This cover is NOT FINAL! |
There was a reason for all the vlogs for the past few weeks.
I’ve been busy for the past few weeks finishing work on my latest novel. And
last week I finally finished the first draft of it.
The new novel is called Spinsterella and it’s a romantic
comedy. It’s a fairy tale the Shawn James way. If I had to pitch it to a trade
publisher, I’d tell people it’s a story about two misfits who find love with
each other; a story about facing one’s fears and moving ahead in life. It’s kind
of Shrek meets Lydia Deetz from Beetlejuice. If Tim Burton ever made a romantic
comedy, this would probably be the end result.
The heroine in this one is a Goth. A 40-year-old Goth. I’ve
always had a soft spot for Goths and the Goth subculture and I’ve always wanted
to create a Goth character and tell their story. Most people don’t know that Marilyn
Marie from All About Marilyn and Colleen Anderson from The Thetas almost became
full Goths at the end of their character transformations. However I changed my
mind at the last minute.
This time I decided to take the plunge and create that Goth
character. I spent the last year studying the Goth subculture, reading Goth blogs,
watching Goths’ YouTube Videos and just listening to the people, their language
and the way they do things. And I found it to be a very interesting world of
cool people with a style all their own. No two Goths are alike and that’s what
I love about them. What I loved is that even though almost everyone wears
black, there is more than one shade and one texture to the color of the stories
and experiences of the people all over the world.
This one is very different than my previous novels. Most of
the books I write like those in the Isis series are usually PG or PG-13 in
terms of content and almost all ages can read them, but this one is definitely
R Rated. There’s sex, violence, and profanity. Quite a few Goths curse, so
that’s in the dialogue. And it’s a romance novel so of course there’s sex
scenes J. Nothing as graphic as Zane
but the sex scenes are pretty steamy. It was a nice change of pace to write
something with adult themes, I really haven’t really done that in over a
decade. I really wanted to get out of my box and try some new concepts this time.
This one’s also a bit more autobiographical than my previous
novels. Yeah the hero is based on me. Again. I decided to make this one a story
about what would probably happen if I returned to work at a business after all
that I had to deal with after losing my job at City College’s
Science/Engineering Library. Re-adjusting to the job market after being out of
it for six to seven years is a major life-changing event. And there’s a major
character transformation arc as a character has to deal with their personal
issues while transitioning from being alone and working on one’s own to
learning how to being part of an office with its own unique culture and its own
unique social situations.
I know from personal experience that when you’ve been out of
the job market for an extended period of time you just shut down mentally and
emotionally and you just focus on surviving. In survival mode you tend to tune
everyone out and your only goals are getting through a day and having enough
money to get to the next one. So when you return to the job market you don’t
have much interest in forming relationships and personal connections with
co-workers. Because you don’t know whether or not you’re going to be staying
anyplace for too long. With the job market being unstable these days you learn
to expect the unexpected.
And you don’t know who’s going to stab you in the back.
There’s a lot of anxiety and tension entering a new environment like a
workplace when you’ve been out of it for an extended period of years like I
have. You just keep your distance from everyone in an effort to avoid the
predators in the workplace who can cost you everything. Again, you don’t know
whether or not you’re going to be staying. So you don’t make plans long term
for your career.
I wanted people to understand if a person like myself is very
distant when they first meet them on the job that we’re not being hostile
towards them. Nor are we being conceited or aloof. When someone like me is out
of the job market for a long time we just aren’t looking to be open to others
on day one. To protect oneself, from further harm a man or woman may just shut
down those parts of themselves and their personality in an effort just to keep
surviving. It may take six months to a year for them to just feel comfortable
enough to feel free enough to start expressing the parts of their personality
they were forced to suppress to get through a day in those hard times. If an
employer isn’t patient enough to understand the issues this new hire is going
through
These were major story points in developing my hero. It was a
fascinating character transformation arc and I felt it was a story that needed
to be told. Most people don’t understand how these starts and stops in today’s
unstable job market effect people mentally and emotionally, and I wanted to
tell that story.
In developing the romance between the hero and my Goth heroine
I found myself applying many of the things I learned from YouTubers like the
Iceman and others to the relationships and approaches to relationships in this
story. Now that I’m aware of Simps and the Simp/Trick paradigm I wanted to take
a different approach to relationships than what’s presented in your usual
romance novel and my previous romance novel A Recipe For $ucce$$. I wanted to
show a man being balanced in his masculinity and present a model for how people
have healthy relationships.
Spinsterella is a fairy tale about two rejects. Misfits. And
how they find love with each other as they face their fears and overcome their anxieties.
It’s a fun romantic comedy filled with a lot of irony, satire, and sarcasm.
With the first draft complete, I’ll be working on revisions soon. Right now I’m
working on outlines for Isis: Imitation of Life and E’steem: Back to
School. I’d love to have this one
out for Christmas, but we’ll see.
There was a big "to do" on the net this past week because Ciara was at some White House dinner with Russell Wilson. A lot of Black women were going crazy about her "upgrade" from her loser baby-daddy, rapper, Future who already had a number of baby mammas to the clean-cut, very rich, seemingly intelligent Russell Wilson.
ReplyDeleteWhile I will certainly be happy for Ciara if something comes of the "date", I don't understand why many Black women have kids with "thugs" and then want some successful, clean cut, upstanding, educated rich man to come take on them and their baggage... Sorry, but Ciara and other women like her are damaged goods.
No man on Russell's level would do such a thing...and if he did he'd be suspect.
Of course, this is the same Russell who many Black women called "corny", "cornball", boring, sellout, etc..... i guess now he is on a date with Ciara all that changes. Russell....here is a bit of advice......RUN !