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It is Mardi Gras Tuesday as I write this. For once I do not have to worry about parades blocking me delivering blood to requesting hospitals.
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A good friend believes it was the cost of insurance that did me in:
1) My age made the company car insurance cost more.
2) My company pays for medical expenses out of its own pocket --
hence the older I got, the more likely I would incur medical bills.
In fact, I had my heart attack while working for them.
Enough of that.
Each of us wears a quilt woven from the tattered remains of our own personal tragedies.
Yours impacts you the most since you have lived through them ... or are continuing to do so.
Hopefully, like the quilt above, you are moving forward.
It is raining and windy as if a hurricane is visiting for the holiday. It may kill the parades but ironically save lives.
I thought to write a novel incorporating Valentine's and Mardi Gras.
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The great thing about a holiday ... it comes like clockwork year after year and may birth a tradition of watching or reading.
Of course, you have to touch the heart to make your novel a traditional read.
But remember, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE failed at the box office ...
Which I included in my Christmas fantasy, BEWARE THE JADE CHRISTMAS.
Every Christmas, I get additional book and audio sales from this fantasy.
Ghosts and murder on Christmas Eve, who knew it would be a great combination?
Black History Month just left us ... and yes, I wrote a novel about it.
Or at least the first chapter about it.
I was asked by some of my readers how my long-lived hero, Sam McCord, felt about slavery during the time when it was legal.
I decided to use a trick from the movie, THE SHOOTIST, to answer that question and lend the semblance of authenticity to his legend.
In UNDER A VOODOO MOON, I brought a modern street orphan to 1834 New Orleans to detail the culture shock of modern sensibilities to slavery.
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I liked the experiment so much, I added snippets to several of my fantasies as Lagniappe
(a Creole tradition of giving a little extra to a buyer)
to add depth to my characters in THE NOT SO INNOCENTS ABROAD and AT LARGE, DEATH IN THE HOUSE OF LIFE and THE STARS BLEED AT MIDNIGHT (title taken from the old Gary Cooper movie, The General Died at Dawn.)
My writing mentor, Roger Zelazny, at end of his life (like me, he had a bad heart,) experimented with his writing style --
to grow as an author and to see if he could keep the interest of his readers with novels such as DOORWAYS IN THE SAND and ROADMARKS.
https://www.amazon.com/Roadmarks-Roger-Zelazny/dp/0345285301/
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Do you experiment with your writing? Do you attempt to grow in each additional book?
Do you answer questions from your readers in your next books?
If you knew you were dying soon, would it change how you write your next book?
