Shari Shattuck's Blog

I am so excited for the release of my first hardcover book, "Invisible Ellen" on May 29th! But even more fun is yet to come, I'll be recording the audio version in April, so I'm brushing up on my Russian accent for two of my characters, and bringing Ellen and Temerity to life. As a huge lover of audio books, (I drive a lot!) I really want to do it justice, no pun intended to my character Justice!

Okay, big news, I just sold two more books to Penguin, my best deal ever and my first hardcover! It's called "Invisible Ellen" plus sequel. And...I'm filming my first movie in a few years. "Scream at the Devil" is a psychological thriller in which I lose my mind. So...a bit of work there. I had my first rehearsal with the man playing my husband, Eric Etebari, (look him up, he's so handsome it hurts) and it went wonderfully. I'm so excited and so busy. I think I'll make a drink, and watch the sunset while I still can.

Best, Shari

Well here I am at the end of my "Much Ado About Nothing" run. It's final weekend and we're sold out. It's been a blast, great cast, fantastic audiences, and the writing? Well, it doesn't get any better than this. Thanks Will. It's been a weird week, dropped my daughter off at college for the first time, trying to straighten out rights on my Callaway books so I can get them up as ebooks now that I have the rights, and I'm finishing an edit on my new book, "Invisible Ellen." On top of all that, I got slammed by my ex's wife in a nasty blog, on the day I was leaving my kid at college, an emotional day to say the least, and where was she? Driving to Northern California, carrying boxes into a dorm? Helping to pay for college? Nope. She was shopping in Italy. Oh well, people will feel threatened, silly though it is. I'm only glad that I learned a long time ago that you can't pay attention to crazies. And of course, she committed the worse sin of all, it was badly written! LOL. Although, crazies do make for great characters in our next books!! No experience is wasted for an author. Enjoy your day!!

So, I just wrapped up a weekend of rehearsing "Much Ado..." which can be so frustrating and so funny. Terrific cast this time, and of course, the Bard's words are an amazing joy to do. Literate, literal, audible art. Words that flow and sing and only come truly understood when spoken with feeling.
And then, there's the dancing. No problem for me, I dance, but for the gentleman playing Don Pedro, the prince, it was clearly a moment that panicked him. Ultimately, he deigned, "The prince does not dance, I just decided that." After a round of laughter, the director concurred. Then he stood around smiling and gesturing as the rest of us moved through it.
I spent the rest of the day weeping and cursing men in general in the 'my cousin is belied' scene. It impresses me so much that Shakespeare, in a time when women were not even allowed on stage, wrote a female character who says the line, "Oh that I were a man, I would eat his heart in the Marketplace!"

Now that's art that a girl can really sink her teeth into.

So we all love great writers, I can't imagine that there is one among us who doesn't put William Shakespeare at the top of that list. I'm playing Beatrice in a production of "Much Ado" in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles at the Knightsbridge theater with an amazing cast. It's one of the funniest shows I've ever worked on. If you are in town, come check it out.

So, an author friend turned me on to Goodreads and I couldn't be more delighted. I was beginning to think I was the only one left out there with my trusty hardcovers or downloaded e-books. But now I have....friends!! I'm so psyched! (yes, I was alive in the sixties, though not particularly aware being a toddler for most of it.) I'm very excited to be able to share favorite books and ferret out new authors and titles that I'll enjoy.

Read on!