The Craft of Writing
The Joy of Unintended Consequences: My Unlikely Path to Becoming a Music Journalist
I became a music journalist because my husband gave me guitar lessons as a birthday present. It was a lovely gesture that led to an obsession. When I was young, my father sat at the piano practicing every night after dinner, and I twirled and leaped around the living room, dancing to Chopin. My father…
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A Conversation About LAYLA with Céline Keating
Q: You’ve described your novel by saying that “Layla is the story of a young woman whose journey forward is through the past.” What drew you to telling a story about this period through the perspective of someone too young to have experienced it? A: I wanted to write a book set in the political…
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Abbas and Me: The Story Behind the Cover of LAYLA
The short story is that the photo credit for the cover image goes to Mr. Abbas Rahbar. But there’s a longer back story of all that was involved in finding the photographer and getting the permissions. One of the best things about working with a small press like Plain View is that the author gets…
Read MoreCéline Keating : On Literature and Activism
I grew up in a working-class community in Queens, New York. My parents, sister, and I lived in a small apartment that was part of a complex that sprawled over what was once farmland. I mourned the loss of land and trees that seemed to disappear daily into sprawl, I mourned the loss of friends…
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An Excerpt from “Layla”
Chapter One MY NAME IS LAYLA. My mother said my father insisted they call me that as soon as they knew I was a girl. He thought the song by Eric Clapton, when he was with Derick and the Dominos, was the best R&R single of all time. I loved knowing it meant so much…
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An Excerpt from “Play for Me”
Chapter One Lily watched her son walk away, the loose, jaunty shamble of him, the brave uptilt of his head, and felt just as she had when she abandoned him to kindergarten what seemed such a short time ago. “Oh, sweetheart,” her husband said. Around them families bunched, kissing and parting in kaleidoscopic movement. Stephen…
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