Review
Pink Dice by Ellen Everman is an absolutely wonderful experience. After reading this delightful story, I immediately did two things read the book again and called a few close friends and told them I would be sending them copies to read. Pink Dice is that good. --Dr. John R. Powers, Broadway playwright and author
Ellen Everman s Pink Dice brims with diverse angles and colorful characters. With nostalgic references to a mid-50s Cincinnati and images of young baby boomers running freely through the woods and within their own imaginations, Everman has captured the 1950s in a compelling style. There s a little something for everyone girls coming of age, the bad boy who is really a good boy, a budding southern belle, an introspective pre-teen, an imaginary alter-ego and a rooster called Mr. Shortcakes. The banter, the emotional roller-coaster of teenagers and the showing off to gain the attention of an attractive member of the opposite sex is timeless. Her description of Mary Lou as being fifteen, going on Marilyn Monroe makes a reader wish he were fifteen , going on Joe DiMaggio. --Jack Hicks, retired columnist, The Kentucky Post --Jack Hicks, retired columnist, The Kentucky Post
No one makes Cincinnati sparkle like Ellen Everman in her novel Pink Dice. Finally a book that describes Greater Cincinnati s special and unique qualities. To the person who has passed through our city at night traveling north through the Northern Kentucky cut in the hill whereupon the city opens up fantastically: If it has occurred to you that Cincinnati resembles the fictionalized City of Oz, Ms. Everman will take that one step further. She ll make you believe it is. --Douglas Rowe, Host of the Acoustic Avenue 89.7 WNKU/Public Radio --Douglas Rowe 89.7 WNKU/ Public Radio
Ellen Everman s Pink Dice brims with diverse angles and colorful characters. With nostalgic references to a mid-50s Cincinnati and images of young baby boomers running freely through the woods and within their own imaginations, Everman has captured the 1950s in a compelling style. There s a little something for everyone girls coming of age, the bad boy who is really a good boy, a budding southern belle, an introspective pre-teen, an imaginary alter-ego and a rooster called Mr. Shortcakes. The banter, the emotional roller-coaster of teenagers and the showing off to gain the attention of an attractive member of the opposite sex is timeless. Her description of Mary Lou as being fifteen, going on Marilyn Monroe makes a reader wish he were fifteen , going on Joe DiMaggio. --Jack Hicks, retired columnist, The Kentucky Post --Jack Hicks, retired columnist, The Kentucky Post
No one makes Cincinnati sparkle like Ellen Everman in her novel Pink Dice. Finally a book that describes Greater Cincinnati s special and unique qualities. To the person who has passed through our city at night traveling north through the Northern Kentucky cut in the hill whereupon the city opens up fantastically: If it has occurred to you that Cincinnati resembles the fictionalized City of Oz, Ms. Everman will take that one step further. She ll make you believe it is. --Douglas Rowe, Host of the Acoustic Avenue 89.7 WNKU/Public Radio --Douglas Rowe 89.7 WNKU/ Public Radio
About the Author
Ellen Everman is a free-lance writer and publicist. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati where she majored in English, Ms. Everman has contributed both fiction and non-fiction articles in various regional publications, among them, Arts Across Kentucky, The Sunday Challenger and The Kentucky Post. Drawing from her collection of short stories written mostly about her youth, some of which have been published, Ms. Everman has created this, her first novel Pink Dice, which paints a vivid and unforgettable picture of the border town area known as Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati. Everman, born in 1951, grew up in a small country town in a small white house which sat close by a wooded hill much like the setting used in her novel. Her brother, eight years older than she, entertained his teenage friends there during Ms. Everman s formative years. They were the war babies and the first colorful generation of adolescents who were called teenagers . She was the youngest of three. Her sister Patti, after whom the Pink Dice protagonist is named, is three years her senior. At the age of 19, Everman worked for Landon Longworth Wallingford, great great great grandson of the famed Cincinnati abolitionist and entrepreneur, Nicholas Longworth. During her tenure as his secretary, she talked often with Wallingford s famous Aunt Alice, who was the widow of Nicholas Longworth II, former Speaker-of-the-House at the turn of the 20th century. In the early 1970s, which was when Everman chatted with her, Alice Blue Stocking was still known as the Grande Dame of Washington. Everman heard, first hand, the now famous stories that have since been written down by Alice s biographers. Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Teddy Roosevelt s eldest daughter is now considered by historians to be the first modern female feminist. From 1975 to 1980, Everman traveled extensively throughout the U.S. while working for a subsidiary of W. R. Grace in New York, Chemed Corporation. During this period of her life, she began to pick up on differences in culture, philosophies and dialects. This fast-paced life-style became the subject matter for some of her later short stories. Although Chemed was far more humane than any corporation she has since worked for, it was still devoid of nature, the coldness of which sent her thoughts back to her childhood. Before embarking upon her career as a writer, Everman worked for the second largest advertising agency in Cincinnati, Wolf, Blumberg, Krody and also for Cincinnati s F & W Publications. Everman currently resides in Ryland Heights, Kentucky.
