Rodgers, Joni 1962-

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Rodgers, Joni 1962-

PERSONAL:

Born January 29, 1962, in Tomah, WI; daughter of Del and Lois Lonnquist; married Gary Rodgers, September 10, 1983; children: Malachi, Jerusha. Religion: United Methodist. Hobbies and other interests: Music, theatre, painting.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Houston, TX. Agent—(Literary) Claudia Cross, Sterling Lord Literistic, 65 Bleecker St., New York, NY 10012; (media appearances) Jenny Bosby, 3013 Fountainview, Ste. 240, Houston, TX 77057. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer. Actress and radio show host; provided voiceovers for radio and television commercials. Founder of ChemoHeads.com, an online resource center for people living with cancer.

MEMBER:

Romance Writers of America.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Crazy for Trying was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discovery Award, 1996.

WRITINGS:

Crazy for Trying, MacMurray & Beck (Denver, CO), 1996.

Sugar Land, Spinsters Ink (Duluth, MN), 1999.

Bald in the Land of Big Hair: A True Story (memoir), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Linda Armstrong Kelly) No Mountain High Enough: Raising Lance, Raising Me, foreword by Lance Armstrong, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2005.

The Secret Sisters, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

Author of web log for Houston Chronicle Web site, located at http://blogs.chron.com/bookwoman, and for Boxing the Octopus Web site, located at http://boxingoctopus.blogspot.com. Contributor to periodicals, including Coping, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Houston Chronicle, Rosie, and Texas Magazine.

SIDELIGHTS:

Joni Rodgers' novels have been compared to those of Larry McMurtry and Thomas McGuane and to the television show Northern Exposure. Rodgers comes from a family of musicians and began performing as a child. She later became a deejay. Of her writing career's beginnings, Rodgers once told CA: "I made a living in theatre and radio until I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (cancer of the lymphatic system) in 1994. During chemotherapy, writing was the life raft I climbed onto."

Rodgers' first novel, Crazy for Trying, was selected as a finalist for the 1996 Barnes & Noble Discovery Award. Clay Reynolds of the Houston Chronicle stated: "Rodgers' version of the late '70s presents a watershed epoch in modern times, a period before personal computers and cell phones, fax machines and health consciousness, low-fat food and light beer." Set in Helena, Montana in 1979, the book chronicles the exploits of Tulsa Bitters, the town's first female deejay. Nineteen-year-old Bitters embarks on a successful radio career and finds romance with Mac MacPeters, a troubled Vietnam veteran who is also a disc jockey. Their relationship is thwarted by Bitters' ex-boyfriend and a fire, which almost kills MacPeters. "The action unfolds and surrounds the characters. But at bottom this is a love story," declared Reynolds. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly mentioned Rodgers' "authentic voice that often gets lost in overblown language." Though Reynolds called Crazy for Trying "dense and uneven in places," he asserted: "Rodgers' prose and style are unique and stand on their own."

A critic in Publishers Weekly called Sugar Land, Rodgers's second novel, "alternately wrenching and humorous." Sisters Kit and Kiki Smithers were child performers in a musical group called the Sugar Babes. Encouraged by their mother, the two performed at fairs and prisons across Texas. As adults Kit and Kiki are both unhappy in their marriages. Kit engages in several extramarital affairs while Kiki leaves her abusive and unfaithful husband. Kiki must abandon her return to the entertainment business when a tornado puts her children in danger. A reviewer for the Tampa Tribune stated: "Rodgers packs a lot of obstacles into her story of the Smithers sisters, but the effect is pure charm." Whitney Scott wrote in Booklist that Rodgers depicts "the courage of everyday people in tough situations." Likewise, a Publishers Weekly reviewer saw Rodgers' "knack for realistic characters who show their faults un-self-consciously."

