Louise Shaffer's new book is really good

Once upon a time, Louise Shaffer was one of the biggest stars in daytime drama. She was one of the stars of "Ryan's Hope" on ABC. Louise won a Daytime Emmy Award for her role as Rae Woodard, a newspaper reporter.



Maybe that's why we got along so well from the very beginning.



I met her when she and her husband, Roger Crews, moved to Hamilton from Los Angeles. They began a summer theater season at Callaway Gardens in the laundry building in the area where the cottages are near Robin Lake.



They renamed it the Soap Opera Theater.



Roger directed the shows and Louise starred, along with friends from New York. Another regular was Bee, Roger's brother. For the life of me, I cannot remember his name. He's just Bee.



The shows were great. Louise is a wonderful singer, trained very well at Yale Rep.



When I went to interview them for the first time, I found out that she was the soap opera diva.



I got home and called my sister, Dorothy. I told her that I met Louise.



She screamed, "You met Rae Woodard?"



Yeah, so?



I'd forgotten that Djibouti Girl absolutely loved "Ryan's Hope" and watched it all the time. I just couldn't believe she knew Louise's name.



Roger and Louise bought this gorgeous house with a guest house and studio just outside Hamilton. The studio used to be the old smokehouse that was renovated. They also had more than 30 acres of land.



Roger's sons, Colin and Christopher, came with them. They lived in Hamilton off and on for a couple of years.



Colin, the younger son, worked at a veterinarian's office in Pine Mountain. Every so often, he'd call and tell Roger that he would be bringing home a kitten or a dog.



I believe at one time, they had 15 dogs, an 800-lb. pig, three rabbits and countless number of cats. Only Hubert the pig lived outside. Some of the cats were outside cats, but most of them were inside.



By the time I met Louise, daytime dramas had changed. It went from classically trained actors like Louise to young, pretty actors with little talent. But they drew a younger audience, which led to having the advertisers buying more spots. And so on.



But unless you were Ruth Warrick, who played the grande dame of Pine Valley in "All My Children," there were no roles for women of Louise's age.



So Louise turned to writing. First, writing for a soap. I think it was "As the World Turns." Every week, she was given an outline of a plot for a couple of actors and she fleshed it out.



I don't think she was very happy doing that. In fact, I know she wasn't happy. But it allowed her to write from her studio in Hamilton.



She still took some acting roles. But she'd play a judge or something like that without many lines.



One of the dogs, Roxie, a beautiful black lab, didn't get along with the other animals. So she was banished to Louise's studio. She kept Louise company as she worked on the soap scripts. And to keep Roxie company, Louise brought her a kitten. The two of them were inseparable.



Later, Louise began writing novels. The first was set, you guessed it, on a soap opera set with all the characters that you imagine work on a daytime drama. I liked them, but they just didn't catch on to become a series like the Sue Grafton alphabet series.



She became a ghost writer. And then she got the brilliant idea of writing about a fictional set of sisters living near a Callaway Gardens-type resort. The trilogy was "The Three Miss Margarets," "The Ladies of Garrison Gardens" and "Family Acts." The fourth book is a stand-alone book called "Serendity," which featured a theater very much like the Springer Opera House. Being actors, you know Roger and Louise had to check out the Springer.



The new book, which came out last month, is called "Looking for a Love Story." The heroine in the story has a dog, Annie, who keeps Francesca company, much like Roxie did with Louise.



I haven't finished the book, but I love it. And it's not because I love Louise. It's just the way she writes.



This passage just cracked me up. Francesca got a job as a ghost writer for an old vaudeville performer who wanted her story told.



The performer taped her memories on a cassette. Francesco goes to an electronic store in search of a cassette recorder.



"The saleschild in the store was stunned to discover that her employers carried such an antique and listened in horrified admiration as I explained about the dark ages when I was a kid and we had to depend on video players and Walkmans for our instant entertainment. I left the store feeling very strong, like a survivor of a tougher, leaner age."



Isn't that wonderful?



Louise, you really are great! I can't wait to see you again. Come back South.

This story was originally published June 3, 2010 at 10:41 PM with the headline "Louise Shaffer's new book is really good."