Background
Kalpakian was born in Long Beach, California and grew up in southern California.
(A young social worker learns about humanity, pride, and g...)
A young social worker learns about humanity, pride, and generosity from her eccentric client whose fanatical devotion to the memory of Elvis Presley fuels her passionate lust for life.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ACDOM2Q/?tag=2022091-20
( "In a memoir, the author and the narrator have an uneas...)
"In a memoir, the author and the narrator have an uneasy relationship. What does the reader know of the author? That the author lived to tell the tale. What does the reader know of the narrator? That the tale needed to be told." Six women, each with her own misgivings, take a university extension night class in Writing Your Memoir, looking only for a little bibliotherapy. The following semester, they meet privately at the gracious home of one of the participants. The memoir class becomes the memoir club. In coming to terms with their losses, with their own guilt-in writing to break through that stubborn, opaque barrier to the past-they forge a new present. And a new future. The teacher, the enigmatic Penny Taylor, steps in at the right moment and steps out before her students can thank her. In the beginning, grief-stricken Dr. Caryn Henley only goes to the class at the insistence of her longtime friend and colleague, Nell, a woman so loyal that behind her back people call her the St. Bernard. Rusty Meadows wants to write a memoir for her daughter she gave up at birth. Mrs. Francine Hellman wants her memoir to laud her late husband, the scientist Dr. Marcus Hellman, only to find he had a past unknown to her. The elderly, unconventional Sarah Jane Perkins writes to come to terms with the cruelties her rigid mother inflicted on her artistic, bootlegging father. And Korean born Jill McDougall comes to the memoir class to find out who she is, and why she's living in a warehouse with a man who loves ice cream. These students of the memoir achieve what they set out to do, but discover what they never expected. Along the way, the disparate women come together, reveal themselves to each other and support each other. As they render their pasts in memoirs, they forge a new present and a new future.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312322771/?tag=2022091-20
(It's 1916 in the fictional town of St. Elmo, California, ...)
It's 1916 in the fictional town of St. Elmo, California, and it hasn't rained in weeks. Drastic measures are due. Over steak, eggs, pie, and coffee, St. Elmo's biggest bigwigs strike a deal with the much maligned rainmaker, Hank Beecham: if he fills the reservoir with water, they'll pay him $50,000; if he fails, he won't get a cent. When Hank heads up into the hills with his dynamite, caps, and gunpowder as well as his "battalion of tins and ladles, a flotilla of scoops and long-handled spoons," most of the town is skeptical. But when explosions and flying debris give way to that old familiar pitter patter, it's apparent Hank is no amateur in procuring precipitation. This time, though, he's gone too far. Before you can say "hell in a handbasket," the dam's about to burst, and with it Hank's hopes of retrieving his financial due. In this tightly woven tale of honor, love, and greed, we're supplied with a healthy dose of odd characters, page-turning intrigue, and a playful look at the Old West. "Like metal from which every alloy has been burnt off, leaving only what is hard and pure," Kalpakian puts her prose through the proverbial refiner's fire. What is left can only shine.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0895872234/?tag=2022091-20
(A young social worker learns about humanity, pride, and g...)
A young social worker learns about humanity, pride, and generosity from her eccentric client whose fanatical devotion to the memory of Elvis Presley fuels her passionate lust for life. National ad/promo.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802114741/?tag=2022091-20
Kalpakian was born in Long Beach, California and grew up in southern California.
She earned a Doctor of Philosophy in literature from the University of California, San Diego in 1977.
She has also published under the pen names Juliet Fitzgerald and Carenna Jane Greye. She is known for her work in the memoir genre. She earned her undergraduate degree from University of California, Riverside in 1967.
After starting her career as a social worker, she earned a Masters Degree from the University of Delaware in 1970.
Her sons are composer Bear McCreary and singer/musician Brendan McCreary.
(A young social worker learns about humanity, pride, and g...)
(A young social worker learns about humanity, pride, and g...)
(1ST EDITION NEW! PERFECT SHAPE! EX LIBRARY NEVER IN CIRCU...)
( "In a memoir, the author and the narrator have an uneas...)
(It's 1916 in the fictional town of St. Elmo, California, ...)
(novel entitled, Beggars and Choosers.)