Arts & Entertainment

Inspired by Unemployment, Local Writer Pens Tell-All Tale

Liz Bartucci took unemployment by storm, and wrote a blog and e-book about it.

After losing her job, Liz Bartucci became what she lovingly calls a "laptop junkie."

Deciding to make the best out of a less than ideal situation, the Carroll Gardens screenwriter and "jane of all trades" took to the local cafes to chronicle the life of an unemployed, or freelance, writer.

"Who are these people?" she remembered thinking. "What do they do?"

Find out what's happening in Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hillwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"I became one of them," she said recently over coffee at , a local haunt that plays a large role in her blog and e-book "Secret Lives of the Unemployed."

Bartucci always wanted to be a writer. She began pitching to magazine's her story of what it's like to be unemployed, and found that no one was biting.

Find out what's happening in Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hillwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Rejection is what propels you," she said. "I started to write the blog in between looking for a job, and it was a horrible big black hole."

Bartucci remembered feeling "isolated" and lost, without a firm hold on what was happening, and decided she was going to "write herself out of it."

And so began her journey. The characters in her story mirror some of the people she met in coffee shops. They live lives as unemployed creative types, trying to make ends meet, toiling over computers while drinking refillable coffee after coffee. Her story is a sort of meta take on the current situation facing writers and other creative types.

"The jobs are gone. The only people surviving are the people creating their own jobs and businesses," she said.

The main character, Lucy, lives in Carroll Gardens and finds camaraderie with her fellow laptop junkies. Lucy's goal, like Bartucci's, is to be a writer. In the story, Lucy writes a blog that she hopes can one day be a book, which, again, is also Bertucci's goal.

The writing was done at local spots like the Fall Cafe, Naidre's () and on Fourth Avenue.

Bartucci says the people of Carroll Gardens have inspired her story, and Lucy's too.

"When you come in [to a cafe] over and over again, you see the same people," she said. "You feel like a part of the community."

Bartucci has big plans for her story of the unemployed. She wants to write a screenplay and a TV series. And of course she'd like her to book to be published on paper.

"It's applicable to the time," she said. "The pressure to be a writer in Brooklyn is enormous."

But still, she said, this is the place for writers.

"It would be the greatest satisfaction to visit an independent bookstore and see your book on the shelf," she said.

 

Secret Lives of the Unemployed is available for Kindle at Amazon and Nook at Barnes & Noble.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill