Lisa Williams Kline is joining us today to talk about her novel, Ladies’ Day. Here’s a description:
Heartache is par for the course.
Fifteen years after her troubled daughter Julie ran away from home, Beth Sawyer stumbles across a newspaper photograph of an up-and-coming teen golfer, who not only shares her last name, but also looks just like her daughter. Sky Sawyer couldn’t possibly be her granddaughter―or could she? With her sort-of-functional life spinning out of control―and let’s not get started on her soon-to-be-married ex-husband―Beth meets Barry, a fellow golfer whom she accidentally hits with her golf ball. Will he take her to court or to dinner?
When Sky Sawyer joins her high school golf team, she hopes that the mother she thought dead may still be alive and seek her out at the championship tournament. But when she discovers that the man who raised her is not her father and a woman claiming to be her long-lost grandmother appears, her world falls apart.
With Beth and Sky fighting to gain what they both had lost, can they finally get a second chance at a happily ever after?
What’s the first line Lisa will underline?
What the hell was she thinking? This date was ridiculous. It made about as much sense as Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid bargaining away her future for a pair of legs.
- Ladies’ Day, p. 72
True confession: I have always been a little obsessed by the story of “The Little Mermaid.” It has everything a bibliophile could ask for–unrequited love, a person trying to be someone they’re not, desperation, aspiration, sacrifice, myth, magic, a storm, and of course, real evil. I loved the pathos of the story even before the Disney version came out and I watched it hundreds of times, singing along while sitting on the couch, my arms protectively around my elementary school daughters.
I even tried to use it in a novel of mine that took place in 1838, called Between the Sky and the Sea, thinking that 1837, the year Hans Christian Andersen wrote “The Little Mermaid,” would fit perfectly into the timeline of my story. (Of course, the Hans Christian Andersen version is much darker and sadder than the Disney version). However, I had to take it out when my editor told me that my American characters could not have read “The Little Mermaid” in 1838 because the version that came out in 1837 was only in Danish. Darn!
But anyway, I especially loved being able to use “The Little Mermaid” in Ladies’ Day! Beth Sawyer, my self-deprecating main character, like me, used to sit and watch The Little Mermaid with her children when they were young. (I normally do put bits and pieces of myself in my characters). She loved being caught up in the fairytale. But then Beth’s life took a turn and tragedy shadowed her world. Her daughter Julie disappeared fifteen years ago, and after trying to find her for years, Beth’s marriage to Julie’s father has completely unraveled. He was finally able to move on but Beth just can’t. She’s been going through the motions of life, but not really living, for a terribly long time.
During Ladies’ Day, Beth gets a magical second chance at happiness and a fulfilled life. She finds out there’s a girl named Sky, a talented young golfer, who could be a granddaughter she didn’t even know she had. And a man she accidentally hits with a golf ball, instead of taking her to court, wants to take her to dinner! After everything that’s happened, Beth’s level of confidence about this date is practically non-existent. She, like the little mermaid, feels like an imposter. She feels as though getting her hopes up about the date and about the possible grandchild and maybe even finding Julie can only lead to devastation and disappointment.
So, this line comes from a moment when Beth has had a glimmer of hope. She’s gone to dinner with Barry, and they’re having a lovely time and she’s beginning to see that he is indeed a very charming and desirable man and that he, to her surprise, seems to desire her, too– and she panics, thinking that this is all too good to be true, and runs to the ladies’ room, in a state of confusion. And that’s when she looks at herself in the mirror and thinks that even entertaining the idea of this date is as ridiculous as the little mermaid trading her beautiful voice for a pair of legs. How do things work out with Barry? Is Sky actually Beth’s granddaughter? Does she ever find Julie? Like in The Little Mermaid, there is a bit of magic in Ladies’ Day, and I would be spoiling it if I gave it away.
About Lisa:
Lisa Williams Kline is the author of Ladies’ Day (CamCat Books), Between the Sky and the Sea (Dragonblade), The Ruby Mirror (The Bridge), and ten novels and a novella for young readers. Her work has appeared in Literary Mama, Skirt, Sasee, Carolina Woman, moonShine review, The Press 53 Awards Anthology, Sand Hills Literary Magazine, and Idol Talk, among others. She attended Duke University, and received her MFA from Queens. She lives with her veterinarian husband, a cat who can open doors, and a sweet chihuahua who has played Bruiser Woods in Legally Blonde: The Musical. She treasures frequent visits with her grown daughters and their husbands. Visit her at www.lisawilliamskline.com and on Instagram and Facebook.