Terra Ziporyn: Permanent Makeup

Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

PERMANENT MAKEUP

Terra Ziporyn
Palta Books
January 16, 2014
paperback: $15.99; ebook: $2.99
ISBN: paperback: 978-0-9913137-0-9; ebook: 978-0-9913137-1-6

Ziporyn reports:

Even though I've spent most of my professional life as a medical writer and historian, my true love has always been writing fiction.

Over the years, too, I have discovered that science and medical ideas creep into the fiction I write. This is certainly true of my fourth novel Permanent Makeup, which picks up on themes about women's health, both mental and physical.

Based in Annapolis, MD, it's a story told jointly by Maxine, an aging skin care specialist, and her grown daughter, a social worker who works in a women's shelter. Maxine, a proud member of the Society of Permanent Cosmetic Professionals, left South Africa in the 1990s, and is, as she puts it, “one opinionated broad." Dodie has plenty of opinions too — mostly polar opposites to those of her mother.

When Maxine discovers that Dodie has hidden Shelley, a victim of domestic violence, in her Annapolis salon, the two find themselves using their respective skills to shelter Shelley and disguise her, aiming to protect her from her abusive politician boyfriend.

As Maxine and Dodie work to help Shelley, and also reach out to Dodie’s runaway teenage daughter, Dodie tells Maxine the reason she fled to the US from Capetown as a teenager, a truth that changes their understanding of themselves and their relationship.

Permanent Makeup addresses truth, reconciliation, and the bittersweet interdependence of generations, particularly of mothers and daughters, by asking who we are, what we can make of ourselves, and whether we can escape our origins.

Contact info:

Terra Ziporyn, 410-975-9759, ziporyn@aya.yale.edu, http://terraziporyn.com
Book website: http://paltabooks.com
Blog website: http://latelastnightbooks.com

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Advance Copy

The path from idea to book may take myriad routes. The Advance Copy column, started in 2000 by NASW volunteer book editor Lynne Lamberg, features NASW authors telling the stories behind their books. Authors are asked to report how they got their idea, honed it into a proposal, found an agent and a publisher, funded and conducted their research, and organized their writing process. They also are asked to share what they wish they’d known when they started or would do differently next time, and what advice they can offer aspiring authors. Lamberg edits the authors’ answers to produce the Advance Copy reports.

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