I was digging deep again, as I do every year or so, into my box of keepsakes and relics that I really don't know why I kept them but did. Stuff I wrote as a kid (some of that, I must say, rather disturbing), old letters of the real life mailed sort, newspaper clippings of miscellany, that have strangely yellowed and gotten brittle already and that shit just ain't right since it seems not so long ago ... whatever, I'm getting old.
From the Kansas City Kansan, newspaper that we got delivered daily, Friday, July 25, 1975, I had cut out and kept this one particular article headlined "Youngster completes first novel." I was always writing as a kid, so I remember very well snipping this one item, on account of the twelve-years-old youngster was my same age, and I very much wanted my own novel published. Of course I hadn't written it yet, but I figured this proved I could do it, too, kept it for an affirmation thingy.
Over the years I've remembered saving that specific one, but never had brought it out it read it again, because why would I really? Not that it matters (I'm just wasting space here), but I was reading it tonight and it struck, the beginning:
"Alexandra Sheedy sat on a loveseat, giggling and chattering about the novel she just finished ... She is petite and has long, golden hair. She is 12 years old and her friends call her Ally. Her first book comes out this fall, published by McGraw-Hill."The book she wrote was She Was Nice To Mice: The Other Side of Elizabeth I's Character Never Before Revealed by Previous Historians (which you can pick up for a piddling two cents at Amazon, with mostly good reviews from
I Googled to be sure that this was, in fact, the Ally Sheedy: St. Elmo's Fire, The Breakfast Club, and so it was. Also War Games; I like that one a lot, too. Short Circuit, not so much.
I don't know why I think clipping that article someone means squat. She obviously never went on to success writing anything else, which was my reason for keeping it in the first place. Hell, she hardly even had much success as an actor, aside from just a few notable roles. But dollars to doughnuts no one else knows her first publicity write-up, or what it was for, and I'm pretty sure nobody has it in a box like I do.
I maybe could yet write a book someday; it could happen.
I did not know that about Ally Sheedy. Somehow some people make it happen while most of us don't. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteP.S. - I have several of those boxes.
The Breakfast Club is one of my favorite movies featuring Ally. They just don't make teen movies like that anymore. I had no idea that Ally was a child author. How can you not love #5? My daughter really enjoyed the first Short Circuit movie.
ReplyDelete@Doug - I know! Isn't it weird? Oh well. By the way, I have those boxes, too.
ReplyDeleteRain - "My daughter really enjoyed ..." Hmmm. :-)
ReplyDeleteI have one of those boxes too. Actually, I've been meaning to either get a bigger one or start a second one, as mine is almost full. I've got notes, letters, newspaper clippings, event programs, and tons of random stuff. I'm also shocked at how quickly some of the stuff seems to fade and get brittle. Notes that were written only a few years ago now how to be handled with care or they might tear.
ReplyDeleteI never realized other people kept boxes like that. I thought it was a weird habit of mine.
I never knew that about her. I wonder what happened to her...listen, a person can do anything they can try. It is the trying that usually slips us up. I tossed my clippings box about 10 years ago. Haven't given it a thought till just now. Print out your blog. Self publish with Amazon.com---you never know!
ReplyDelete