And Away We Go!

Okay gang! As promised I'm posting below the synopses of several story ideas I have. A couple of them I already have begun some preliminary writing and I may post that as well. I was pleasantly surprised when I went back into my files to find these story ideas as I had forgotten some of them (glad I wrote them down!). And I realized that those stories still appeal to me. I have eclectic interests - historical fiction; "romance" type stories (but always with a twist); something I like to call "social justice" literature - stories that address issues that people deal with in their daily lives and the choices they have to make; mysteries; character-driven stories that are fun reads. I'm not necessarily about always having to strive for the great definitive work of the century - a light, quick summer read - a book you can take to the beach with you is every bit as important as "significant" works like War and Peace!

As I mentioned in my first entry, the serial novel I wrote for the newspaper essentially wrote itself. I've come up with these synopses, however, I don't have them fully fleshed out - I may know how they begin, but I'm unclear as to how they end,or vice versa. They will be organic books - the writing journey will be about the story finding its own way - not me trying to drive it in a particular direction. That's why I think it'll be fun to have your input - perhaps the story will go in a whole different direction then I originally thought just from an idea put forth by one of the blog readers.

So after I've posted a few story ideas (with some background notes), it'll be your job to help me decide which one to start on. And then that story will be what I'll serialize in this blog. Once you've decided which one you like, either enter your decision in the comments section (click on "Comments" at the end of the post), or you can email your selection to me at joycejackson06@comcast.net. Or if you have my phone number you can call me!

Now you have to promise to help with this decision. Please try to respond by August 4.

Here we go!

Story Idea 1: The Harmony G.R.I.T.S. Social Club

This would (hopefully!) be a light fun read about a group of women in the small town of Harmony Tennessee who get together on a regular basis for social outings and service projects, but who usually end up in some kind of mischief. G.R.I.T.S. is an acronym I first found on a tee-shirt in a Cracker Barrel years ago and stands for "Girls Raised in the South." Most of my women friends object to being called "girls" but the ladies of Harmony are more traditional and have no problem with being referred to as "the girls" - even if they're well into adulthood! I chose the town name of Harmony to create an obvious bad pun concerning that food staple of the south "hominy grits." Get it? I know...it's bad - but fun! The five main members of the social club are Linell, Doreen, Faith, and twins Patsy and Palis (short for "Palestine" - and yes - I did actually know a woman with that name!). The tag line for at least the first book (assuming this could become a series) is "The girls were up to something...and Harmony Tennessee might never be the same."

Story Idea 2: The Love of a Good Man (definitely a working title)

This story is a bit more fleshed out - a pretty like synopses here that I wrote some time ago and I even have a good start on the first chapter, which I may include in a future entry. I like this storyline, but don't let that influence you. It is a "sophisticated" romance novel - no heaving bosoms (unless you clamor for them!) or Fabio type models - but a romance nonethe less. I got inspired to write this after making a long overdue visit to the Great Smokey Mountains, in particular the Cades Cove area. For those of you who have been up there, you'll recognize some of the landmarks. Here's the storyline:

