I had the pleasure of meeting Heather Demetrios during my residency at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she helped me with revisions on my work-in-progress, DANCE WITH ME. When she returned my manuscript, she confessed that she “used to be a figure skater so this was super fun to read!”
Heather's web site has a list of ten interesting things she might tell you if she met you at a party, including that her mom was struck by lightning when she was pregnant with her, but here we're getting an exclusive peek at her figure skating past:
“I skated with the LA FSA when I was in elementary school and part of junior high. When I stopped skating, I had landed my double flip. (But only once! The rest of the time I landed everywhere BUT my feet.) I started skating late - when I was ten years old or thereabouts. Maybe 11. Ultimately, I didn't really skate for years and years, but the time I did was very intensive (those 5:30 a.m. practices, etc.). I was struggling to master my jumps and was about to transition into ice dancing when I had to stop skating due to my family's financial situation. Still, I love it to this day and miss being on the ice. My favorite move was my best attempt at a Nancy Kerrigan Spiral and I loved doing sit spins. I HATED the axel, but loved loop jumps. My favorite memory is of my mom sewing sequins onto a costume while watching me practice. She was a single mom and it meant so much to me that she was making so many sacrifices for my skating. She sat in the cold and sewed so she could support me while I was practicing. It's one of my favorite memories of my mom, period.”
Heather's web site has a list of ten interesting things she might tell you if she met you at a party, including that her mom was struck by lightning when she was pregnant with her, but here we're getting an exclusive peek at her figure skating past:
“I skated with the LA FSA when I was in elementary school and part of junior high. When I stopped skating, I had landed my double flip. (But only once! The rest of the time I landed everywhere BUT my feet.) I started skating late - when I was ten years old or thereabouts. Maybe 11. Ultimately, I didn't really skate for years and years, but the time I did was very intensive (those 5:30 a.m. practices, etc.). I was struggling to master my jumps and was about to transition into ice dancing when I had to stop skating due to my family's financial situation. Still, I love it to this day and miss being on the ice. My favorite move was my best attempt at a Nancy Kerrigan Spiral and I loved doing sit spins. I HATED the axel, but loved loop jumps. My favorite memory is of my mom sewing sequins onto a costume while watching me practice. She was a single mom and it meant so much to me that she was making so many sacrifices for my skating. She sat in the cold and sewed so she could support me while I was practicing. It's one of my favorite memories of my mom, period.”
SOMETHING REAL, Heather's debut novel, isn't about figure skating but skaters will emphasize with the problems faced by main character Bonnie Baker. A skater's falls may be broadcast live and replayed, but Bonnie's whole life has been on TV. When her family's reality TV show, Baker's Dozen, is canceled, Bonnie gets a chance for real friends and maybe even a boyfriend. Then she finds out that her family is going back on the air. SOMETHING REAL hits the shelves on February 4 and is available for pre-order on Amazon right now. For more about the novel as well as Heather's upcoming works, visit Heather online at http://www.heatherdemetrios.com/. You can also follow her on Twitter: @HDemetrios
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