Andrea Simon
Author Interview - Andrea Simon
Author of Floating in the Neversink, Here's the Story ... Nine Women Write Their Lives, and Did You Have the Life You Wanted?
About Did You Have the Life You Wanted?
Life begins for Anita in 1968 when she graduates from college, leaves her family home in Brooklyn, and moves to Greenwich Village, stepping into the revolutionary heyday of her times. Against the turbulent backdrop of racially charged school strikes, the Stonewall Inn and Attica uprisings, and the nascent feminist movement, Anita grapples with gang violence, job restrictions, gender stereotypes, as well as the corrosive nature of familial secrets and regrets, and, ultimately, her own evolution as a woman during and after this volatile era. As she ages, Anita asks herself and her friends the question: “Did you have the life you wanted?” rompting surprising and heartbreaking responses. Spanning the generations over a fifty-year period from 1968 to 2019, Did You Have the Life You Wanted? is a celebration of the ‘70s, the women who lived through it, and the legacy they left their daughters. Above all, this novel serves as an anthem to the restorative and life-affirming power of female friendship.
About Here's the Story ... Nine Women Write Their Lives:
HERE'S THE STORY ... NINE WOMEN WRITE THEIR LIVES originated from an online course called “Writing about Your Mom without Guilt,” for the Story Circle Network, an international writing organization. Not wanting to end our special bond, we continued to meet and share our writing after the course ended. What emerged is this anthology of forty-two pieces: essays, stories, and poems.
Each of us has lived a full and singular life, from growing up in the Deep South to the Australian outback to the alleys of Brooklyn to the multiple displacements as a military brat schooled in Europe. These experiences produced stories about childhood trauma, travels, illnesses, reaching life’s goals, friendships, colorful relatives, books, and the pandemic. In short, we write about the women we have been and the women we want to be. We think this unique collection will inspire and entertain many, taking readers on a provocative journey.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS: We are: Amy Baruch, Stephanie Cowell, Linda Aronovsky Cox, Karen Finch, Jane Mylum Gardner, Rhonda Hunt-Del Bene, Katherine Kirkpatrick, Kathleen M. Rodgers, and Andrea Simon. Some of us are fine artists, businesswomen, educators, a physician, researchers, musicians; and we even have two former opera singers. In the literary world, we are a mix of seasoned writers with several published works and those who write personal reflections for various media.
Author Interview - Andrea Simon
About Floating in the Neversink:
“A novel-in-stories, Floating in the Neversink follows a sensitive and impressionable young Jewish girl, Amanda Gerber, through the evocative world of summers in the Catskill Mountains, interspersed with Brooklyn’s Flatbush, from 1955-1961, a time of veiled innocence and impending turbulence.”
Author Interview - Andrea Simon
Author I draw inspiration from:
2025: Lore Segal author of Her First American
2024: Joan Didion
2020: Emily Bronte
Author Interview - Andrea Simon
Favorite place to read a book:
2025: Curled up in bed.S
2024: Bedroom
2020: Adirondack chair on country porch.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
2025: Perhaps Stephen Dedalus in Ulysses so I can ask him to give me an elevator pitch for his novel.
2024: Anne Frank in the Diary of Anne Frank. I would tell her how much she inspired generations of girls, and in my wildest fantasy, I would lead her out into the street to safety.
2020: Huck from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Author Interview - Andrea Simon
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
2025: It wasn't a moment, but a several times during my adolescence when I found solace in writing stories.
2024: As a young girl when I made up stories with my friends.
2020: I can’t think of one particular moment. As a child, I always made up adventures and family-oriented stories to play with my cousins and friends.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
2025: I prefer paperback as I like the tactile experience of a physical book. Hardback is great, especially for those books that I love. Ebooks are of course the easiest to access and are more affordable.
2024:I prefer print books that I can touch, turn a page, underline, and display proudly on my shelves.
2020: Paperback, ebook, audiobook
The last book I read:
2025: I am currently reading The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne. I am enjoying it as he comes from a fascinating family that includes Joan Didion and the Dunne brothers; and, of course, the gruesome murder of his lovable sister.
2024: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. Loved the descriptive writing and originality of the storyline. I felt the exposition could be trimmed.
2020: Abigail by Magda Szabó
Author Interview - Andrea Simon
Pen & paper or computer:
2025: As a beginning writer, I used pen and yellow legal pads, eventually settling on thin lined journals. Nowadays, I admit that I have succumbed to the computer, though I am fearful that I have relinguished a quietude in the process.
2024: I use the computer for most of my writing. I make notes about characters and plots on paper. My research is a combination of writing on paper and computer searching.
2020: computer; also pen and paper
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
2025: Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. She is honest, spunky, and always herself, attributes I look for in a friend.
2024: Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I admire her honesty and spunk and think she would be an advernturous companion growing up.
2020: Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Author Interview - Andrea Simon
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
2025: An artist of some sort; perhaps a photographer or abstract painter.
2024: An artist and photographer.
2020: Photographer
Favorite decade in fashion history:
2025: 1930s; I like a boxy pants and jackets that women in the movies wore.
2024: I like the 1930s. I recall photos of my mother in loose slacks and belted jackets, and she looked so glamorous and comfortable.
2020: 1930s
Place I’d most like to travel:
2025: Perhaps South America as I have never been further south than Costa Rica. I would also like to go to Australia to visit relatives and see the fabulously diverse country.
2024: There are so many places that I love. I find that I return often to Italy as I love the energy of the people -- and of course, the food.
2020: India
My signature drink:
2025: Coffee on a daily basis and cappuccino for specail occasions.
2024: Coffee
2020: coffee
Favorite artist:
2025: I have recently seen a exhibit of John Singer Sargent and was very impressed with his style and sense of color.
2024: I find this question difficult to answer as I have so many favorites. Although I often paint abstract subjects, I am always drawn to the Impressionists, particularly Mary Cassatt.
2020: Paul Cézanne
Number one on my bucket list:
2025: For my next birthday, my daughter suggested a party at a Chinese karaoke restaurant. Just to see my contemporaries sing at such a venue seems wild.
2024: Always, seeing my work published.
2020: To be able to see and touch family and friends again without fear of Covid 19.
Anything else you’d like to add:
2025: Of course, I'd love to be able to participate in activites and events that involve my family and friends.
Find more from the author:
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/andrea.simon.84684
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/andrea.p.simon/
Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@user8850331923478?lang=en
author website: https://www.andreasimon.net/
About Andrea Simon:
Andrea Simon is the author of three award-winning, published books: the groundbreaking memoir/history, Bashert: A Granddaughter’s Holocaust Quest; historical fiction, Esfir Is Alive; and a novel-in-stories, Floating in the Neversink. Andrea holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the City College of New York, where she has taught writing. Students from her course “Writing About Your Mom without Guilt,” created the anthology, Here’s the Story...Nine Women Write Their Lives, of which Andrea is the editor and a contributor. Her new novel, Did You Have the Life You Wanted? will be published by Sibylline Press in September 2025. A native New Yorker, she lives in Manhattan with her husband
