News, Notes & Bylines

Meenal Vamburkar

Published: July 5, 2009

FRANKLIN — After retiring from a career in interior design, resident Joan Lerner has published a novel tackling controversial topics including abortion, homosexuality and euthanasia.

Lerner, 75, is former president of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers. However, she said she has been writing short stories for a long time. Her novel, “Among Us Women,” melds together aspects from her previously written stories.

“I picked out three women from my different short stories, and put myself into each one’s shoes,” she said. “Then the plot just came to me.”

The novel, set in the late 1980s and early 1990s, features women who each have personal tragedies that impact their views, according to Lerner.

One of the chapters takes place during a protest outside the office of Dr. George Tiller, a late-term abortion doctor who was recently murdered in Wichita, Kan. When she heard about his death, Lerner said she “felt terrible.”

“I felt like I knew him,” she said. “I had been clipping articles about him for years. His name has come up all the time when talking about late-term abortions.”

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