image attract each to challenging and walled-off souls like Nick and Rutherford. For the men, sex, alcohol, and drugs color their past and present, keeping the barriers surrounding them erected high and impervious to real emotional attachment.

Gathering Roses is a story written from the heart. Geared toward a young, female audience, it is a tale that is meant to be not just entertaining, but also thought-provoking.

Book Extract
Lori's internship at the radio station continued. She was assigned to start working some of her weekend shifts apart from Nick, and instead alongside a young woman named Helga. Like Lori, Helga had limited experience in radio and was training as she worked on the job. The conversations Lori had with her were short and focused only on the tasks at hand, which made for a very different atmosphere than the one Lori had grown accustomed to working alongside Nick. It also made for an atmosphere that she didn't enjoy nearly as much.
It was the evening after a long day of battling stream after stream of whiny complaints from Prima Donna talk show hosts, while taking care to press all the right buttons and shift levers in a timely fashion. Lori settled comfortably in her seat and looked over at Helga, ready to reflect on what she thought was a decent day's work, when the control room door opened. A frazzled, bearded black man stood a few feet away from the girls, pinching an inkless pen tightly between his thumb and forefinger. He tossed the pen angrily into a nearby garbage can.

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About this title

About the Author

Ellen Weisberg is a cancer researcher at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Principal Associate in Medicine at Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA), with a doctorate in pharmacology. Ken Yoffe is a pediatrician (Billerica, MA). He also holds a doctorate in genetics.

Publications include short stories and poetry published in PKA's Advocate (bimonthly literary publication), The Writing Disorder (quarterly online literary journal and print anthology book), and Natural Solutions (holistic health magazine). They have also published six children's books, one YA novel, and one NA novel. 

They perform as part of a circus troupe that promotes bullying awareness to Boys and Girls Clubs, retirement homes, and nursing homes throughout New England. The anti-bullying children's fantasy, Fruit of the Vine, is being used as part of this show.

Ellen and Ken live in Chelmsford, MA, with their daughter, Emily.

From the Back Cover

In Gathering Roses, introverted and studious Lori Solomon meets nonconformist Grateful Dead follower, Nick Warren, and soon finds herself on a seemingly endless carnival ride with him. Although not always apparent to Lori, it is Nick's precarious health condition that seems to underlie his outlook on life, influencing what he expects to get out of it as well as what he feels he needs to put into it. Lori's quirky roller coaster relationships with cynical, substance-abusing Rutherford Gimby and borderline, melodramatic Angela Allen season the stew, their faults and vices mirroring Lori's own shortcomings.

The main characters in Gathering Roses share in common a neediness/dependency on something outside of themselves that they all lean toward to fill an agonizing emptiness. For Lori and Angela, low self-esteem and a poor self-image attract each to challenging and walled-off souls like Nick and Rutherford. For the men, sex, alcohol, and drugs color their past and present, keeping the barriers surrounding them erected high and impervious to real emotional attachment.

In Gathering Roses, there is heavy emphasis on the use of the Internet and e-mailing as ways for the central characters to convey their thoughts to one another. These feed into one underlying theme of the story: the somewhat dehumanizing influences that fast-paced, over privileged modern society has on today's youth. In addition to telling a story, Gathering Roses takes the reader on a journey toward heightened self-awareness and resolution of internal conflict.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chipmunkapublishing
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1847471188
• ISBN 13: 9781847471185
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 353