Award-winning words | Ruston Daily Leader

Award-winning words | Ruston Daily Leader

About Geri G. Taylor, the Author of "The Kitchen Dance"

About ten years ago I returned to college to study acting and took two courses in playwriting.  I wrote the screenplay “The Kitchen Dance” and after several submissions and several rejections I tucked the story away in my computer files and went on to write other screenplays, plays, worked on another couple of novels and made notes for other novel ideas.

As I mentioned in my about me, I am an Actress both stage and screen. I performed in university productions, community theaters, skits and programs for my church’s televised sermon.  I worked as background on film productions filmed in north Louisiana and a few roles, including principal roles, in independent films. In the course of pursuing my acting studies and in performing, I learned a great deal about character development and dialogue driven story lines.

I feel this experience has helped me to create solid characters with interesting lives that have great stories to tell. Two of my one-act plays, A Friend or Something and Transforming Christmas selected to be performed in separate play competitions and I wrote two skits, The Toilet Seat and Two Incomes, which were performed in televised sermons. 

Recently, I revisited The Kitchen Dance and realized my screenplay was merely a synopsis of the story.  I set out to create a manuscript for a short story or novella but ended up with a 86,000 word novel.  I bypassed agents and sought independent publishers accepting queries from unpublished writers.  I submitted queries to about three-dozen small publishers, sent about a dozen full manuscripts requests, and was offered contracts from four publishers.  I am pleased to announce Mélange Books, LLC at melange-books.com, will publish my debut novel, The Kitchen Dance.  The expected release date is January 2013.

One interesting thing about me is a game I play with my best friend of nearly twenty years.  She tells me about an unsolved crime she read in the paper or on the Internet and I can immediately come up with a fictional story of what really happened.  Another clever thing about me is that I am one of those annoying people who almost always know not only how the movie is going to end but what the next line out the characters mouth will be.

I'm an AUTHOR! The Kitchen Dance will be published!

My fictional work, The Kitchen Dance, was accepted by Melange Books, LLC for a January 2013 release date. 

Check out their website at melange-books.com

I am also very excited that Melange Books, LLC is allowing me to use my own cover art. 

Version 1

I prefer version 2 but I will leave it to the experts or create another version.

Version 2

Joule Dalton, a successful interior designer with a prestigious architectural firm, lived her life choreographed by her loved ones until a tragedy forces her to learn her own steps. Allen Brooks has endured his own share of manipulations and all his hard work and sacrifice has left him with nothing. He wears his troubles like the too large overcoat he picked up at a mission while living on the streets. This coat brings them together in an unexpected way. Joule takes the misfortunate Allen into her home in hopes of turning his life around. She gives him a place to live, a job, even introduces him to her wealthy friends. What she does not give him is her trust. This he must earn. The two combine their dreams and create a wonderful relationship. Then Allen gets a call that will challenge his sense of responsibility. He makes a choice, one that Joule cannot begrudge. Allen struggles with his decision while Joule goes back to her old life until they both realize what they really want.