At a Loss for Words

She wasn't looking for love. As a successful writer with an established career, a comfortable home and a supportive group of friends, her life was full. But then, 30 years after he broke her heart the first time, he walked into a book signing and back into her life. Spurred on by the idyll of a first love made good, they reconnect through emails--the bits and bytes of their messages re-forming into a real electricity between them. He is smitten. She is enthralled.

But, strangely, love has left her with a nasty case of writer's block. She gathers all the strength she can find in the text around her--using optimistic horoscopes, evasive fortune cookies and the inanely unhelpful suggestions of books on writer's block--to fight against the understanding that a love can't be sustained on language alone. Then, in a surprising and wickedly delicious resolution, she recognizes that truth and fiction can be one and the same in matters of the heart, and that in a "he said, she said" story, the writer always gets the last word.

At A Loss For Words is another brilliant expression of Diane Schoemperlen's gift for building the minutiae of everyday life into a profound understanding of women, men, love and imagination.


Genre: Literary Fiction