“All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story.” ~Karen Blixen
There’s a fire scene in my novel, Where the Light Enters. It is based on my fire experience 5 years ago. I almost got trapped in the building and lost nearly all of my belongings. There was no fire escape and to the best of my knowledge the alarms and sprinklers didn’t work. I wrote that passage yesterday. At one point my hands shook and my stomach felt sick. But the scene breathes. It crackles, and that’s exactly what I wanted. And once it was over, I felt free; I hope people who have been in a similar situation will read it and feel free, too.
Below is a snippet from Chapter 2. In it you’ll meet Oliver Page, Emerson’s dad, and learn about his uncommon career and a suspicious contact.
“Oliver Page failed his wife, Nora, when she needed him most. As he swiped, tapped, and repositioned images and pieces of text on his touch screen wall, he often felt her working through him. Or at least he felt her try.
In his 25 years as a storied forensic linguist, he’d never had this many dead end leads. Ransom demands, literary forgeries, hostage negotiations, suicide notes. He had cracked the most gruesome cold cases and brought order to legal complications held up in courts for years.
So much for his education pedigree and the accolades that tiled his walls. If he couldn’t vindicate her death and give it meaning, he was a failure.”
The short of it:
Writer. Health, education, and art advocate. Theater and film producer. Visual artist. Product geek. Proud alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA). Inspired by ancient wisdom & modern tech. Proliferator of goodness. Opener of doors. Friend to animals. Fan of creative work in all its wondrous forms. I use my business skills to create passion projects that build a better world. I’ve been called the happiest New Yorker, and I try hard to live up to that title every day.
The long of it:
My career has stretched across Capitol Hill, Broadway theatre, education, nonprofit fundraising, health and wellness, and Fortune 500 companies in retail, media, entertainment, technology, and financial services. I’ve been a product developer and product manager, theater manager, strategic consultant, marketer, voice over artist, , teacher, and fundraiser. I use my business and storytelling to support and sustain passion projects that build a better world. In every experience, I’ve used my sense of and respect for elegant design to develop meaningful products, services, programs, and events.
While building a business career, I also built a strong portfolio as a journalist, novelist, freelance writer, interviewer, presenter, and public speaker. My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, PBS.org, Boston.com, Royal Media Partners publications, and The Motley Fool on a wide range of topics including business, technology, science, health, education, culture, and lifestyle. I have also been an invited speaker at SXSW, Teach for America, Avon headquarters, Games for Change, NYU, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. The first book in my young adult book series, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, was acquired by a publisher and launched in November 2017. I’m currently working on the second book in the series.
A recovering multi-tasker, I’m equally at home in front of my Mac, on my yoga mat, walking my rescue dog, Phineas, traveling with a purpose, or practicing the high-art of people watching. I also cut up small bits of paper and put them back together as a collage artist.
My company:
I’m bringing together all of my business and creative career paths as the Founder of Double or Nothing Media:
• I craft products, programs, and projects that make a difference;
• I build the business plans that make what I craft financially sustainable;
• I tell the stories that matter about the people, places, and products that inspire me.
Follow my adventures on Twitter at https://twitter.com/christanyc and Instagram at https://instagram.com/christarosenyc.
View all posts by Christa Avampato
I'd love to know what you think of this post! Please leave a reply and I'll get back to you in a jiffy! ~ CRA Cancel reply
Christa Avampato 