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Dee Ernst was born Elizabeth Diane Ascoli in Newark, NJ. Her family moved to Morristown, NJ when she was still a toddler. She started writing stories on a battered Royal typewriter when she was about ten or twelve, and she graduated Morristown High School determined to pursue a career as a writer in some form or another (she considered advertising, but luckily came to her senses). Creative writing majors were hard to find in 1974, so she attended Marshall University as a journalism major. That wasn't working, so she tried Education, but that didn't quite work either. Several jobs and years later, staying home with a three-year-old and trying to figure out what to do when she grew up, Joan Hamburg on WOR radio in New York was interviewing someone who said if you wanted to know what to with your life, remember what you were playing when you were ten, and try to turn that into a career. Since Dee was writing stories at ten, she sat down and wrote her first novel. It went nowhere. Her second novel got her a terrific agent and upwards of fifteen rejection letters (She reread them all in preparation of this biography). Her third novel, Better Off Without Him, garnered even more rejection letters from a much higher caliber of editor. Undaunted, she self-published Better Off Without Him in October 2010. She is now waiting patiently for fame and fortune.
Reviewed by Stephanie Dagg for Readers' Favorite
"Better Off Without Him" by Dee Ernst is modern romantic comedy at its best. Heroine Mona Berman is a very successful author whose forte is the historical romance novel. Throughout the book she slips into the author mode to translate a scene that is actually happening into a flowery passage in one of her books. It is the witty hallmark of this story.
Mona, who specialises in happy endings, suddenly finds herself facing a bleak one. Her husband suddenly announces that he wants a divorce because he has met Dominique, whom no one can believe to be real at first, not with a name like that. Thanks to the support of her three daughters and strong friends, Mona rebuilds her life and finds happiness in her grasp again. This is such a well-written book. The characters are believable though, in a few cases, very eccentric such as multiple divorcee Patricia and Aunt Lily. Brian, the selfish, self-absorbed husband, is the only unpleasant person to appear. You do slightly wonder what Mona ever saw in him, but not to the extent of spoiling the story. There is plenty of action and witty dialogue, and life for strong, courageous Mona is never dull. And the ending? Well, as Mona says about her own books, the only possible conclusions are that either the girl gets her guy or she doesn’t. Mona gets what she deserves in this story. It is inspiring escapism that will make you smile.
