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Most fans of fiction know about Livia, from Robert Graves’s “I, Claudius.” She was the scheming Roman Empress who calmly plotted, murdered, and poisoned her way through eight or nine relatives to ensure that her son became the next Emperor. Cold, amoral, ruthless, and detestable… but at least the woman had style.
Unfortunately, it is really is hard to admire Livia when you’re facing someone just like her in real life. The only difference is that this one has no style.
There is a good-old-boy social network in a certain midwestern town that pretty much run things… which includes twisting and or breaking and ignoring the law when they feel like it. Most of the judges and attorneys are either in their pockets, or they’re part of ‘the club.’
… and somehow, our Livia has managed to put her hooks into several of them, and is getting them to dance to her tune.
Like Livia, this one is not above doing anything to achieve her goals.
She is methodically stripping a family, who never did a thing to her except offer her support… of it’s fortune, its dignity and its sanity. She is destroying an old man with Alzheimer’s disease and using the mans own lawyers to help her destroy and steal from the family… by playing them one against the other.
Sadly, in the end, they will most likely find themselves as mentally and emotionally broken as his daughter, the only one who has been putting up a fight to protect her father. They will wind up with nothing… and wonder how it happened.
When this is all over I’m going to write it up, publish it and give copies of the book away all over town.
I thought at first to fictionalise the place and use different names… but the personalities, attitudes and ‘voices’ would be them… every stinking last one of ‘em… but the more I see, the stranger it gets… and now I’m not so sure (about fictionalising it).
I’ve never written a true crime novel. This may be my first.
Stay tuned.
One of the headlines in the paper yesterday was:
Inspectors Fear Iran Is Hiding Nuclear Plants
I wrote that in my opinion they were welcome to them because I certainly did not wish to have any of those in my gardens.
I asked, “Can you imagine what they’d do to the poor roses?”
The responses were anything from Huh? to a dissertation on the subject of Armageddon.
My comment was, however, not intended to encourage discourse on the subject of nuclear arms control, but instead the way we use and/or mis-use words.
A plant – “is a living organism of the kind exemplified by trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses, ferns, and mosses, typically growing in a permanent site, absorbing water and inorganic substances through its roots, and synthesizing nutrients in its leaves by photosynthesis using the green pigment chlorophyll.”
A factory, or foundry, or… in the archaic (a manufactory), “is a place where one manufactures finished goods by processing raw materials.”
As I hypothesised, the words that people picked out were ‘Nuclear’ and ’Iran’ , which was why they ‘looked askance at my cavalier attitude toward fanaticism’ and wondered.
Which, I must admit, was the point of the posting: How often we mis-use words.
We see and hear terms like this used so often in the print press, on television and radio, on the Internet, and even in textbooks, that we become so inured to this arbitrary assimilation/usurpation of their definition that we adopt the usage.
We may all speak English… but in truth… We do not.
Which, when speaking to someone who speaks a different language, or even to someone who speaks the same language but who is from a different country… is, like Douglas Adams Babel Fish, the primary cause of misunderstandings that have so often led to long, bloody wars.
Self publishing can be, and often is, the nearest thing to gambling… without the complementary room. cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.
It is less of a gamble when it is shared, and when it’s an e-pub that costs you only time and effort, it can be a joyful experience.
That is, unless you’re the editor. Then it can be blood, sweat and tears… both of joy and of frustration.
That said, I am pleased to say that a new anthology of short stories… with a twist… will be published in early December.
Twenty authors, twenty stories… plus a handful of extras by the same authors.
Ménage-à-20
Coming soon to free download site near you.
As everyone who knows me is well aware, I usually neither comment on, nor do I promote books.. either by word of mouth or in this space. I prefer to keep to commentaries on the subject of the process of writing and on issues related to publishing.
What follows is NOT an exception to that rule!
What this column is about is learning the process of writing, editing and some of many arcane and obscure issues related to getting published.
An author I highly respect, Lynn Flewelling, is offering a course on writing… and to make it even more fun, the course will will be taking place on a cruise ship.
The inclusive dates are 23-30 May of 2010, so make your reservations early.
See the details at Lynn Flewelling’s home page
… and don’t forget your shades, the sunscreen, your bathing suits and the Dramamine.
