Shirley Goldberg is a writer, novelist, and former ESL and French teacher who’s lived in Paris, Crete, and Casablanca. She writes about men and women of a certain age starting over, yes, but her new book is Revamped and stars Dante, an energy vampire who hates his sucky life.

Her website http://midagedating.com offers a humorous look at living single and  dating in mid life, and her friends like to guess which stories are true. Her Starting Over trilogy with  Middle Ageish, Eat Your Hear Out, and A Little Bit of Lust gives a realistic, tongue-in-cheek portrayal of online dating. Shirley’s characters believs you should never leave home without your sense of humor and Shirley agrees. 

In Middle Ageish, Sunny Chanel’s marriage is circling the drain when her husband marks his colonoscopy on the calendar and ignores their anniversary. With divorce papers instead of roses on the horizon, she says “au revoir” Paris and croissants, and “hello” cheap New Haven apartment and ramen noodles. Encouraged by her friends, Sunny jumps into online dating, twenty-three years and twenty pounds after her last date. To her surprise she discovers dating might require a helmet, and occasionally armor to protect her heart.