Marcia Ben-Eli Archives - Marcia Gloster

Voices from a Distant Room

by Marcia Gloster

A story of love, loss, power, and peril. Will stir the spirits and enchant the reader.”
—Marilyn Brant, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of According to Jane and The Road to You

Voices from a Distant Room is a story of fate, ancient mysteries and eternal love. It begins five millennia ago, about the same time as the oldest Egyptian pyramids, as the Callanish Stones were being erected on a bleak island in the Outer Hebrides. One afternoon, a boy discovers an unknown cave. Venturing inside he stumbles upon pebbles that when touched, glow with no light. When he brings them to his tribal Shaman, he is told he is blessed; the stones have magic. While this bodes well for the boy and his future, the Shaman, through power and greed, overreaches.

In 1973, a young American woman named Cia Reynolds meets artist Will Jamieson, supposedly by chance, at an exhibition in London. Immediately aware of a powerful connection, he begins to pursue a relationship with her, albeit long distance. As their romance blossoms, Cia starts to question muffled whispers, otherworldly occurrences and an ancient Celtic ring that Will wears, one with a stone that not only glows but sparks blue fire. The mystery intensifies when Will is inexplicably drawn to the stone circle at Callanish, and then to a nearby inn where an impenetrable mist traps them between reality and illusion. Realizing he has questions that appear to have no answers, Will finds himself in a struggle with a sinister, ancient entity that threatens his, and Cia’s very existence.

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Publication date: 2020
Publisher: The Story Plant

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ISBN-10: 1611882834
ISBN-13: 978-1611882834

My Love, My Muse

Love passed, the muse appeared, the weather

of mind got clarity newfound;

now free, I once more weave together

emotion, thought and magic sound.

—Aleksandr Pushkin

Throughout history, a muse has traditionally been identified as female. In ancient Greek mythology, the Muses were nine goddesses who symbolized science, literature and the arts. Each presided over a particular sphere in which she possessed artistic talent; all were gifted with great beauty and allure. Their role was to relieve the world of its sorrows and serve as inspiration for poets, musicians and painters.Continue Reading →

I Refuse to Become My Mother

It’s pretty common wisdom that the way we parent is significantly influenced by the way we were parented as children. That doesn’t mean, however, that we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of our parents.

When I was in my twenties, a friend who had also come of age in the 1960s confided that she had been unhappy as a child and still felt anger toward her overprotective mother and distant, disinterested father. In response, I blithely stated that I thought my early years were pretty normal. She looked at me with wide eyes. “Think about that, Marcia,” she said. Once I did, I realized that my childhood had been anything but what could be called normal.

As the only child of parents who divorced when I was seven, I became, no doubt out of necessity and self-preservation, quite independent. Unless one was Elizabeth Taylor or Frank Sinatra, divorce in the early ‘50s was practically anathema; it was something the neighbors whispered about. After the initial shock of coming to terms with what “divorce” meant, including the fact that my father had moved out of state, I slowly adapted to the new normal.Continue Reading →

Writing Our Own Rules—and Roles

How did we wind up back in the Mad Men era at work?

This question, posed recently by Guardian columnist Lucia Graves, is one that repeatedly surfaced while I was writing my latest book, published in April. I Love You Today is a novel loosely based on my years working in publishing and advertising in New York City in the mid-to-late 1960s.

As I was writing the book, headlines about scandals at Fox News, Saatchi & Saatchi and other well-known media and advertising companies served as frequent reminders that gender discrimination and sexual harassment are hardly a thing of the past. Surveys from two trade organizations, the 3% Conference and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (the 4A’s), provided further evidence: more than 50% of women surveyed reported having experienced sexual harassment at least once. For all the strides women have made in the workplace in the past 50 years, it’s clear that we haven’t come all that long a way, baby.

I’m not fond of the phrase “women’s roles” as it reinforces the idea that we are expected to behave in a particular way because of gender, but it is hard to deny that gender-based stereotypes and opportunities have always been a part of our world. Witness the one in three women who told the 4A’s that they had “not received desired assignments or promotions at least a few times because of discrimination” and the 42% who said they had “not been included in decision-making because of discrimination.”Continue Reading →

The Beginning

a prequel by Marcia Gloster

I hope you have had a chance to read and enjoy Parts One and Two of “The Interview,” short stories that are prequels to my new novel I Love You Today, due to be published April 18th. They were a lot of fun to write and I hope they have given you, my reader, a chance to discover a bit about the main characters and the unique era in which they meet and play out their story. Although this is a work of fiction, I lived and worked with characters such as Maddie and Rob, and while the sixties may be history, this story remains ever-present.

I Love You Today is the story of Maddie Samuels, who arrives in New York in the summer of 1964 with dreams. Dreams she has already been warned might be unattainable. Ever optimistic but naïve, she meets challenges she never expected in her efforts to avoid becoming just another secretary and to find the job she really wants. And while hoping she’ll meet some cool guys, she’s surprised that the heretofore respectable young men she dated while living at home have suddenly developed drastically different viewpoints, particularly when it comes to working girls living alone in the big city.

Rob McLeod, on the other hand, is a brash and confident art director who is convinced he can bend the world of advertising, especially the female part of it, to his will. In this final prequel, he has hired Maddie at the magazine and, while she has no intention becoming anything more than his assistant, he is accustomed to getting whatever he wants and has other goals.

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