Breezing Past Eight Months …

August 14, 2015 Susan Kaye2 Comments

When you go to a doctor, they hand you a list of medical maladies to confirm or deny. For me depression is always on the menu. It’s the same for my mother. This past month I made the rounds of physicals and appointments connected with her newly-diagnosed diabetes and had to tick the DEPRESSION box a number of times. It was a gentle reminder that depression is kind of an heirloom in the sitting room of my life.

Decades ago when I started writing, a real knock-down-drag-out broke on a Persuasion discussion board about whether Anne Elliot was depressed and should be medicated. Those who thought she was made a good case for Prozac. Who wouldn’t want a few good mood-altering drugs with Sir Walter as your father and provider?

The other camp was less convincing. They were passionate that Anne wasn’t depressed but they had no arguments as to why they believed this. In fact, it all seemed to hinge on the fact that she still loved Frederick — as if a tall handsome Captain of the Line was the perfect antidepressant — and that … well … heroines don’t get depressed!

If this is the case, that heroines are immune, I am screwed.

All the memes that shout we have to be the heroines of our own life stories are not for me. And, if love is the antidote, I obviously don’t truly love my husband of 37 years, my kids or my grandkids. I AM the heartless twitch many suspect.

The worst part about my depression is it causes my emotions — except anger — to fade and recede. That makes writing tough. It’s nearly impossible to write a compelling love story when all the feelings are just a whisper away from my fingertips and keyboard, and all the actions of love are shadows in the gloaming.

MY latest thought is to write Anne depressed.

How fun would that be?

Still, it’s an idea and those have been thin on the ground for a while now.

What do you think? Anne and Frederick meet when they start going to the same therapist? Or meet in group therapy perhaps? Think of the trust building exercises! They are paired up for a depressives retreat by a famous mental health guru who is in actuality a serial killer.

Okay, we’ve gone from deep, thoughtful romance to a Criminal Minds episode. I’m not depressed, just unable to focus.

Anyway, have a great weekend. And let me know, Anne and Frederick moving slowly carefully towards the light of love or running for their lives with the sound of chainsaws in the background!

A Word A Look · Persuasion · WRITING

Time Sure Flies

June 5, 2015June 5, 2015 Susan Kaye

Time gets away from you when you’re busy and depressed. I haven’t posted her since early April and it shows.

A Plan of His Own Making is majorly stalled and so I’ve hauled out A Word, A Look again. The 2.0 version. This will be the third in the Frederick Wentworth, Captain trilogy. This poor “trilogy” has been hanging for years. When people don’t need or know they want something, creating it is less the vital. Now, if it could cure cancer …

Anyway, the story starts with Anne and Frederick returning to Bath from Gretna Green to find Camden Place (Anne’s family’s home), stuffed with guests for a party. So much for worrying about Sir Walter’s opinion about the elopement. The guy is partying heartily.

Here’s a bit of it:

McGillvary drew Frederick off to a corner. “You look like you just took cannon fire, brother. Might this warm welcome be a surprise?”

“You know it is. Anne has been stewing for hundreds of miles about the reception we’d have from the Baronet, and how the gossips would surely have rendered my name utterly worthless. This does not seem to be the case.”

Patrick smiled again and lifted his glass. “While you have been enjoying the fruits of marriage, your sister-in-law and I have been busy as bees.”

“You and Miss Elliot?”

“Oh yes. Let’s take a seat.”

“I have to see to a few things before I can be off.”

“An explanation won’t take much time.” He directed Wentworth to a recently abandoned alcove. “When you left it to me to tell everyone at the engagement party about your elopement, you left me in a touchy situation.”

“You volunteered as I recall.”

“We can argue the details later, brother. Anywise, when the announcement was made, pandemonium broke out. Of course the old man was in a towering rage.” He nodded towards the Baronet. “I have never seen a human being so close to exploding without the aid of a keg or two of powder. Anywise, the only people acting rationally were yours truly, Mrs Croft, and the Admiral.” He lifted his glass just slightly to someone in the crowd.

