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Authors: Loraine Despres

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L o r a i n e D e s p r e s

them as they wept hot tears when the humiliated men in their lives

left them, or worse, stayed and treated them badly. She had to write

the Southern Belle’s Handbook for them, to help them attract a

good man and keep him in line, because Sissy knew even the best of

men needed a little managing. And if the other women took up the

handbook, maybe Marilee would too. Then maybe, just maybe, her

daughter would be able to find happiness, and not just empty bus-

tle, in her life.

The high school band struck up her old school march, and Clara

slipped her arm around her cousin’s waist. The two old ladies

waved as the crowd cheered.

But how could she write the handbook? She’d never written any-

thing except thank-you letters. Of course she’d helped with the

speeches and put together fund-raising proposals, but that wasn’t

really writing.

As the band played and the crowd sang “Onward, onward to vic-

tory!” Clara took Sissy’s hand in hers and held it up in a victory

salute. The crowd went wild. Parker and Marilee applauded loudly,

beaming with pride.

Suddenly Sissy knew she’d never succeed unless she tried. She

had to take that first step. She’d write down what she remembered.

The rest would come. Hell, she was only seventy-six. She had time.

Acknowledgments

There are so many people who helped me give birth to this

novel. I am indebted first and foremost to my agent, Robert Tabian,

who kept the faith and never let me down, and to my editor, Claire

Wachtel, a woman of great taste and perspicacity. I also want to

thank Jennifer Pooley at William Morrow/HarperCollins for her

guidance and hand-holding, and Sharyn Rosenblum for her bril-

liant support. Sissy was born in Deena Metzger’s workshop, and

without her prodding, Sissy and her eccentric family might never

have kept me awake at night and invaded my dreams. I am

indebted to Mollie Gregory, Johnna Levine, and especially Sarah

Timberman for their careful reading of the manuscript and their

enthusiasm for it in its earliest stages and to Patricia Eskovitz and

Dr. Ernest Scheuer, who proofed it at the end. Carolyn Kolb in New

Orleans supplemented my childhood memories with her own recol-

lections of small-town life in Louisiana. My father-in-law, Dr. Ches-

more Eastlake, researched illegal abortions in the 1940s for me.

The accuracies are theirs; any mistakes are all my own. I wish to

acknowledge Dianne Dixon, who with unbridled enthusiasm urged

me on. (Easy for you, Dianne.) And I am eternally grateful to my

fellow writers, who have inspired me and who go daily into solitary

rooms, sit in front of relentlessly whirring computers, and attempt

to commit literature. I appreciate my son, David Despres Mulhol-

land, for his unswerving belief that I could do anything. Finally, for

my peculiar worldview I am beholden to the memories of two great

southern belles—my grandmother Dora Stern and my aunt Francis

Stern Schwarz—and to the memory of my mother, Doris Stern

Despres, who never let the bastards get the better of her. This book

could not have been written without any of them.

A b o u t t h e A u t h o r

Raised in Louisiana, L O R A I N E D E S P R E S brings

her small-town, magnolia-sweet charm, cynical

humor, and experience growing up as a daughter

of the South to her irresistible debut novel,
The

Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc
. A popular

and prolific screenwriter, international writing

consultant, and teacher, she has one son, David

Mulholland, from a brief, early marriage. She

now lives in Beverly Hills with her husband,

Carleton Eastlake, who, fifteen years ago, suc-

cumbed to the charms of a Southern belle and

helped her prove the truth of Rule 101: “You

can’t change the past, but a smart girl won’t let

that stop her.”

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Credits

Cover designand imaging by Honi Werner

Copyright

Co. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of PerfectBound™.

PerfectBound™ and the PerfectBound™ logo are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader September 2005 ISBN 0-06-089840-2

First Perennial edition published 2002.

The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows:

Despres, Loraine.

The scandalous summer of Sissy LeBlanc / Loraine Despres.— 1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-688-17389-6

ISBN 0-06-050588-5 (pbk.)

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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