Authors: Claire Cook
Best Staged Plans (27 page)
“Yeah,” Luke said. “Raven’s going to be here in like ten minutes.”
“Okay,” I said. I gave my hair a quick fluff. “I’m Sandra Sullivan, and this is my audition tape for HGTV’s
Design Star
. Actually, my plan is to expand the show by creating a spin-off. I’m calling it
Design Star Midlife
.”
I looked straight at the camera.
“Because here’s the thing: midlife women should have their own show. We’ve been around the block a few times. We know what we want, and we’re not afraid to go after it. We’ve got great taste and the courage of our convictions. And face it, we pretty much rule the world.”
I reached for my first prop. “Which is not to say that we don’t have an Achilles’ heel.” I held up an empty gallon paint can filled with reading glasses. “The only thing that really sucks about midlife is that your eyes go.”
“I don’t think you should say
suck
, Mom,” Shannon said. “Your demographic might find it offensive.”
I let out a puff of air. “Shit. Does that mean I have to start over?”
“No,” Luke said. “We can edit it out. Just pick up where you left off.”
“Okay,” I said. “The only thing that really
stinks
about midlife is that your eyes go. So if my show is chosen, I mean,
when
my show is chosen, a part of our outreach will be to collect reading glasses through Readers for Readers. You might not know this, but the biggest obstacle to disadvantaged people over forty reentering the workplace is that they can’t afford readers.”
I looked dramatically at the camera. “You can’t fill out a job application if you can’t see it.”
I switched the paint bucket full of reading glasses for a full gallon of paint. I flipped the lid off with a flamboyant twist of a flathead screwdriver.
“Okay, here’s my first tip.” I took off a big rubber band I’d circled around my wrist like a bracelet and looped it over the paint can vertically so it bisected the opening evenly.
“Do you make a big, goopy mess every time you paint? Well, instead of wiping the excess paint on the side of the can and letting it drip down the edge and onto your drop cloth or even your freshly washed floor . . .”
I dipped a fresh paintbrush into the paint, and then ran the full length of the bristles along the taut rubber band. The excess paint dropped neatly into the center of the paint can.
I flipped my hair out of my face and smiled at the camera.
“It’s genius. Oh, and this amazing paint color? Why, that’s Million Dollar Red. Trust me, you’ll love it. Everybody does. Anyway, you’ll love my show, too. I’ll share exclusive decorating and staging tricks and tips. We’ll take a field trip to see a boutique hotel in Atlanta I just finished staging, and while we’re in the area, I’ll show you how to remove a Juliet balcony and turn it into a feature wall. And I’ll even share some footage of me packing up my own personal home and deciding what to keep and what to pawn off on my kids.”
Shannon and Luke rolled their eyes.
I ignored them. “And then you can follow my husband and me as we head off into our next chapter together.”
I gave the camera my most dazzling smile and hit it out of the park. “Buckle up, everybody—it’s going to be a wild midlife ride.”
Go to
ClaireCook.com
and click on
Readers for Readers
to find out how your outgrown reading glasses can help someone else find a foreseeable future.
SANDRA SULLIVAN’S
BEST STAGING TIPS
DE-CLUTTER, DE-CLUTTER, DE-CLUTTER.
You have too much stuff. Admit it. Get rid of it.
DUST, RUB, SWEEP, SCRUB.
Clean till it gleams. Make your world sparkle.
UP AGAINST THE WALL.
If that’s where your furniture is, move some of it out entirely and float the rest of it in the center of the room in cozy conversational groupings.
SHAKE IT UP. CHANGE IT OUT.
Pile some books on a table and top with a lamp. Bring in some accent pillows in vibrant colors and interesting patterns. Rotate your accessories, which are the crown jewels of your home.
LET THE SUNSHINE IN.
Ditch the heavy drapes. Think sheer, airy curtains, with privacy blinds that disappear during the daytime.
LIGHT UP YOUR LIFE.
A dark house is a depressing house, so let there be light. Add under-cabinet kitchen lights. Tuck uplights behind potted plants or hide them in corners. Increase the wattage in your lamp bulbs to make your home a brighter prospect for buyers. (Switch to energy-saving bulbs and you’ll still come out ahead on the eco front.)
MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALLS.
Think statement frames and bounce that light around.
WARM AND NEUTRAL IS THE WAY TO GO.
And paint is the way to get there.
DROP THOSE FRAMES.
Hanging too high is the biggest rookie mistake going. Approximately sixty to sixty-five inches from the floor to the center of the piece of art is the rule of thumb. Think how low you can go and adjust as needed.
THREE’S THE CHARM.
Three candles, three baskets, three seashells. Group your accessories in threes. If it looks too skimpy, you can up it to five, but keep it odd.
It’s a privilege to get to make up stories for a living, and in my pajamas, no less. A huge, heartfelt thank-you to the readers, booksellers, bloggers, librarians, and members of the media who have made this midlife reinvention of mine possible. I never take it, or you, for granted for a moment.
As I wrote this novel, my Facebook friends and Twitter followers generously revealed the contents of their junk drawers, suggested names for a minor character, and were always available to hang out. Whenever the going got rough, the perfect e-mail from a reader would pop into my in-box. As much as I love the gig, being an author can be isolating, and I thank you all for making it less so.
Many thanks to Ken Harvey for taking time away from his own writing to share some keen insights about this novel. Thanks to Trish Riden, Hayley Stelzer, Amber Fowler, Jill Miner, Eileen Casey, and Carolyn Burns Bass for generously providing pieces of the puzzle—whether they were aware of it or not! Thanks to my incredible extended family, plus old and new friends, for being there when I needed it.
A great big thank-you to the amazing Elisabeth Dyssegaard, whose reputation as a force is well deserved and whose arrival was pure serendipity, and to her wonderful assistant, Samantha O’Brien. Thanks to the lovely Brenda Copeland for her sharp eye and kind heart, and to her enthusiastic assistant, Kate Griffin. A special shout-out to Ellen Archer for making me feel like I have a friend in high places, and to Barbara Jones and Mindy Stockfield for being so open and encouraging. And a huge, alphabetical thank-you to the rest of the Hyperionites for their talent, support, and tenacity: Anna Campbell, Bryan Christian, Marie Coolman, Molly Frandson, Caroline Grill, Maha Khalil, Kristin Kiser, Laura Klynstra, Joan Lee, Allison McGeehon, Claire McKean, Lindsay Mergens, Karen Minster, Dana Pellegri, Shelley Perron, Mike Rotondo, Sarah Rucker, Shubhani Sarkar, Katherine Tasheff, Megan Vidulich, and Betsy Wilson.
Often the hardest part of all is figuring out which way is up, and I’m forever grateful to my incomparable literary agent, Lisa Bankoff, for never hesitating to point me in the right direction. Many thanks to Lisa’s assistant, Dan Kirschen, for his great sense of humor and unparalleled social networking support, and to ICM’s Josie Freedman, Liz Farrell, and Lindsey Dodge. A great big transatlantic thank-you to Helen Manders of Curtis Brown Group for handling my translation rights and to Sheila Crowley for jumping in on the UK front.
When it comes to family, I won the lottery. The biggest thanks of all to Jake, Garet, and Kaden.
1. Are you a Sandy? A Denise? A Melissa? What character in
Best Staged Plans
did you most identify with, and why?
2. Did you ever date a Josh? Did you think you’d be the one to change him? Do you still have his number?
3. According to Sandy’s daughter, Shannon, people choose the partner they think they deserve: “Otherwise they’d drop that zero and get themselves a hero.” Do you agree with Shannon?
4. Sandy wonders whether, in the code of female friendship, you’re always honor bound to let your best friend know when you think her significant other is cheating on her. What do you think? How well did Sandy handle the situation with Denise’s boyfriend?
5. What makes it harder or easier for Sandy, as a professional home stager, to get her own house ready to sell? Did you pick up any new staging tips from the book? Have you ever painted anything Million Dollar Red?
6. According to Sandy, we’ve all looked at the things in our house so long we can’t even see them anymore. What’s the ugliest thing in your house? Did you notice it after you read
Best Staged Plans
?
7. Is there a perfect time to downsize? When? What’s the biggest obstacle?
8. The current generation of young adults has been called the boomerang generation. Why do you think they keep coming back to the nest? How many are living in
your
bat cave right now?
