Product Description
Living on the Sunny Side: A Memoir by Sunny Deuber is mostly Sunny’s personal story, with some family history that goes back a long, long time. She was born in Hollywood (yes, that Hollywood) and spent her first fourteen or so years living in Burbank, about two blocks north of the original Warner Bros. studio, with her widowed mother. Her mom worked for the State of California, handing out unemployment checks to big stars who arrived in their limos, wearing fur coats! They didn’t always look as good when they were at the grocery store!
The author studied ballet with two very well-known instructors and was in rehearsal for a performance at the Hollywood Bowl when her mother was transferred to Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley, where Sunny continued studying and began teaching ballet. She had taken her first acting class in Burbank and continued acting for many years, eventually finishing a BFA in Performance.
Sunny was born in May 1941, the late-in-life child of a mother born in 1903 and a father who died when she was just fourteen months old. A precocious ‘brat’ (her own description), she spent a good deal of time trying to understand the conflicts in her life and why her mother seemed to hate her; a world that changed drastically six months after she was born; and an enormous generation gap. But she spent a lot more time having fun with her mother, something she didn’t realize or understand until she wrote her memoir.
Between the early years in southern California and her retirement in 2006, she worked in Yosemite Valley on weekends when she was in high school; worked in a Yosemite high county guest camp for half the summer after graduation, as a replacement for someone who evidently didn’t like working in the Sierra Nevada back country; managed to survive two near-fatal car crashes within seven weeks (and being thrown from a horse between them); four not-so-good marriages; and a variety of educational opportunities (thank for employer tuition reimbursement). She continued to teach and study ballet off and on until well into her thirties; was the co-owner of a small theater company in Colorado; won the award for best actress in a non-musical in a state-wide competition; and bummed around Europe for three weeks with her business partner. The list goes on…
More than one reader has noticed that with Sunny, it’s all about the adventure. As a matter of fact, she was motivated to write her memoir for more than just leaving a bit of family history behind when she checks out. The real idea came from actors and crew members at many cast parties. After everybody had a couple of drinks and Sunny started talking about her adventures, she frequently heard, “Your life has been so interesting! You really should write a book.” Voila! They asked and she produced!
But Living on the Sunny Side is about more than having fun and great adventures. It is the story of a woman’s journey of self-discovery and of shedding the emotional garbage of many years. It’s about growing up, fighting back, and not letting the problems common in so many young lives interfere with the wonderful adventure of just being alive, and looking forward—always—to the next adventure.
Living on the Sunny Side was awarded first place in the 2010 1st Annual eLit Awards for the Autobiography/Memoir genre.
The author studied ballet with two very well-known instructors and was in rehearsal for a performance at the Hollywood Bowl when her mother was transferred to Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley, where Sunny continued studying and began teaching ballet. She had taken her first acting class in Burbank and continued acting for many years, eventually finishing a BFA in Performance.
Sunny was born in May 1941, the late-in-life child of a mother born in 1903 and a father who died when she was just fourteen months old. A precocious ‘brat’ (her own description), she spent a good deal of time trying to understand the conflicts in her life and why her mother seemed to hate her; a world that changed drastically six months after she was born; and an enormous generation gap. But she spent a lot more time having fun with her mother, something she didn’t realize or understand until she wrote her memoir.
Between the early years in southern California and her retirement in 2006, she worked in Yosemite Valley on weekends when she was in high school; worked in a Yosemite high county guest camp for half the summer after graduation, as a replacement for someone who evidently didn’t like working in the Sierra Nevada back country; managed to survive two near-fatal car crashes within seven weeks (and being thrown from a horse between them); four not-so-good marriages; and a variety of educational opportunities (thank for employer tuition reimbursement). She continued to teach and study ballet off and on until well into her thirties; was the co-owner of a small theater company in Colorado; won the award for best actress in a non-musical in a state-wide competition; and bummed around Europe for three weeks with her business partner. The list goes on…
More than one reader has noticed that with Sunny, it’s all about the adventure. As a matter of fact, she was motivated to write her memoir for more than just leaving a bit of family history behind when she checks out. The real idea came from actors and crew members at many cast parties. After everybody had a couple of drinks and Sunny started talking about her adventures, she frequently heard, “Your life has been so interesting! You really should write a book.” Voila! They asked and she produced!
But Living on the Sunny Side is about more than having fun and great adventures. It is the story of a woman’s journey of self-discovery and of shedding the emotional garbage of many years. It’s about growing up, fighting back, and not letting the problems common in so many young lives interfere with the wonderful adventure of just being alive, and looking forward—always—to the next adventure.
Living on the Sunny Side was awarded first place in the 2010 1st Annual eLit Awards for the Autobiography/Memoir genre.
