SHERYL ZEDECK KATZ
Avid Reader – Aspiring Novelist
Projects
I started writing my first novel, Lyrical, in 2014. After working with a professional editor and generous beta-readers, the fourth draft went out into the world in search of an agent. While I had six agents interested, no one loved it enough to help me publish. So, in 2020, I put it in a drawer (literally) and started something new. At Her Side, is still looking to find its way to the world. (And then maybe I’ll rework Lyrical and try again).
Below are the details of each:
Lyrical
Sisters Sarah and Deena pride themselves on their ability to talk about anything with anyone. As co-founders of USpeak, a company that helps people gain confidence in public speaking and communication, their livelihood depends on it. Creative yogi Deena and multi-tasking bookworm Sarah are best friends, bonded over their constant heart-to-hearts, their love of music and their successful “mompreneur” business.
When Deena suffers from a serious stroke, she is suddenly not able to walk or talk, and Sarah immerses herself in her sister’s recovery. After months of speech therapy fail to produce the results they’d hoped for, Deena accepts that she will speak in one-word sentences for the rest of her life. Then, a therapist suggests Music Therapy and the sisters discover that music may have more power than they ever imagined.
The bond of sisterhood and connection to music fuels their experience with hope, humor, courage, determination, and, ultimately, a new definition of what success might look like.
At Her Side
Shattered lives, trauma, guilt, despair, and then hope, love and purpose. Inspired by a Facebook post of therapy dogs pictured at the site of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas tragedy in my community, At Her Side follows two women as they overcome their pasts.
When fifty-four-old Helen’s husband leaves her for his high school sweetheart, her world is upended. She chastises herself for settling for a marriage that was never passionate and deems herself destined to live out the rest of her life alone. She finds satisfaction in growing and selling produce, until the day she crosses paths with a service dog and finds new purpose—and romance.
On her last day of work, when twenty-one-year-old Emily sets off the alarm during a bank robbery, she catch’s the gunman’s attention and he fires shots that murder her good friend. Emily runs away into the arms of the only person she knows won’t force her to return home—her Nana, Helen. As Emily drowns her nightmares with sleeping pills, Helen immerses herself in a new relationship and the world of raising service dogs. Emily eventually follows her Nana’s example and moves forward in her life when she experiences the powerful impact a service dog’s skills and unconditional love.
Told over thirty years, from alternating viewpoints, this is a book about how, in the wake of trauma, the love we give opens our hearts for the love we get.