We all want to write it. We all have read it. Perhaps To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is
the first one that comes to my mind.
Today’s LA Times
offers an article on the subject with examples by different Times contributors using To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Woman Warrior,
Song of Solomon, The Brief Life of Oscar Wao, The Princess Bride, Sula,
Bleeding Edge, Miss Jane Pittman and
American Tabloid as good examples.
I’ll quote the first contributor who used To Kill a Mockingbird as his inspiration
for treatise. John Scalia …the G.A.Novel must have:
“Ubiquity: It has to be a novel that a relatively large
number of Americans have read, and that a large proportion of those who haven’t
read it know about in other ways (for example, by a popular filmed adaptation).
[I add from other parts of John’s piece: on High School reading lists.]
“Notability: There has to be a general agreement that the
novel is significant—it has literary quality and/or is part of the cultural
landscape in a way that is unquestionable (even of critically assailable).
“Morality: [In walks the romance writer, IMO.] It needs to
address some aspect of American experience, usually either our faults or our
aspirations as a nation, with recognizable moral force (not to be confused with
a happy ending)."
[This doesn’t exclude happy endings, IMO.]
[Bob R. here: What comes to mind as recent experience is
Hillary and Donald. We picked them. They seem flawed, but perhaps they represent
us figuratively and literally. I’m going to keep a copy of this article for
anybody who wants one. I’d also love to hear your thoughts.]
***
Separate subject: I’ve been writing romance for a long time.
Even my first novel about cave men and wolves was held together with many love
stories. Yet, I have sat on my first “romance novel” for over seven years. I
simply didn’t think it was good enough, although I love it (of course). But when
one f my female readers pleaded with me to let her see it and then cried I knew I had
to release it. She said I was missing too many commas, my hero was Beta (but
she loved him) and that I needed to always remember to simplify.
I’m proud to announce that I have made and am making corrections of the sort she mentioned and will release Angel’s Eyes soon.
Angel’s Eyes was inspired
by a number of my favorite things.
1. I read Janet Dailey’s Ivory
Cane, a story about a blind woman coping with life and love and wanted the
challenge and pleasure of writing about a strong woman who had lost her sight.
2. I admire women in the military and believe that they
can do anything a man can do (and probably better, LOL). My gal starts as a
Colonel in the U.S. Army who leads her brigade into battle.
3. I prefer to write stories of women of color. Bekah is a
Stars and Stripes pin-up whether she wanted to be or not. In the story, her sexuality is not visible in order to maintain respect with the troops but her exotic beauty is.
4. I wanted to address unexplained phenomena, which can be
confused with the paranormal. Both need explanations that may or may not be proven
by science someday. I.e., Bekah has Blindsight, a real medical unexplained
condition in which the blind see, of sorts (look it up).
5. Bekah, a tactical and strategic genius is also a chess
master. I write about chess in this novel with great love. Since I am also a chess
master I lend my expertise.
Her love interest, as the story evolves, is a Professor of
Physics from NYU who is a renowned expert and skeptic of paranormal or
unexplained phenomena (and also a chess master). He sets out to help her after she loses her sight and
discovers new abilities.
The Army no longer wants her after she loses her sight, but
will a boy now man, who crushed on her in high school, take on quite a handful?
{Of course he can.}
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