Imperfect Paradise
Synopsis:
Imperfect Paradise tells a story of internal awakening and delivers a powerful message
about hope, happiness, and finding your place in the world. A classic romance
with a contemporary twist, it is sure to appeal to fans of modern, liberating
fiction.
For thirty-two-year-old Sarah Chizeck,
marriage was not an option, but an expectation. She was raised to believe that
a woman’s main focus is to get married and start a family, and she put
everything on hold to accomplish this goal.
When she finally marries her boyfriend of
five years, Michael—a smart, successful and charismatic dream—her family is
ecstatic; but is Sarah? Underneath Sarah’s smiles, feelings begin to surface.
Sarah’s career and personal interests were
not all she put on hold to pursue marriage. She also put her feelings on the
backburner and buried her emotions. When she reluctantly goes to Hawai’i for
her honeymoon, the raw beauty of where she is and who she is surrounded by
drudges up passions, and she is both pleased and alarmed by the sensory
experiences she encounters.
Terrified by her attraction to a handsome
young concierge, Sarah is forced to confront her emotional state, as well as
emotions she previously ignored, and she ultimately comes to surprising
revelations about her upbringing, marriage, and future.
Guest
Post by Dan Dembiczak
When I began working on Imperfect Paradise, I knew it was a
woman’s story. And not just any
woman. Sarah Chizeck – the protagonist –
is deeply complex, somewhat challenging and absolutely human. The inspiration for her began with taking the
women’s self-discovery stories of the late 1800s and putting it in modern
times. I was most interested in Kate
Chopin’s The Awakening, a book that
spoke to me at an early age and the power of the story has stuck with me for a
long time. In early feminist fiction,
the woman was always seeking to escape – and unfortunately the only escape
route meant her own demise. I wanted to
explore a more positive option, but equally delve into the messiness of
figuring out one’s true path. I also
looked deeply into Henrik Ibsen’s A
Doll’s House and, for a more contemporary point of reference, The Hours by Michael Cunningham.
As far as comprehending a woman’s feelings
and gaining insight, beyond being a huge fan of women’s fiction, I grew up around
a lot of women. I’m the youngest of four
siblings, with three older sisters. So
it was like I had four mothers! I’ve
also had some very special female friendships over the years and observed the
markedly different experience a woman has even in these modern times. I chose first-person narration because of its
personable nature and its ability to connect the reader to the character’s
inner emotional states.
I wanted Sarah to be a challenge for
the reader, much like Edna was in The
Awakening. At first we see her as a
privileged newlywed whose biggest problem is that she didn’t get Paris for her
honeymoon and instead has to spend two weeks at a Hawaiian resort. But then as the story unfolds and we learn of
her backstory, it becomes more evident that she isn’t living life for
herself. She’s trying to fit into a
paradigm her family and society have set for her and ignore her doubts, regrets
and misgivings. We learn that she has
never faced up to a desire to create art, not just work behind the scenes
(which was her career before quitting work to focus on wedding
arrangements). She wants a say in
things. She wants her own life, but has
never known how to articulate that until this bizarre awakening takes place on
a tropical island while her husband golfs.
In the end, Sarah is a woman who is
willing to withdraw from an extremely comfortable place to find her true
self. And to live it. Her story isn’t so much about which man is better
for her, but about unraveling her deepest truths and greeting them with the
warmest aloha.
About
the Author
Dan Dembiczak is a Seattle native who began
writing stories as soon as he could spell. He earned a BA in creative writing
from the University of Washington and has worked extensively in local theater
as a playwright, actor, director, and producer. Eight of his plays were
produced in Seattle, including the popular four-part Capitol Hill High series, and a number of his articles and short
stories have appeared in publications in Seattle and Los Angeles.
Dembiczak has traveled extensively to the
Hawaiian islands, particularly the Big Island, where he was married in 2008,
and considers Hawai'i his second home. He primarily resides in Seattle with his
husband, dog, and chickens, and is currently working on his second novel.
Follow Dan on Twitter @ImperParadise
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