The Origin Story of Glimmer As You Can

The Origin Story of Glimmer As You Can

By Danielle Martin

My debut novel—a work of 1960’s fiction—bears a rather lengthy history of its own.

The seed of its origin lay dormant for many years, existing for some time as just a few words on a sheet of lined paper in my “ideas portfolio.” Fifteen years ago, I was in my senior year at New York University, majoring in film and minoring in English literature, and I maintained my “ideas portfolio” as a necessary wellspring for later projects. 

The creative expectations at NYU were high, and my course load required the ongoing production of screenplays, short stories, and documentaries. The demands of my university program meant that I couldn’t afford to run dry of ideas, and I had taken the sage advice of a workshop presenter to file away any gems that might show promise for development later. 

It was around this time that a family member phoned me for a chat. He enjoyed visiting unique locales around the city, and he had recently paid a visit to a place that sounded altogether incongruous: a late-night barbershop in Brooklyn. 

He didn’t share many details from his experience at the barbershop, and the conversation quickly turned to other topics. But after we hung up, my mind soon returned to this place. I imagined men from Brooklyn flocking to a haircare “hole in the wall” that buzzed with activity after the sun went down. I envisioned it to be more than just a spot for a trim and a shave; that it might be a social environment ringing nightly with laughter, jokes, and the latest neighborhood news.

I jotted down the idea in my portfolio, scrawling down a single line: 

“Late night barbershop in Brooklyn.”

After I wrote down that idea, the intervening years grew hectic, as I finished my college coursework and moved to find my own professional path in the city. 

It wasn’t until 2014 that I was ready to return to the idea, as I searched for a way to address issues playing out in the news on a frequent basis.

The headlines were so often ablaze with scandals relating to the personal lives of male politicians and other public figures. I found myself wondering about the lives of these men’s wives. First, I was frustrated by their inaction—why were they staying with these wayward men? Wasn’t “staying” just enabling the corrupt men—not only to cheat and lie in their personal lives, but to extend those same vices in other ways to the public? 

Then, I began to wonder—perhaps it wasn’t simple for these women to deal with their lots in life. Maybe it wasn’t so easy for them to disentangle themselves. 

Things didn’t seem easy for women in the public eye, as a general rule. 

Female politicians struggled with their own barriers; many seemed thwarted in their attempts to gain a foothold, due to a misplaced public focus on their outward appearances—size, shape, and attire. 

I began to reflect back in time, considering the decades that preceded my birth. What was it like to be a woman during the early nineteen sixties, when the layers of restrictions weighed down even more heavily?

I wanted something to connect all of these inquiries together, into a work of historical women’s fiction. I needed to understand it all, so I dug up my handy ideas portfolio, which had lay dormant in the back of my desk cabinet for quite some time.

Now, I scanned the lines, and returned to it. 

A late-night barbershop.

I considered: how could I re-imagine this idea to focus on women? 

What if the late-night barbershop became a late-night women’s social club? Wouldn’t that have been “scandalous,” by the standards of the era, for women to flock to an uninhabited commercial district of Brooklyn?

Then, I expanded the idea: what if the owner of this social club was the wife of a corrupt politician? Or what if she was his ex-wife, trying to assert her own identity? This social club likely couldn’t have generated enough revenue on its own terms, so it would need to be something else. What if it was a dress shop by day, and what if the entire operation was a haven for women from all walks of life facing a myriad of issues—personal and professional?

What if this was an amazing spot to “let loose?”

This is how “the Starlite” in Glimmer As You Can was born. 

From that starting point, I built my characters. I wanted them each to represent various phases of life as a woman in the early ‘60s. There was Lisa, a young flight attendant, working a job which at the time had stringent standards of physical appearance for women. The Starlite would be her refuge. The social club would also be a refuge for Elaine, who was stuck in a difficult relationship and trying to carve out her own career at a newspaper. Finally, I would introduce Madeline—a bit older—the owner of the Starlite, a harbinger of women’s friendship during a difficult time in history.

These are the origins of Glimmer As You Can. It’s a blend of history mixed with optimism for the future—with a solid dose of female camaraderie, fun, and memorable moments at a gorgeous little escape in Brooklyn Heights. 

***

After graduating from New York University with B.F.A. in Film, Television, and English literature, Danielle started her professional career as an assistant at the William Morris Agency, before pursuing her Master’s degree in teaching. Danielle has worked as an educator in New York, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana. Currently, she teaches a global population of students online, in addition to homeschooling her child. Glimmer As You Can is her first novel.

GLIMMER AS YOU CAN

In the glitz and glamour tradition of Beatriz Williams’s Tiny Little Thing and Fiona Davis’s The Chelsea Girls, Danielle Martin’s debut novel features a dress boutique turned underground women’s social club where women from all walks of life come for support and sisterhood.

1962. In the middle of Brooklyn Heights sits the Starlite: boutique dress shop by day, underground women’s club by night. Started by the shop’s proprietor after her marriage to a prominent councilman crumbled, Madeline’s social club soon becomes a safe haven for women from all walks of life looking for a respite from their troubled relationships and professional frustrations. These after-hour soirées soon bring two very different women into Madeline’s life—Elaine, a British ex-pat struggling with an unpredictable fiancé, and Lisa, a young stewardess whose plans for the future are suddenly upended—irrevocably changing all three women’s lives in ways no one could have predicted.

But when Madeline’s ne’er-do-well ex-husband shows up again, the luster of Starlite quickly dampens. As the sisterhood rallies around Madeline, tension begins to eat at the club. When an unspeakable tragedy befalls their sorority, one woman must decide whether to hide the truth from the group or jeopardize her own hopes and dreams. Glimmer As You Can captures the heartbeat of an era and the ambitions of a generation of women living in a man’s world—a world threatened by a wave of change.

 

Glimmer As You Can is out now; you can order it here, or wherever books are sold.

Find out more about Danielle: https://www.daniellemartinbooks.com/

Follow her on Twitter @wordsofplenty

 

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing