KEARNEY — Jennifer Lieberman looked to her own life for the foundation of her first novel, something the author describes as a coming of age/romantic comedy story.
“It’s about a young woman in her 20s named Dana,” Lieberman said. “She’s heartbroken and out of her first relationship, trying to navigate the New York dating scene. She’s looking for ‘the one.’ It’s a journey where she finds out that she needs to fall in love with herself before she falls in love with anybody else.”
The Canadian writer thinks of her book, “The Year of the What?” as racy, funny and sad — a story that spans many emotions.
“A lot of the reviews that have come in call it relatable,” she said in an interview from her home outside of Toronto. “The reviewers say they can see themselves in the characters. That’s very encouraging to me.”
The idea for the book came from a one-woman show Lieberman created called “Year of the Slut.” She launched the book under that original title in 2018, only to have it rejected on social media. Even Amazon declined to let her sell the book on its website under that title.
“I felt like I was really dead in the water,” Lieberman said. “That’s why the book is currently called ‘The Year of the What?’”
The author has decided to continue the story in a sequel.
In the novel, Dana evaluates her life after her breakup. She understands that she has been following the expectations and sexual norms of society. Her college roommate, Kelly, decides to drop out of school and become a dominatrix and pursue an alternative lifestyle where she makes ‘lawyer money’ working in a dungeon in Chelsea, a neighborhood in New York City.
Lieberman created the show for a specific, industry-based reason — to benefit her acting career.
“The purpose of the show was to get tension going and to get some people from the industry in L.A. to come see me perform,” she said. “I toured the show to show my range as a actor. I played 10 different roles — all the different people in the play — to show that I can do comedy, drama, different accents and that I could take the audience through all of the ‘feels.’”
While many writing instructors often advise beginning authors to “write what you know,” Lieberman said she didn’t exactly use that suggestion.
“I loosely started off with a story based on my life, but then I took it to the next level for the sake of storytelling and making it into something super entertaining,” she said. “But I think in a lot of our writing, we start with some sort of experience we’ve had, whether we’ve exploited it into some sort of metaphorical experience. Even if a writer creates a story with supernatural beings, it all stems from something human we’ve experienced.”
Lieberman agreed that some aspects of “What of the Year” are autobiographical.
“I was living in New York City and trying to be an actress and working a bunch of jobs,” she said. “The book started off on my experiences and my roommate did have a full ride to college. She was a genius. And then she decided to drop out and become a dominatrix. The story started off with some very true elements. She was sort of like a foil because I was this totally naïve girl from Canada, who had never been with anybody when I met her. And she was this sort of wild child. We had some pretty crazy experiences together.”
“Year of the What?” a novel by Jennifer Lieberman, published by Maple Mermaid Publishing Corporation, 2020, 201 pages, $12
Jennifer Lieberman, courtesy
From there Lieberman had to continue the story.
“It started off as that, and then I realized that it wasn’t enough for an entire show or a whole novel,” she laughed. “And then I had to invent things. I’ve met quite a few colorful people on my travels in the creative world, so every character is a combination of several people I’ve come across. And, yes, I’ve borrowed some stories. It was a lot of fun.”
She enjoyed creating the one-woman show and even enjoyed transcribing the story into novel form.
“For me it’s a pleasure to come up with different characters and different scenarios that surprise myself,” Lieberman said. “That’s how I know I’m writing something fun.”
On a deeper level, beyond the comedy, the author calls the story a “sex-positive feminist” piece of writing.
“I think the dominatrix character sums it up at the end of the first chapter, after Dana goes to a hotel to have sex with her former boyfriend hoping to get back together with him, only to learn that he’s living with another woman,” Lieberman said. “Her roommate comes to console her and basically says to her, ‘If you don’t start having sex for yourself now, when will you ever have it?’”