NWI Times Article

Breaking up is hard to do

Author, who calls Chicago's North Shore home, finds inspiration in heartbreak
BY JANE AMMESON
Times Correspondent
Date posted online: Sunday, January 20, 2008

"Undoing I Do," Anastasia Royal's poignant, heartbreaking but ultimately inspiring novel of love, its death and moving on, is set Chicago's North Shore, an area the author calls home.

And the book, though not her life story, contains some elements of what Royal has learned about love, loss and rebuilding.

 "I was getting my life back together," says Royal about the process of how she began writing the book, her first.

"I found that as I wrote, the novel became more about the loss of love, finding love and how we move on."

 Expressing her emotions is nothing new for Royal, who is an artist, musician, composer, poet, playwright and actress.

She also had her own theater company for seven years and performed one-woman shows in small venues in alternative places.

She took that artistic talents and wrote a theme song to "Undoing I Do." There is also a music video to go along with it. Both can be found on her Web site, www.undoingido.com.

 "I didn't want to write about victimization," says Royal, who lives in Wilmette, Ill.

"I wanted to show the range of emotions people go through. No one does well, but women are resilient. I thought Claire, my heroine, was exceptional and unique. I thought it was important to show how people get through this."

 Indeed, Claire's pain at the beginning of the book is almost unbearable and her spiraling into depression difficult for readers, because she is almost instantly likeable. But the book ultimately is about hope and overcoming what seem to insurmountable obstacles. That is its strength and what it gives to us.

 Royal's book has garnered a lot of interest. Redbook Magazine gave "Undoing I Do" a positive review in its November issue. She now is working on her next book.

FYI: "Undoing I Do" by Anastasia Royal (St. Martin's Press, 2007)