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| Author Stella Hervey Birrell |
Several years ago, I was talking to a friend, who
had finally ‘got it together’ with her future husband. We were discussing what our fantasies
were. Our fantasies for life and
relationships, not sex, this is not one of those
blog posts.
‘It’s hard,’ she said. ‘My fantasy has just become a reality.’
I can relate.
The main character, Melissa, in my first novel, ‘How Many Wrongs make a
Mr Right?’ is not your standard ‘fantasy’ heroine. Actually, Melissa is not a heroine at all, the word anti-heroine
was made for her : amoral, blunt, sexually incontinent, she is also lost,
miserable, and lonely.
Melissa does travel in the novel, but not through
other dimensions, portals or around an alternate universe. She travels through time, if by ‘travelling
in time’ you mean forwards and backwards through a summer, and an autumn, just
after the millennium. She travels
through space, if by ‘through space’ you mean ‘moving house from England to
Scotland.’ She does travel in her mind,
if by ‘in her mind’ you mean learning some important things about her body and
her fantasies, and, eventually giving her fantasy up for lost. Because that is right when things always
start to happen. It doesn’t matter what
genre you are reading, when a character says they’re ‘all done with that,’ you
can pretty much guarantee ‘all that’ is about to happen.
Melissa has a dream, and she chases it
relentlessly. I respect that. It was what I did when I started
writing. But unlike Melissa, who looks
around and sees everyone else settling down with their perfect partner, I
looked around at the world of writing and wondered how my voice would ever be
heard over the clamour. Would anyone
read about Melissa and think ‘yeah, I could go for that?’
writing. But unlike Melissa, who looks
around and sees everyone else settling down with their perfect partner, I
looked around at the world of writing and wondered how my voice would ever be
heard over the clamour. Would anyone
read about Melissa and think ‘yeah, I could go for that?’
For a long time, Melissa occupied space in my
imagination and on my computer, and in several emails, introducing her to
publishers and agents. It looked like
she would be staying there. But then Crooked Cat showed up. Who needs a
fire-breathing dragon when you can have a Crooked Cat?
It was a fantasy of mine,
to be a writer. I didn’t have to swap
dimensions to make it a reality, although there were times when it felt like an
endless, lonely quest. I didn’t get an
amulet to protect me from other people’s opinions, or a magic quill that
produced 1000 words a day.
Melissa is about to go out into the world now,
as a character in a book I wrote. I’m
sorry I didn’t give her a bow and arrows.
But I made her of strong stuff: hopes, dreams and fantasies. I reckon she’ll be OK.About the author
Please come and say ‘hi’ in one or
more of these places
Twitter
is @atinylife140
I can also be found wandering the streets of
various East Lothian villages.
My book is available on :
IBooks - Search ‘How Many Wrongs make a Mr
Right?’ in the iTunes Store
This is so well written, as I'm sure the novel must be, too. Thank you, Stella and Angela.
ReplyDeleteThank you Miriam. I loved this post as soon as I started reading it. All I did was post it! Stella did all the really hard work! Glad you like it.
DeleteThanks Miriam - it was fun to write - a real challenge!
DeleteMelissa sounds like a great heroine. Enjoyed the blog
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting, Susan.
DeleteThanks Susan - she was exasperating at times but she means well...
Delete