LFTGC Web Page

  --everything you want or need
    to know about this great book,
    including purchase info,
    reviews, ISBN info

A Few Reviews

  -The Compulsive Reader
  -Armchair Interviews
  -Rebecca Reads

PRESS

  -RebeccaReads (2)
  -Women Artists
  -The Hollywood Reporter   -RebeccaReads

Elizabeth Appell grew up in the Sacramento Valley. Her ventures have been varied and include founding and publishing a computer magazine for kids. More than anything else, she loves to write.

Elizabeth Appell, now a grandmother to three, lives in the Bay Area. Lately she has been returning to her roots as a new horse owner, and has been working with a trainer outside of Sacramento in the lost skill of carriage driving.

Elizabeth and her husband, Allen, have traveled extensively. They visited Spain last year and she became enthralled with the spectacle of the bullfight. Wanting to experience the thrill of the ring, she took a four day intensive lesson with Matador Dinnis Borba. On the fourth day she attended a tiente, a bloodless event designed to test the courage of calves earmarked for breeding. Elizabeth entered the ring twice and fought two brave calves.

During the year she teaches a writing class for troubled teens.

A word from Elizabeth Appell:

So happy to meet you. A little about myself. I am a dedicated writer of novels, plays and short stories. I've recently completed a musical, Squawk! A Comic Opera for Cabaret.

Almost as much as writing, I love helping people find their way into a story because I believe that it's in the heart of the story where we find the answers to who we are and why we are. A couple of my favorite writers, Joyce Carol Oates and Donna Tartt never fail to open a door into myself.

As an outcome of my teaching of troubled teens and from reading and experimenting, I have found a writing exercise I guarantee that if you do it with an open heart, you will come away with a brilliant kernel that can be turned into a poem, short story, play, essay or novel. I've never seen it fail.

Feel free to find out how to contact me by going to my website at readelizabeth.com. I will be happy to share this small, but extremely helpful revelation with you.

I used this technique in finding the idea for my recent novel, Lessons from the Gypsy Camp. About two years ago I did the exercise that fueled an idea. I mulled the idea over for months and as I did, the idea began to join with my concerns that have been disturbing me for the past ten years. I saw bad decisions being made when it came down to the simplest choices of right and wrong. We have all witnessed politicians lying, CEO's sealing, lawyers cheating. I remember one day during the Clinton scandals I was waking my dog and I overhead a bunch of middle-schoolers saying, "If the president can lie, so can we." That comment coupled with the writing exercise kick-started the formation of Lolly, the girl in my story. It was then I decided to work with a young protagonist free from the encumbrances of adult bias. I wanted to tell the story from the point-of-view of someone with a clean slate who had to make hard decisions and who had to experience the consequences.

A major effort like writing a novel is a complicated process and it should not be surprising that there are side effects. In a way, writing of this book has served as yenta, introducing me to parts of myself I didn't know existed and reconnecting me with the girl I once was.

I urge you to go to my site, readelizabeth.com, and take advantage of the writing exercise. I would be honored if you visit the book on Amazon and click through and buy it. I don't think you'll be disappointed. If you have comments, I'd love to hear them.

Screen adaptation of her novel Lessons From the Gypsy Camp awarded 1ST place Screenwriters Competition held by the Nevada State Film Commission! Buy From Amazon.com

Her play MOON WALKERS produced by the Virtual Theater Project in Los Angeles, starring James Denton of Desperate Housewives and Heidi Mages!