Frederick looked and saw Miss Elliot raise a brow and then her chin before giving Paddy the cut. Patrick had shown an interest in Miss Elliot early on and he supposed, despite a severe warning, his friend was pursuing her with gusto. He pitied McGillvary in that Miss Elliot seemed to have turned back his energy with a precise and thorough snubbing.

McGillvary touched Wentworth’s arm. “So, the three of us discussed how the landsmen were responding so poorly to the sudden change of plans when the Admiral said something of true genius.”

Admiral George Croft was a fine sailor, a good and loving husband to Frederick’s sister, Sophia, and a lively guest in any social situation. However, genius was not a trait Frederick normally attributed to him. “And what was this astonishing bit of wisdom?”

McGillvary smiled widely. “He observed the glaring hypocrisy that elopements in real life are scandalous in the eyes of particularly the more refined in our society. Yet, in the sorts of novels of which they seem so fond, an elopement is seen as quite romantic and courageous. And if there is danger added, so much the better.”

Frederick remarked it to be an interesting observation, and that he was not surprised at the admiral’s acuity in thought. “However, it seems to have little to do with what seems to be the good result I see here today.”

“Interesting indeed, I still wonder if dear old George gave it thought during the long watches at sea or might it be a new line of thinking sweeping India? Anyhow, it struck me as an excellent thought to whisper in all the right ears.”

Wentworth saw the connexion immediately. “How does Miss Elliot come into this?”

McGillvary straightened and drained his glass. “I knew this had the ability to darken just as deep the reputation of the Elliots if not managed properly. The following day I made a condolence call of sorts and during, took Miss Elliot aside and pointed out that while it was impossible to stop the flow of gossip, it might be possible to redirect it in a more wholesome direction.”

“All the while taking care to polish that crooked halo of yours. And, making father and daughter more and more indebted to you. Precisely what did you whisper all over the town concerning the elopement” In a case such as this, it was important to remember that Patrick McGillvary did nothing out of purely disinterested motives and barely for fraternal reasons. However, in this instance, his self-interest seemed to be just the thing needed to save Frederick and Anne.

“Oh that, it was simple. You were being snatched away by orders from the Crown and that the two of you were far too in love to leave things at loose ends. People gobbled it up. If only I could invent a recipe for a pudding so popular. I was a bit shocked how simple it was actually. The biggest problem was, at the start, the Baronet refused to be consoled. Being the clever boy I am, I gave it a few days for this new strain of yeast to affect the dough to my liking. Putting on my best frock, I saddled up my nicest pony and returned for another visit.” He took a glass of wine from a passing tray and drank.

Wentworth resisted the temptation to look at his watch. The story, while interesting and useful, was beginning to cut into the few minutes he had left. “And?” The present mood of the room and his father-in-law proved that McGillvary’s scheme had worked. But, Frederick wanted details. “How did you find things?”

There’s even a bedroom scene int he first 20 pages. Not bad for depressed and busy.

Take care.

movies · Thoughts · WRITING

Shallow is as Shallow Does

February 17, 2015February 16, 2015 Susan Kaye

One complaint about 50 Shades of Grey, the movie and books, is the characters are one-dimensional. That is to be expected when considered it’s based on Twilight fan faction. Much fan fiction is one dimensional because we fan fiction writers can simply presume on the character development of the originating author. The initial association with the original gets us readers and leaves us free to ride the coattails (or in Jane’s case, pelisse tails), of that author and allows us to spend all our time spinning what we feel are new and original plots.From past writer of Austen fan fiction, Sarah Hoyt:

“For instance, if you’re writing Pride and Prejudice fanfic, all you have to do is name the character Lizzie, even if you set it in modern day, and the reader immediately imbues it with every characteristic of the Jane Austen character, without your having to do any heavy lifting. In the same way if you name a character Wickham, everyone knows he’s a cad or worse and never mind making his faults believable or foreshadowing them.”

