SHYLA’S INITIATIVE
Barbara Casey
GENRE: Fiction
Blurb:
Thirty-five-year-old novelist, Shyla Wishon, fears that her life is spinning out of control since her recent marriage to Carl Cores. First, her overbearing new mother-in-law moves to Florida in order to be close to her son, followed by a steady stream of visiting relatives who become a constant intrusion on what was once her time to write. To make matters worse, Carl’s two grown daughters refuse to have anything to do with her, and even though Carl has a good job, bills are starting to pile up.
Shyla tries to cheerfully accept the responsibilities that come with a new marriage and the inevitable adjustments, but the stress is leaving her with constant migraines, a lack of energy, and, worst of all, a loss of creativity.
Shyla leaves her home in West Palm Beach to spend two weeks in Naples where she teaches creative writing each summer at the Ibis Institute of Writing. When she arrives, her friend, Jayne Sinclare, president of Ibis, invites Shyla to join her for lunch. Mariela Fanjul, whose family has just donated $100,000 to the Institute, and the Fanjul family attorney, Terry Sawyer, who is a big fan of Shyla’s published work, are also invited. Mariela Fanjul has signed up for Shyla’s course, and is writing a novel based on her family’s Cuban heritage and their Santerian beliefs.
As Shyla works with Mariela, she becomes entangled in the ancient Regla de Ocha involving soul transference and animal sacrifice. It is through these beliefs and a remarkable series of events that eventually allow Shyla to escape her present life and become a totally new person.
Excerpt:
Shyla noticed that there had also been a change in Carl’s attitude and temperament as well as her own. Before they were married, they had been able to talk about everything, the good as well as the bad. Nothing was unfixable because the two of them were pulling together toward the same goal. Now she had the feeling Carl was keeping things from her, turning to his mother instead. It was making her defensive and suspicious. The intimacy they had shared in the beginning of their relationship wasn’t as strong now, if it was there at all. Carl still said and did the same things. He frequently told her how much he loved her, and he usually did little things around the house like help vacuum or do the dishes. He was wonderful at fixing things when they got broken as well. But he seemed impatient; he became irritated easily. She felt a distance—an awkwardness—between them now that hadn’t been there before, and it made her uncomfortable and jittery. It were as though she was being snatched from her own life and forced to live another. Somehow each of the many defining layers that she had carefully nurtured and added over the years to complete her identity at this point in her life were gradually being stripped away and sacrificed, one by one, just like the petals from a flower. The person who was left had headaches and anxiety. The person who was left, she didn’t even recognize.
She remembered reading once that when someone is faced with a sudden loss of a loved one, the overwhelming feeling is that of helplessness and isolation. She had felt that way when her first husband died of a heart attack. One moment he was healthy and vibrant; the next, he was dead. For months after his death Shyla existed in a state of semi-conscious numbness—seeing and hearing and even responding to everything going on around her, but feeling nothing. That was what was happening now, only she was the one who had died. She didn’t want to feel this way or to be left out; she had too much to give. After all, the reason for getting married in the first place was because she and Carl loved each other and wanted to share as much together as possible. But this feeling of secrecy and separation and the constant demands from the outside on her time and energy was beginning to take its toll on her health and her marriage.
She knew that her resentment toward her mother-in-law was building because of Pilar’s unrelenting requests of Carl. The woman didn’t seem to understand or care that she and Carl might want time for themselves. Shyla tried hard to suppress those feelings, though. After all, Pilar was Carl’s mother. They had only just reunited a few months earlier after being estranged for years. Shyla could see how Pilar would want to spend as much time as possible with her son. What bothered Shyla, though, was that she seemed to want to relive the past, without Shyla, and to pick up where she and her son had left off as though nothing had changed. But things were changed. For one thing, Carl was now married to Shyla.
As a writer, it was natural for Shyla to keep things inside of her, avoiding conflict except when she expressed it on paper. She would keep this inside of her and deal with it the best she could. What she couldn’t suppress, however, were the headaches which were frequently followed by severe anxiety. Out of everything, the one thing that frightened her the most was the feeling she was losing control. Always before she had a plan on how to move forward, no matter how bad things were—even when her first husband died. Now she felt frustrated and weak. She couldn’t make decisions and her energy had plummeted. Looking back she realized she had been struggling with this for over six months, and still she was losing control.
