A TO Z THEME REVEAL: WHAT REMAINS

“Stories you read when you're the right age never quite leave you.

You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called.

Sometimes you'll forget precisely what happened,

but if a story touches you,

it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit.”

- Neil Gaiman


Rather vague you say.  All right.  I will narrow it down somewhat.

TV SHOWS THAT STAYED WITH ME FOR GOOD OR ILL

AN EXAMPLE:

SPENSER FOR HIRE
 

If you loved the Parker detective series upon which it was based, the show was ... disappointing. 

But if, like me, you had never read those novels enough of them lived in the shows to draw you to the books.

And that is why SPENSER FOR HIRE is important to me. 

That and I fell in love with the actress who played Susan Silverman. 

Sue me, it's a guy thing.

 

A quote from THE PROMISED LAND the book upon which the above episode was derived.

 "I try to be honorable. I know that's embarrassing to hear. It's embarrassing to say.

But I believe most of the nonsense that Thoreau was preaching. 
 

And I have spent a long time working on getting myself to where I could do it.

Where I could live life largely on my own terms."

-- The Promised Land

I LEARNED A GREAT DEAL
OF HOW TO WRITE WELL
FROM ROBERT B. PARKER

There are hints of an author's life in his novels.  As Spenser loved Susan so Parker loved his wife, Joan.

 Until his death, in 2010, they lived in separate, private areas, dated each week, and pursued individual endeavors.

 In 1996, when they were 63, Mr. Parker explained their separate-floors living arrangement by telling the Globe:

“I never want to sleep with my wife again, but I hope to continue making love to her forever.”

As Mr. Parker's books continued, the portrayal of women grew darker and pessimistic. 

In two Spenser novels, POTSHOT and HUGGER MUGGER, 

the femme fatale got away with murder, their male pawns taking the fall.

There was a quartet of novels I call the "Wounded Spenser Saga"

where Susan leaves Spenser to find herself and nearly destroys her life as well as Spenser's.

Parker's Jesse Stone novels and his Western novels both feature a protagonist chained by their love for an inappropriate woman.

Still, Mr. Parker and his wife, Joan,  fed each other lines without meaning to and were great, great fun in public outings. 

Joan, a great philanthropist and author of a book on her first struggle with cancer, died in 2013 and was greatly mourned by all who knew her.

I will let Joan reading her poem to Bob and his to her fill in the blanks of their love: