Authorpreneur Dashboard – Lynn Steward
A Very Good Life
Literature & Fiction
Although Lynn Steward’s debut novel, A Very Good Life, takes place in 1970s New York City, the emotional story transcends any period. Dana McGarry is an "it" girl, living a privileged lifestyle of a well-heeled junior executive at B. Altman, a high end department store. With a storybook husband and a fairytale life, change comes swiftly and unexpectedly. Cracks begin to appear in the perfect facade. Challenged at work by unethical demands, and the growing awareness that her relationship with her distant husband is strained, Dana must deal with the unwanted changes in her life. Can she find her place in the new world where women can have a voice, or will she allow herself to be manipulated into doing things that go against her growing self-confidence? A Very Good Life chronicles the perils and rewards of Dana’s journey, alongside some of the most legendary women of the twentieth century. From parties at Café des Artistes to the annual Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony, from meetings with business icons like Estée Lauder to cocktail receptions with celebrity guests like legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland. Steward’s intimate knowledge of the period creates the perfect backdrop for this timeless story about a woman’s quest for self-fulfillment.
Book Bubbles from A Very Good Life
The Other Woman
There comes a time when you can no longer turn the other way.
International Women's Year
Dana McGarry, the protagonist in A VERY GOOD LIFE struggles to be heard at B. Altman, a high end New York department store where she is the public relations and special events coordinator. But she didn't have the high hurdles that women faced in other industries. Many corner offices in the fashion industry were occupied by women, and women buyers had powerful positions managing big budgets and making independent decision. However, the story would not be true to the period if I didn't include Betty Friedan and the history of International Women's Year, first celebrated on March 8, 1975.
Coco Chanel
A Very Good Life chronicles the perils and rewards of Dana McGarry's personal and professional journey, alongside some of the most legendary fashion and business icons of the twentieth century. This scene was inspired by Chanel.
Christmas at B. Altman in New York
A Very Good Life opens the day after Thanksgiving, 1974, in front of B. Altman's holiday windows on Fifth Avenue. I never questioned my decision to start my story there, and I continue to enjoy the first chapter each time I read it, remembering the Christmas magic created throughout the store.
Business Icon Estée Lauder
I knew that I couldn’t begin to write about B. Altman without having a better understanding of Ira Neimark’s responsibilities as executive vice president and general merchandise manager, a position he held at the store in 1974, the timeline for A Very Good Life. I knew that Neimark was hired to bring B. Altman’s conservative image into the mainstream of retailing, and he quickly made the transformation with the help of his hand-picked vice president and fashion director, Dawn Mello. However, those personal stories, that give history its flavor, were documented by Neimark in Crossing Fifth Avenue to Bergdorf Goodman, which is exactly what he did in 1975, becoming Bergdorf’s president and CEO. Throughout A Very Good Life, you will find real events woven into Dana’s career at B. Altman. The following excerpt recalls what happened when Neimark was planning a million dollar renovation of B. Altman’s cosmetic department. Estée Lauder, her husband Joe, and their two sons, Leonard and Ronald met with Neimark to claim a prime location, which just happened to belong to Charles of the Ritz….but not for long!
A Wife's Worst Nightmare
One aspect of writing that I enjoy is meeting new and interesting characters on the page. Friends are always surprised when I explain that they really do just appear, while other characters that I had in mind never show up. Janice Conlon, Dana’s foil, is always entertaining me with her caustic remarks and taunting behavior. A free-spirited California girl trapped in a concrete jungle. I believe the East Coast-West Coast dichotomy explains the dislike the women have for one another. Janice just looks at a photograph of Dana wearing a Brooks Brother camel hair polo coat and decides that she is “bland, boring, and all too-perfect,” and Dana thinks Janice “may be too flashy for my taste.” I had no idea where Janice would live in Volume Two, but before I knew it, there she was, making more trouble. The character everyone loves to hate.
Those Pappagallo Flats
Even though The Shop for Pappagallo is a mere mention in chapter 1, I would inevitably describe the scene about the famous shoes whenever I told people about the book I was writing. Surprisingly, everyone had their own Pappagallo story to lovingly share! I don’t know of another brand that is remembered as fondly; even baby-boomer husbands jumped into the conversation about those colorful, cute Papps. Ira Neimark, the executive vice president and general merchandise manager of B. Altman in 1974, who later became the president of Bergdorf Goodman, did, indeed, bring the ballet flats to the store, and soon Pappagallo boutiques were popping up in villages and college towns along the East Coast. The shops weren’t franchises, but you did have to get approval from US Shoe Corporation. When my plans to open a Pappagallo shop were delayed, I was devasted, although I soon realized it was divine-intervention. The sudden popularity of white T-shirts and khaki pants at the Gap made turquoise flats hard sells!