I know I did some of that in the first few chapters of my Frederick Wentworth, Captain novels. However, in previous stories I had written a lot of Frederick’s career backstory, and then went to develop and deepen him by way of exchanges with his sister Sophy, and the strained relationship with his brother, Edward. I also created the character, Admiral Patrick McGillvary, to further the backstory and to compare and contrast Wentworth’s honorable nature. Patrick is also a foil who reluctantly helps to facilitate Wentworth’s wooing of Anne Elliot. From what I understand, 50 doesn’t stray far from E. L. James’s original portrayal of the characters Anastasia Steele (Bella) and Christian Grey (Edward Cullen). Any development is shown in the changes coming by way of their sexual bond.

At its base, 50 Shades is a rich bad boy courting a naive girl from the poor side of town.

The trailer shows Ana in a flowered blouse and poly-blend sweater, hair in a ponytail, and a doe-eyed demeanor. This is all the characterization Hollywood feels necessary to show the middle and lower middle-classes. Cheap clothes and an earnest expression is all that’s needed evidently. One review pointed out some of the gifts Grey gives Ana in the beginning, before he gives her details of his alternatives lifestyle. He gives her a hot car and clothes. There was likely a trip to the salon as well. All these things are supposed to win an economically staited girl’s heart.

Referring back to the bad boy theme, I think a much better baddie to observe is Ciaran Hinds’s Sir Brian de Bois-Gilbert of Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe.

Google HERE if you want a full synopsis of the plot of Ivanhoe, the basics are: Ivanhoe is the good guy, his mortal enemy is the traitorous Templar knight, Sir Brian de Bois-Gilbert. Between them is the lovely Jewess healer, Rebecca. Rebecca, who loves Ivanhoe but as a Jew can never have him, is kidnapped by the Templar and taken to a remote castle. Ivanhoe’s forces attack–for reasons other than freeing Rebecca–and Ivanhoe is gravely wounded. Rebecca is nursing him back to health while fending off Bois-Gilbert’s threats of rape and ruin.

After some time trapped together in the castle, Bois-Gilbert tires of the banter and drags Rebecca to the roof and lets her get a good look at how isolated she is. The message being, you may as well give in to me as no help is on the way. Even if help should happen by, it will be mowed down before it gets to the gates. They stop several feet from the edge. He lets her go and she rushes to a knee wall.

REBECCA: (she pauses, does not look at him) Are you not afraid I will throw myself off?
BOIS-GILBERT: (remains still and passive) No. You are too curious and will not stain the day with such violence. *
They banter some more and he points out advantages of marrying him.
REBECCA: You will buy me diamonds?
BOIS-GILBERT: I will buy you books.

DINGDINGDING!

No matter that he is a bad, bad man, he knows her. He knows that material goods don’t interest her. He knows that curiosity is a major function of her mind and personality, and that access to more knowledge is what will turn this little lady on.

He goes on to say that if she marries him he will introduce her to the greatest medical minds in Europe. He then says no one will hold being a Jew against the wife of Bois-Gilbert.

CLANK!

He puts his foot in it because he’s still in hunting mode. He has been studying her in order to capture her emotions, allowing him to take her in more than a physical sense. But, he is not yet to the point where hurting her could be as much to his advantage as not. Regardless, he has honestly touched her heart. She then goes on to raise the specter of Ivanhoe and Bois-Gilbert’s hatred of him, probably to remind herself of reality and to break the spell he has cast.

It is the rare person who does not want to be known deeply and truly. I believe that to have a man offer you gifts born of observation and understanding of who you are, what makes you tick, is far more likely to bind you to him than his working out a bad childhood with fine leather straps and blindfolds.

The movie differs from the book in that Bois-Gilbert does in fact fall in love with Rebecca. Eventually he offers her freedom, but the gesture comes too late to help her. He eventually dies for her. In the novel there was no romance, and Gilbert died a quick death, sacrificing nothing. The screenwriters did an excellent job in what I think is a little bit of their own Ivanhoe fan fiction.

I have read that in 50 Shades, Christian Grey gives Anastasia a car. To a billionaire, just about any car on the planet is a trinket when measured by cost. In last year’s season of The Big Bang Theory, the character, Penny, quits her waitressing job to pursue acting full time. Within a few episodes her faithful, but caution-light challenged VW blows an engine, and she’s hipped. In a great romantic gesture her boyfriend, experimental physicist, Leonard, buys her a used but dependable car. To me, this similar gesture is truly romantic because while he is entirely too practical to believe in Penny’s dream of being famous, he does support her as much as he is able. He can’t go full-in, but chooses to put it all aside so she can continue to pursue the dream. He knows her, understands her, and is acknowledging what makes her tick.

Christian Grey could take some lessons from a baddie of the Middle Ages and a contemporary nerd boy. If you think you’re the biggest prize a girl can have, you’re probably wrong. Tossing a girl the keys to a car is fun for a moment or two, but tossing her the keys to her dreams might get you forever.

*I think that Hinds was the perfect Wentworth, because even his good guys have an edge. But anyone who has followed his career knows he is a most excellent bad guy. Though, he does have an affectation or two. Instead of twirling his mustache, he juts his chin when his villains are monologuing, and he does so on this line. The other is dragging drag out a syllable for an inordinately long time. In Ivanhoe, he says “vi-i-i-lence,” rather than the shorter, vi-uhlence. In this case it has a wonderful affect and gives Susan Lynch, the actress playing Rebecca, a few more beats to realize Bois-Gilbert thoroughly is in her head.

day-by-day · Hidden Beauty · Thoughts · Uncategorized · WRITING

I Had to Laugh … At Myself

January 30, 2015 Susan Kaye

For the past few months I’ve been doing something that has been not only a huge chore, but it has the source of doubt about my writing ability.

This isn’t a plea for encouragement. I have gotten used to doing without that because frankly, I’m fairly sure that most people who try to encourage others are using the fake-it-til-you-make-it tactic. The chorus mouths all the words they think should be said in order to keep the poor wretch afloat until they actually do “make it.” Teachers in particular employ this method a lot.

So, back to the task I’ve been wrestling. I’ve been editing and posting a very old piece of writing. It’s been a lot like cleaning out the house after someone dies. I’ve done that so I know the comparison is apt. As you dig through this other person’s life, you find things you remember, but you also find things you’d forgotten. In working with my old writing I’ve noticed how much I’ve improved. I’ve also noticed that there are mistakes I still make and am sure I will make until I die. Sigh.

This kind of work also gives you a chance to compare life in general to the past. Writers can’t help adding their real world to their writing and so I can remember the world that was as I edit and how it compares to now. Things have changed. A lot.

People in my life have changed. My children are now adults. I have a granddaughter and a son-in-law. My husband has change a great deal. My mother is different as is my brother. Several people in my family have died. All of that comes back from working with my old writing.

I’m done working with the old writing and can go back to working on my current projects–which are really old as well, but newer than THAT old stuff.

No wonder I’m odd.

What bring the past back for you? Places? People? Food? Travel? What does it take to transport you back to the good old days?

Have a great weekend.

Anne · Frederick · Persuasion · WRITING

Why Anne and Frederick?

December 29, 2014August 9, 2018 Susan Kaye

By far the favorite book in the Austen canon is Pride and Prejudice. Less than half as many readers cite one of the other main novels as their favorite when polled. I am one of those less than half. I do like P&P, I just don’t LOVELOVELOVE it as so many do.

The boy-meets-girl-he-doesn’t-really-like-but-comes-to-love-eventually story is pretty standard fare. And while the repartee between Darcy and Elizabeth is great, I’m a big fan of getting a second chance. That’s what Austen’s last novel, Persuasion is all about.

The original title of P&P was First Impressions. Were Austen to write Persuasion in this day, it would be called A Do Over.

Frederick and Anne met in the summer of 1806, gradually became acquainted and quickly fell in love. He proposed, she accepted. He went to her father, her father turned up his nose at a sailor wanting to marry into the august Elliot family. The family got to her and she broke the engagement. He told her off and shook the dust of Kellynch Hall from his boots. Persuasion has with great stuff Jerry Springer is all about, except with less chair throwing.

If you agree about Persuasion, or just loving one of the other Austen works leave a comment. If you are die-hard P&P fan, own it and be proud! And leave a comment.