9. Sandy sees a distinction between homelessness and temporary homelessness. Do you think most of us are only a couple of paychecks and a few bad breaks from being in the same boat as Naomi? Why or why not?
10. Lots of things drive Sandy Sullivan crazy, especially acronyms like LOL. Do acronyms drive you crazy, too? Why?
11. Having graduated from the cooking phase of her life, Sandy is all about assembling meals. What’s your favorite faux-cooked meal?
12. Sandy agonizes about her “postmom mission.” Kids or no kids, do most of us reinvent ourselves at midlife? Did
Best Staged Plans
trigger any thoughts about your own next chapter?
Did your book club come up with an even better question when you met to discuss
Best Staged Plans
? Did you serve some fabulous, thematically related food? Did you take a picture? Post them at facebook.com/ClaireCookauthorpage or Tweet them to Claire at twitter.com/ClaireCookwrite. To schedule a Skype or phone chat, visit ClaireCook.com and click on Book Clubs.
A CONVERSATION WITH
CLAIRE COOK
Q: Where did you get the idea for
Best Staged Plans
?
A: I didn’t! My readers did. I remember it exactly: I was rushing around trying to get some packages mailed off, and I dropped my reading glasses into one of them as I was taping it up. So I did what every modern woman would do and I posted a funny comment about it on Facebook. The response was amazing—hundreds of people jumped in with their own reading glasses stories, and then everyone started saying, “There’s your next book, Claire.” So I went with it!
Q: What came next?
A: For me, a huge part of the fun of being a novelist is that I get to live other lives vicariously. And I know my readers often get ideas for their own lives from my novels. So I started thinking about what would be an interesting job to explore. Professional home staging seemed like the perfect midlife career—it’s creative and flexible, life experience is an asset, and it’s a growing field. And from there I thought, what if the heroine was a home stager who was struggling to sell her own house? Her husband was dragging his feet, and her borderline-adult son had moved home and was living in the basement bat cave . . .
Q: Now that you’re an expert, what advice would you give to people who want to hire a home stager—or even to become one?
A: Ha! I did lots of research, and there’s plenty of solid staging advice in
Best Staged Plans
, but I’m hardly an expert. In fact, I keep telling everyone to ask me questions about things like de-cluttering and paint colors fast, before I move on to my next novel and forget everything I’ve learned! If you’d like to find a real, as opposed to a fictional, professional home stager, or look into becoming one yourself, a great place to start is the Real Estate Staging Association (www.realestatestagingassociation.com), a member-governed trade association for home stagers. On the RESA Web site you’ll find a list of accredited home stagers, a consumer’s guide to home staging, information about training and accreditation, and lots more.
Q: Do you and Sandy Sullivan, the narrator of
Best Staged Plans
, have anything in common?
A: Absolutely. We even live in an almost identical 1890s Victorian—it’s such a cool house that I kept most of the details. And, like Sandy, I’m facing the choices and adventures that come with the empty-nest stage of life.
The comment I hear most often from readers is, “OMG, you’re writing my story!” Well, that’s because I’m living it, too! But even though this novel cuts close to some aspects of my own life, as with all of my novels I use bits and pieces of real details from my life, the lives of everyone who’s brave enough to be friends with a novelist, things I’ve read or overheard at the gym or from the next table at a restaurant, and things I imagine. Then, it’s as if I put them into an imaginary paper bag, shake them all up, and pull out all the pieces in a new order. I guess you could call it my Shake’n Bake method for writing a novel!
Q: What is Readers for Readers, and how did it come about?
A: With every novel, I look for opportunities to give back. I’ve spoken and signed books at thematically linked fund-raisers, and I’ve taught lots of free writing and reinvention workshops. When a thread about homelessness found its way into
Best Staged Plans
, I was completely surprised to find out, along with my heroine, that not having inexpensive, nonprescription reading glasses is the biggest obstacle to disadvantaged people over forty reentering the workplace. Every midlife woman I know has a handful of outgrown reading glasses, so I decided to set up a Readers for Readers page on my Web site, where I’ll list the mailing addresses of women’s shelters that would be happy to accept donations of reading glasses. I’m also planning to collect them at my book tour events and get them into the hands of local shelters.