The Junior Buyer at B. Altman
I have enjoyed two careers in women-dominated businesses: fashion and real estate. It will, therefore, be no surprise that the Dana McGarry Series will feature strong female characters. That was not my intention but, as we know, the story writes itself, and I was clearly influenced and inspired by many amazing women. Helen Kavanagh, the junior buyer you meet in this excerpt, is as typical a fashion buyer as I can recall: impeccably dressed, impatient, opinionated, and competitive. This excerpt introduces you to the dynamics between a formidable buyer and the twenty-nine year old public relations and special events coordinator, Dana McGarry
The Husband, Brett
When we meet Dana and Brett McGarry in their eight year marriage, they are no longer on the same page. Brett, soon-to-be partner in a Wall Street law firm is on top of the world. At thirty years old, he only sees the brass ring within his reach and nothing or no one, including his wife, can share his space. He’s worked long and hard for this moment and he wants to be recognized and rewarded. He is a man given over to detail, who assesses life based on hour-to-hour accomplishments, always calculating the return on his investment of time. Was he always this way? Did work change him? Did Dana encourage him by not making demands? Was Dana so wrapped up in her work that she didn’t notice, until it was too late? Clearly, it was a marriage on autopilot, heading for trouble.
B. Altman
B. Altman was located in New York City’s Murray Hill at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. In 1914, the addition of a twelve-story building expanded the store to a full city block and Benjamin Altman realized his dream to build the finest and largest New York department store. In deference to Murray Hill's exclusive residential neighborhood, Mr. Altman had the building designed to replicate a Florentine palace and his business name did not appear on the outside of the building until the 1950s. I lived in Murray Hill many years, and it will also be Dana McGarry’s home throughout the five book series. In this excerpt, Dana McGarry will introduce you to B. Altman, beloved by generations of New Yorkers.
Dana's Personality
“You’re just like your father,” Dana often hears. There is no doubt that she shares her father’s calm, kind, and gracious demeanor, traits that were further ingrained by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart who taught her for twelve years. But what does Dana do with the competitive spirit and career ambition that she inherited from her mother. Can she successfully mesh the two personalities and learn the difference between aggressive and assertive behavior? Can she find her place in the new world where women can have a voice, or will she allow herself to be manipulated into doing things that go against her growing self-confidence?
Introducing Dana McGarry
Dear Bublish readers, I’m delighted that you stopped by! Thank you. A Very Good Life is the first novel in a five book series featuring Dana McGarry. Many bubbles, therefore, will focus on the perils and rewards of Dana’s journey as she navigates a fragile marriage and a challenging career with the support of loving family and friends. Although the story is set at Christmas time in New York City, 1974, many of the scenes and the emotional story transcend any period. This excerpt introduces you to Dana, on the job at B. Altman in front of the holiday windows. It may be “the most wonderful time of the year” but there is no holiday from stress and tension.
April Snow
Literature & Fiction
At the cutting edge of women’s fashion in the 1970s, an underestimated young woman leaves a broken marriage and her lethal charm goes to work to remake retail, and herself, at New York’s most glamorous department store. Newly single, Dana McGarry learns she must divorce herself from more than a bad marriage to succeed. Not only must she prove to family and friends that she can make it on her own, but she also must challenge an antagonistic boss who keeps standing in her way. Moving out of her comfort zone and into the arms of a dynamic businessman, Dana bets it all on a daring new move that will advance her buying career, But at what price? Her dreams within reach, Dana's world is shattered in a New York minute when a life is threatened, a secret is revealed, and her heart is broken.
Book Bubbles from April Snow
Meeting His Daughter
"My son's my son till he takes him a wife, but my daughter's my daughter the whole of her life." ~ D.H.Lawrence from "Sons and Lovers"
The Perfect First Date
Nothing erases the pain of the past like a chance for a new beginning.
The British Shop
Dana went shopping at Jaeger on Regent Street and bought into the shop-within-a-shop concept, conceiving The British Shop for B. Altman: the dream that would ignite an affair and propel her career.
Divine Intervention
Dana meets Father Charles Macaulay, her soon-to-be spiritual advisor and unlikely friend.
The House in Berkeley Square
Dana returns to her beloved London to mourn her marriage and renew her spirit, choosing to stay at the historic Lansdowne Club, just off Berkeley Square in Mayfair.
April Snow Vol. 2 in the Dana McGarry Series
In April Snow we find Dana making the best of her new life as a single woman. Is she ecstatically happy? No. Blissfully content? Maybe. But one thing she knows for sure: being suddenly single is not a condition to be cured but rather an opportunity to be savored. Determined to focus on her new career as a fashion buyer in a high end New York department store, she is caught off guard by a new love interest and mentor. Out of her comfort zone, Dana’s life moves forward quickly when, in a New York minute, she is facing new challenges and choices with the winds of March at her doorstep.