Rodgers's memoir of her battle with cancer, Bald in the Land of Big Hair: A True Story, adopts a humorous tone that "enables Rodgers to render the ordeal without monochromatic grimness," according to the Publishers Weekly reviewer. As the author told an interviewer for Bookreporter.com: "I set out to write the book I needed but couldn't find when I was in chemo; a book that doesn't sugar coat the truth but offers a small light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. I also wanted—for readers and for myself—to set the experience in the greater context of a life, the message being, ‘Cancer is not who I am. It's just one thing (albeit one HUGE thing) that happened to me.’" Janet Maslin of the New York Times stated that Bald in the Land of Big Hair is "impressive in its immediacy." The author paints herself as an eccentric, professionally successful, happily married mother in her early thirties. She is then diagnosed with lymphoma. The memoir replays the writer's experiences accepting her diagnosis and enduring chemotherapy before finally recovering. "With engaging honesty as well as a steady supply of wisecracks, she describes in ways others may find helpful how cancer has affected her sexuality, her faith, her life with her family and, yes, her digestion," Maslin remarked. Elizabeth Williams in the Library Journal wrote: "There are many cancer-survivor books, but this one stands out for its appeal to general biography readers."

The Secret Sisters, Rodgers's 2006 novel, "weaves a tapestry of three Houston women's lives, each touched by bereavement," observed a critic in Publishers Weekly. The work focuses on a pair of sisters, Pia and Lily, and their sister-in-law, Beth. Pia's life begins to unravel after her husband of twenty years suddenly collapses and dies. Devastated by the loss, Pia struggles with depression and agoraphobia. She reaches out occasionally to Lily, who is serving a seven-year prison sentence for manslaughter for killing her young niece, Beth's daughter, in a drunk-driving accident. The deeply religious Beth forces herself to appear at Lily's parole hearings, where she appeals for leniency though she has not truly forgiven her sister-in-law. "All three women are expiating grief in their own way, a painful, plodding process made accessible by Rodgers' honesty, humor and fearlessness in dealing with the struggles of these women and of women in general," noted Christina Putnam-Cox in the Houston Chronicle. According to Mike Shea, writing in Texas Monthly, the author gives her characters "the necessary measure of grit to make it safely home again."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Rodgers, Joni, Bald in the Land of Big Hair: A True Story, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 1999, Whitney Scott, review of Sugar Land, p. 1387; January 1, 2006, Joanne Wilkinson, review of The Secret Sisters, p. 60.

Dallas Morning News, March, 1997, Subie Green, "Never Too Late to Grow Up: Two People on the Run Collide, and Sparks Fly on Impact," p. 8J.

Helena Independent Record (Helena, MT), April 5, 2006, Emily Donahoe, "Secret Keeper," review of The Secret Sisters.

Houston Chronicle, March 16, 1997, Clay Reynolds, "Debut Novels: Unique Heroine, Setting Enhance '70s Story," p. 21; July 28, 2006, Christina Putnam-Cox, "Good Grief," review of The Secret Sisters.

Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2005, review of No Mountain High Enough: Raising Lance, Raising Me, p. 102; December 1, 2005, review of The Secret Sisters, p. 1253.

Library Journal, March 1, 1999, Michele Leber, review of Sugar Land, p. 111; January 1, 2001, Elizabeth Williams, review of Bald in the Land of Big Hair, p. 142.

New York Times, February 19, 2001, Janet Maslin, "Facing Chemo or Pinkos, and Still Smilin'," p. E8.

Publishers Weekly, September 30, 1996, review of Crazy for Trying, pp. 60-61; February 22, 1999, review of Sugar Land, p. 61; December 11, 2000, review of Bald in the Land of Big Hair, p. 70; February 14, 2005, review of No Mountain High Enough, p. 62; November 21, 2005, review of The Secret Sisters, p. 27.

Tampa Tribune, August 22, 1999, review of Sugar Land, p. 5.

Texas Monthly, February, 2006, Mike Shea, review of The Secret Sisters, p. 60.