Amanda Sparks, Ph.D. in English literature and professor at University of Chicago faces the dissolution of her marriage to a man from another culture (Indian, Iranian?) who divorces her because she doesn’t act the dutiful wife as his customs dictate. It’s the end of the spring semester and she isn’t teaching during the summer, so she decides to go “home.” While she was raised in Nashville TN, she was born in Townsend, near her ancestral home in Cades Cove at the base of the Smoky Mountains. Her family moved to Nashville while she was still an infant, but she went back often as a child to visit relatives who still lived in the area. As her heart heals from the wounds of the marriage and she struggles to find herself, she finds herself being pulled back to the place of her ancestors. She rents a cabin in Townsend by the Little Pigeon River and spends a lot of time exploring the Cove. She’s visiting the site of her ancestral home and reading the grave markers of ancestors when she is startled by the arrival of Clint Shields (?). Clint is descended from another of the ancestral Cove families and has stayed in the area his whole life. While not educated in the same way Amanda is, he is charming, has “horse sense” and a deep abiding love for his mountain roots. He runs a horse camp during the tourist season and during the winter months he spends time in a wood shop where he carves beautiful wood sculptures that reflect images of the area. He’s struggling to raise a teen-age daughter alone after they were abandoned by his wife, a Cherokee woman who wanted to find the exciting life in big cities. Amanda has her guard up regarding any new relationships but does acquiesce when Clint offers to take her on a horse back ride through some of the mountain passages. She promises herself that she isn’t going to “fall” for a guy just because she feels vulnerable. Plus she’s always had a prejudice against “good old boys”. But she finds that she’s irresistibly attracted to Clint and she begins to reflect on how bad her previous relationships and her marriage have been in which she always sought out people as different from her family and the boys she grew up with as possible. She keeps up a running dialogue with her sister through email about this, and her sister points out that as a teen she had said she wanted someone like her sister’s husband, who is a classic “good old boy.” Her sister, through the emails, urges Amanda to not be so hard on herself or on the possibilities with Clint. Perhaps she should try a “good old boy” this time. In the meanwhile, Amanda is continuously exploring the cove to come to terms with her roots, and she finds herself inviting Clint’s daughter along to teach her as well, and to offer some adult female mentoring. They go on hikes through the mountains as they discover themselves as women and as friends, sometimes taking Clint along, most times not. Clint becomes a little jealous of the budding relationship between the woman and young girl and argues with Amanda – and they avoid each other, with Amanda being told to stay away from his daughter. Amanda takes this as a cue to leave the cove and as she is making ready to return to Chicago, having given up on becoming a part of the mountain culture, she hears word that Clint is missing somewhere in the mountains. She and his daughter join the search party and after a couple of days in the mountains, they are the ones to rescue him. “True love” blooms, all is forgiven, and Amanda resigns her position in Chicago and takes a teaching position at Maryville College. She and Clint are married in the cabin where his family lived for generations and Amanda becomes part of the cove culture once again after find “the love of a good man.”

Story Idea 3 - Stars in Heaven Trilogy

This is actually an idea for a series of 3 book along the lines of the Mitford Series. If you know anything about this set of books - they are set in the small town of Mitford and feature a minister named Father Tim. They are just nice books that are a joy to read- no sex, drugs, or violence, nothing dark or sinister - just good readable books.

I have in mind to have a similar series of books that have titles based on a favorite quote of mine from the Baha'i writings. The quote reads "Ye are the stars in the heaven of understanding, the breeze that stirreth at the break of day, the soft-flowing waters upon which must depend the very life of all men." Here's the synopses I wrote for this trilogy some time ago. Obviously I would only be starting with the first one.

In a small to mid-size Tennessee town (think Murfreesboro), an interracial and interfaith group of women meet weekly as a prayer group. A more eclectic group of women would not have been found anywhere else in the South. Who could have guessed that in little Bonita Springs, Tennessee, where resistance to the end of slavery was legend and where die-hard Rebels still flew the stars and bars, six women of such diverse backgrounds and different faiths would become friends, indeed sisters?

Book 1: Heaven of Understanding - the women are horrified to learn that a local church building has been sold to someone who intends to turn it into a strip club. They set about working to stop it. They are met with resistance, especially from the business group that wants the plans to proceed. There are threats and even one attempt on one member's life. The women are undaunted and continue working until they're able to find a way to purchase the building, which they then turn into a: after-school program? charter school? free clinic? family community ed center? relief agency for runaway teens or abused women?

Book 2: The Breeze that Stirreth - Racism has to be addressed again when a Kurdish family moves into the area and is immediately vicitmized by a number of people. The women work to bring relief to the family, while addressing their own fears of the "unknown" and remembering the civil rights struggle of the 60s.

Book 3: Soft-Flowing Waters - After a heated discussion about monuments to war dead, war in general, and mothers being forced to sacrifice their sons (one woman has a son in Iraq), the women take up the project of creating a "peace monument" (peace pole?) to counter act the Civil War monument which was recently erected.