Hi Everyone,
Okay, so The Fair Incognito, my work-in-progress, is done – or better said, “I’m done.” I may or may not have met my aspiration. I am told the finish line when writing a novel is a bit like delivering a baby: she’s out and she’s not going back to perfect anything. Yet, in truth, the title for the moment is still in flux. Might need a bit of refining there. Yes indeed, as I am trying to sort that label out: what is it that I have written, what is the story exactly?
First and foremost, it is a love story and whatever else anyone might read into the novel is absolutely none of my business. I am just waiting now for the return of the edited manuscript, and to see what’s next as I feel this sort of exhilarating, literary post-partum physical exhaustion and emotional high—a race well run! Thanks to my supporters! In the meantime, the next story has raised its lovely head: a contemporary thriller set in a treatment centre. Mmmm. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? Yes, the three act dramatic structure appeared all at once on a flight, and while I scribbled notes as fast as I could, at the moment most of it is indecipherable. Thankfully, I do know that, as in all my work, despite harrowing spills, thrills and near-death experiences, it will end well, on a high note.
I do feel some obligation to my reader (and to myself) to deliver truth in that package called fiction. Over time the adage ‘life is stranger than fiction’ has come to mean so much more. Fiction has limits, boundaries, while life can be unexpected and to some degree more or less follows no rules. A beginning, a middle and an end may be happy or not, preconceived or not, but in the end certainly, as a supposed author of my own life, I am powerless, just along for the ride.
And yet, I often hear people say things like “this is the end of a chapter,” or “let’s close the book on that,” or “you can’t judge a book by its cover,” etc. So finally for me, the point where the writing of a book and the living of a life merge is in the fact that the only way to ‘do it’ is to go through it. Can’t go over, under or around, only through, wherever that adventure may lead, and that is as much of a clue as I will give you when it comes to the next book, currently entitled Refuge.
Love,
Marlene
Photo by MidJourney