"DAYMARES" - A Novel - Synopsis, Excerpt and Author Bio

Brief Author Bio/Novena T. Beget
DAYMARES – A Novel

I am a beginning writer in the reference/polishing stages of my first novel. I actually enjoyed making books as a child, and kept small journals periodically, but nothing as serious as my first work. The seed of compelling urge existed through the years and I did possess the foresight to record important events, many of which live and breathe in DAYMARES.
The scratching of dates and notes on paper erupted into increased content, as ironically, I learned to type just last year. Earlier attempts had failed, as I loathed the dinosaur typewriters, finding them cumbersome and annoying. The age of technology made it much easier to pick up the skill in a matter of a few short weeks.
DAYMARES mirrors my own life, which I will combine in this description. I assume the name of “Naomi” in MARES, and fictionalize all of the existing characters.
As a product of my childhood environment, I noted particular distinction, especially as a child possessing artistic gifts. The gifts included praise and applause, as well as pressurized burdens. Early traumas and misguidance left me ill equipped to handle the demands of life as a lonely child. The elation and joy experienced in my formative years shatter when I lose my mother at the age of ten.
The pivotal loss marks irreparable changes as well as haunting foresights as I delve deeper into the files she left behind as a writer herself. Even larger birthing pains await as I plan to market incredible works/history that were on the verge of being lost. I have carted the works with me for 36 years, across the country and back, no less.
My Novel chronicles enchanting early childhood memories and experiences, in rich colorful detail.
Along with the stories of joy, I lead up to the ultimate story of devastation. I recount, from the memory of a ten year old, what it was like to attend my mother’s funeral. Resorting to an existence in numb mode becomes the order, as I drift from one catastrophe to the next. It is a miracle that I am alive.
Salvation comes into play, not making anything smoother, but often more complicated as I struggle between the powerful unseen forces of good vs. evil. The demons of evil threaten to overtake me as I nearly succumb to alcoholism, drug addiction and petty crime. I share my triumph with readers as I conquer each one.
DAYMARES tells the tale of visiting the “World Trade Center and the Top of the World,” as well as the effects of its loss, memorable movie going experiences, becoming a bodybuilding champion just 2 years after achieving sobriety, surviving an ill-chosen marriage/divorce and traveling across the U.S. completely alone. With satire and humor, I describe what living in the south is like, as well as the occasional run in with the opposite sex. DAYMARES is clean though, and readable for young adult audiences, Christian and secular alike. I have peppered DAYMARES with personally meaningful scripture that sustained me.
I tell readers that they “can” and they “will,” with Gods help, if they want it. DAYMARES is not syrupy – but brutally honest, revealing my own struggles with my Maker. At “The Trailer & The Bottom of the World,” I decide whether I want to stick to serving Him or not, sharing my obsession with suicide.
We cannot forget the endless satire found in Chapters like, “Food, Clothing & Shelter,” “Welfare” and “Mental Health.”
DAYMARES finishes with the touching relationship that I find with an aging woman, forgotten by the world around her. Steve and Naomi battle the forces of poverty together, without a single incident of irony slipping past. Just as Naomi thinks that things cannot reach any lower, a glimmer of pin light appears, holding her on.
The sequel to MARES is a living testimony of what is to come – no less exhilarating and exciting than the first part.

I welcome you to join me in my story….

Novena T. Beget


“SYNOPSIS”

Twinkling lights and champagne music back drop this stylized romp. This life account gives readers a view to the joys and heartaches of a girl born in the 1960’s.
The TALON’S marry and have two children. Their blissful existence is shattered when NAOMI finds her mother dead one Sunday morning. SANDRA’S death virtually destroys her surviving children; they suffer double abandonment when their grieving father leaves the home temporarily, unable to cope.
Naomi falls into the care of neighbors, with whom a life long struggle for self begins. She is the star child, faced with a life of alcoholism and the guilt of believing that she is responsible for her mother’s death.
Naomi battles for the attention of her new mother figure BETH and meets JESUS. She marries, divorces, and drives across the United States. She meets hunger in the south and exhausts all of her resources.
After driving cross-country again, she faces going back “home” to the small town or the streets/jails of Los Angeles. At home, she finds illness and the loss of most of her belongings.
Naomi discovers herself at the age of 45 and eventually finds fulfillment as a single woman.