The worst part of it was feeling that somehow in losing control over her life, she had also lost her ability to write. She was convinced of it. Just as she would start to work on an idea for a new short story or perhaps the outline of a novel, something would come up—another visiting relative, more errands to run, another meal to cook, and more bills to pay. There were always more bills. It felt as though a door had been slammed inside of her, and behind that door just beyond her reach was her creativity. She would go through the same routine each morning, getting Carl off to work, the breakfast dishes done, beds made, house straightened, and then go upstairs to her office. When before she would crank out at least fifteen hundred words a day with regularity, now she would sit in front of her computer and stare at the blank screen until the worry of having to run errands or cook dinner took over. She hated it. And she couldn’t blame anyone but herself. That was one of the reasons why she had insisted on going to Naples and teaching the class at Ibis. It was the annual summer retreat, and maybe by being around other writers again she could somehow unlock that door. It would be good to see her friend, Jayne Sinclaire, again as well. It had been much too long.
Interview with Barbara Casey
What is your favorite part of the book?
I love exploring things or situations that are difficult to explain, and the idea of soul transference is one of those things. I did a lot of research to write about Shyla’s transformation with credibility and authority. Combining this with what she was experiencing with her recently-married husband, I think the scene where she is trying to understand what she has just caught her husband doing and then the actual incident where her soul transference takes place is quite strong and emotional. But the scene that follows that, where she exhibits a new personality—still Shyla, but more so—will make the readers cheer for her.
All of her life Shyla had been able to turn to her inner-most self, an intensely personal place, at the time of crisis. She thought of it as her quiet center of being. It was where she could work out problems and reach some level of rejuvenation. She felt protected there. She went there now, breathing deeply, and trying desperately to think. It was all just a misunderstanding, she repeated.
His car was easy to spot since there was only his car and one other parked in the lot adjoining the office building. After trying the front door and finding it locked, she went around to the side entrance that she knew Carl frequently used after hours and on weekends when he had to work. His office was located at the end of a long hall and she could hear him talking to someone. When she got there she stopped at the doorway, unable to move, unable to breathe. There was a woman sitting on the edge of Carl’s desk. He was standing in front of her, kissing her. Her bare legs were wrapped around his waist, her panties—white with black lace—on a chair across the room. Shyla couldn’t see where his hands were.
Shyla’s purse which she had been carrying slipped from her hand and dropped to the floor. When Carl heard it he quickly glanced around, backed away and zipped his pants while Andrea rearranged her clothing.
“Shyla, what are you doing here?” He walked toward her smiling with his arms reaching out.
Shyla remained frozen while he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. “Honey, I don’t think you have met Andrea Ramos. She’s my office mate. Or was. Unfortunately, she just got some bad news, she’s been fired, and I was trying to comfort her.”
“Hello, Shyla. I’ve heard a lot about you.” Without looking at her, Andrea picked up her panties and something else from her desk and added them to the stuff she had already packed into a cardboard box. “Well, I think I had better get going. It’s nice meeting you.” She picked up the box and walked toward the door. Still Shyla didn’t move.
Carl leaned down and picked up Shyla’s purse and gently guided her into his office.
“Don’t be a stranger,” Andrea said to Carl arching her eyebrows, and then she left.
Shyla heard each step as Andrea walked the length of the carpeted hallway to the exit. She heard her shift the cardboard box in her arms as she opened the side door. She heard the gravel crunch outside the door as she walked on the path leading away from the building, and then the door slowly close. She didn’t hear Carl tell her how glad he was to see her, and how beautiful she was, and how much he loved her.
Does your book have a lesson? Moral?
If there is a lesson, it is to always keep an open mind about things you don’t believe or find it difficult to understand. When I was researching the ancient religion of Regla de Ocha and soul transference for this book, everything about it was foreign to me. But I met people who truly believe, and I respect them for it.
Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
I think all of the characters I write about in all of my books have traits of real people that I have stored in my mind. In Shyla’s Initiative, the scene where she visits a botanica for the first time was taken from my own personal experience when I was doing research. It is certainly something I will never forget.
Of all the characters you have created, which is your favorite and why?
That is such a good question, but also a hard one for me to answer. In order for me to write a book that I feel is worthy of publication, I have to love at least one of the characters in that book. In my young adult series, The F.I.G. Mysteries, that turned out to be a five-book series. That means I lived with the three orphaned “Females of Intellectual Genius” for years as I wrote all of the books. I absolutely loved these girls, and I cried when I knew that book five finished their stories. One of my adult novels, JUST LIKE FAMILY, has a main character that I also keep in my heart. I think it is because she went through so much bad stuff to finally find herself and become a strong woman.
What character in your book are you least likely to get along with?
I would definitely not get along with Carl, Shyla’s husband and the man she divorces. He is self-absorbed, totally selfish, and has absolutely no consideration for Shyla.
What would the main character in your book have to say about you?
I think she would appreciate what I attempted to do; that is, be objective in writing about a difficult subject, while at the same time being kind to her and her situation. I think she would thank me for being brave enough to write about things that I had personally experienced.
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
Shyla’s Initiative is definitely a stand-alone book, as are all of my books—both fiction and nonfiction—except for The F.I.G. Mysteries which is a five-book series.
Thank you so much for taking the time to interview me and for your interest in Shyla’s Initiative. I wish you and your readers my very best. ~Barbara
Your welcome. Thank you for joining us today on The Avid Reader!
Author Bio and Links
Originally from Kane, Illinois, author/agent/publisher Barbara Casey attended the University of North Carolina, N.C. State University, and N.C. Wesleyan College where she received a BA degree, summa cum laude, with a double major in English and history. In 1978 she left her position as Director of Public Relations and Vice President of Development at North Carolina Wesleyan College to write full time and develop her own manuscript evaluation and editorial service. In 1995 she established the Barbara Casey Agency and since that time has represented authors from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan. In 2014, she became a partner with Strategic Media Books, an independent nonfiction publisher of true crime, where she oversees acquisitions, day-to-day operations, and book production.
Ms. Casey has written close to two dozen award-winning books of fiction and nonfiction for both young adults and adults. The awards include the National Association of University Women Literary Award, the Sir Walter Raleigh Literary Award, the Independent Publisher Book Award, the Dana Award for Outstanding Novel, the IPPY Best Book for Regional Fiction, the Book Excellence Award, among others. Several of her books have been optioned for major films.
Her award-winning articles, short stories, and poetry for adults have appeared in both national and international publications including the North Carolina Christian Advocate Magazine, The New East Magazine, the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer, the Rocky Mount (N.C.) Sunday Telegram, Dog Fancy, ByLine, The Christian Record, Skirt! Magazine, and True Story. A thirty-minute television special which Ms. Casey wrote and coordinated was broadcast on WRAL, Channel 5, in Raleigh, North Carolina. She also received special recognition for her editorial work on the English translations of Albanian children’s stories. Her award-winning science fiction short stories for adults are featured in The Cosmic Unicorn and CrossTime science fiction anthologies. Ms. Casey's essays and other works appear in The Chrysalis Reader, the international literary journal of the Swedenborg Foundation, 221 One-Minute Monologues from Literature (Smith and Kraus Publishers), and A Cup of Comfort (Adams Media Corporation).
Ms. Casey is a former director of BookFest of the Palm Beaches, Florida, where she served as guest author and panelist. She has served as judge for the Pathfinder Literary Awards in Palm Beach and Martin Counties, Florida, and was the Florida Regional Advisor for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators from 1991 through 2003. In 2018 Ms. Casey received the prestigious Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and Top Professional Award for her extensive experience and notable accomplishments in the field of publishing and other areas. She makes her home on the top of a mountain in northwest Georgia with three cats who adopted her: Homer, Reese, and Earl Gray - Reese’s best friend.
Connect with Barbara Casey
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2 comments:
It is so nice of you to host me, and I really enjoyed your interview. I wish you and your readers my very best. ~Barbara
We appreciate you featuring SHYLA'S INITIATIVE today.
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