Former Journalist Relinquishes Facts for Fiction

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New Novel “Unhappily Ever After” Includes a Cast of Young Female Characters

Potomac, MD, January 11, 2010 — At 80 years of age, former journalist and public policy consultant Norman I. Gelman never expected to have written a novel in which imagined female characters would take over - but he swears that’s what happened. After spending his entire career dealing with public policy issues, he set facts aside to publish his book, “Unhappily Ever After” (published by iUniverse), in what he calls “a liberating experience.”

“It may be unusual for a man to write a novel dominated by female characters,” says Gelman. “But I married a young female, raised two, have three female god-children and mentored a number of young women early in their professional careers. Rachel Rothschild is not any one of them in particular, but she and her friends and her cousins draw on every one of them.”

“Unhappily Ever After” tells the story of Rachel Rothschild, a young Jewish journalist who becomes engaged to a handsome man she meets at college. It isn’t until after she agrees to marry him that she discovers JJ Weiner comes from an immensely wealthy family, along with subtle indications that her fiance may have a much darker, hidden side to him.

Rachel lands a job working at a Los Angeles magazine and soon after comes marriage, a move to Colorado and motherhood. Hired by a Denver magazine, Rachel begins to establish herself as an investigative reporter. Then, a traumatic rape intended as an act of revenge against her husband plunges her into an emotional abyss and drives a wedge between her and JJ. Rachel faces a daily struggle of mending her shattered life, finding missing pieces along the way. Written in three narrative styles, “Unhappily Ever After” focuses not just on Rachel but also on the lives of her loved ones. Gelman writes of JJ’s refusal to have sex with Rachel before they are married:

“I thought maybe I’d wandered into the middle of a Victorian novel…[but] I bowed to his will. It would have been better if I’d forced the issue. Our lives together would have been different. But for possibly the first time in my life I was completely spineless. It wouldn’t be the last time.”

About the Author: Norman I. Gelman has spent most of his life as a professional writer and consultant on public policy issues. He has worked at the San Francisco Examiner, St. Petersburg Times, Congressional Quarterly, the Senate Commerce Committee and a consulting firm with a roster of Fortune 500 clients. He and his wife married while in college and now live in Potomac, Md. Gelman also serves as chairman of the Maryland Commission on Human Relations. “Unhappily Ever After” is his first novel.

“Unhappily Ever After”

Available from: http://www.iuniverse.com, http://www.barnesandnoble.com, and http://www.amazon.com

ISBN: 9781440181641 - 5.5 x 8.5 - Paperback - 512 pages - $26.95

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