The Current Length of the Work: 49,628

Market/Demographic Focus: Adult Fiction/Tragedy/Satire - Based on a True Story

Main Character - Naomi Talon, firstborn, gifted, petite, scrawny child-late-bloomer, has a guilt/superiority complex.

Sandra Talon - Her clinically depressed mother found dead in the second chapter. The unexpected tragedy throws the Talon family into a dire tailspin, leaving Naomi in the grip of alcoholism and a life-long thirst for suicide.

Dad Talon – Is the sophisticated, educated and dashing businessperson trying to do well by his family. He plops them smack in the middle of nowhere, where he finds his retiring career. He possesses all of the polish that his New York upbringing affords him, unaware of the health of his core family.

Kurt Talon - Naomi’s single sibling - five years her junior, is equally attractive and capable. He suffers the void of not having a mother (he is five when she dies), and ends up homeless on the streets.

Beth Smith - The hapless neighbor who befriends Sandra as neighbors and finds herself raising her surviving children. A life long struggle exists between Naomi and Beth, with Beth nearly sending Naomi to a homeless shelter.

Aaron Bates is Naomi’s husband/hero/policeman, who is unaware of her past.


“DAYMARES” – A NOVEL
Excerpt from Chapter 4
“The Alcohol Recovery Home”
By Novena T. Beget

March 14, 1985

I called my counselor and asked him to meet me during the off hours. I went into his darkened office and told him what had happened. We were alone sans his secretary in the front area. I began my lament quietly and quickly built up to a scream capable of blowing the roof off the building and collapsed into a heap. He took immediate action, scooped me up in his arms and carried me to his car, laying me in the back seat. I watched as we left my car in the office lot and drove away. I sobbed tears all over the car seat, feeling a powerful release of pressure.

The short distance passed in slow motion with the seven-year nightmare finishing in a two-minute jaunt. I looked up and out the window from my reclining position, spent. We stopped at the local women’s alcoholic recovery home, a non-addressed older home located in the center of town. How many times had I passed this sober house in my lifetime? A dynamic thing was about to happen at the secret, nameless place. He escorted me into the dingy interior that reeked of super-stale smoke and introduced me to the dozen or so women who had been waiting. They knew.

The accommodations were less than favorable and I hated being there, it felt like a jail and I could not wait to get out. The women were mostly aged and wrinkled, scarred by liquor abuse. They huddled around me and said, “Honey it’s not too late for you, you can stop while you’re young and still keep your face. You won’t lose it like we did.”

They assigned me to a bottom bunk, and told me that I could not go to work or leave the house for 30 to 90 days. I did not intend to quit work. I spent one night at the home before I was “rescued” by the scum on his motorcycle. It was not without a fight however; the director insisted that I stay, resorting to verbal force. The same huddle of women stood as a barrier against the door with the stern warning, “You will never stay sober if you leave.”

The boyfriend took me to the apartment where I went through the utter hell of detoxification completely alone. Although he was there, he did not help me, leaving me to agonize on the couch. I groaned uncontrollably as I held on to the back cushion, knowing that the process was going to require more guts than anything that I would do for the rest of my life.

I noted extreme physical changes in my body and went to the doctor. He confirmed that I was in detoxification mode and sent me home to rest. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months as the beer fat dropped off, giving me a radiant glow. I felt like a million bucks.

I continued to live in that apartment amid cocaine parties and flowing alcohol and although his friends pressured me to drink-, I never did. As my health returned and I started to look better, I started to lose interest in the scum. I left once, he begged me to go back and I did.