Fiction author Robin Brande talks about writing, reading, and other vital matters

Tonight I wrote a long post that I just deleted. On purpose. Because I decided it was too depressing–not depressing in the way my Blue story was (although that was sad enough), but depressing in the “there-is-so-much-evil-in-the-world-what-can-we-possibly-do-about-it” kind of way. It was about what happened today in that Amish schoolhouse. We will say nothing further.

But stories like that bring out the fantasy-lover in me. The part of me that lives in fiction because at least there I can usually count on a happy ending–or happy-ish–unless it’s some classic work of literary genius, in which case the heroine will most likely die. There’s a reason why some of us–lots of us–read and write fiction. The real world is out of our hands a good bit of the time. We can’t actually control our fellow human beings, even in something so miniscule as getting them to pick up their socks.

Which is why I deleted what I wrote before. Because you can’t control what shows up on this blog page when you tune in, and it might be fun and frivolous, or it might turn out to be a weepy little tale about a girl losing her first dog. You’ve already had that surprise in the past week, so I’m not going to do it again.

Which is why I will now treat you to this. Barry showed it to me this weekend, and it not only made me laugh (the best one is Lord of the Rings–start there), it also touched that bossy, controlling nerve in me that always thinks, “If only they’d listened to me, everything would have been fine.” Apparently I’m not the only person who thinks that way. Who knew?

And while we’re at it, I’m sure you have some books and movies you wish had turned out differently than they did. My first choice would be Where the Red Fern Grows–the dogs do not die. And Old Yeller–same thing. A Knight’s Tale–he ends up with the cute, smart, strong blacksmith girl instead of the snooty rich babe who is so emaciated she looks like her bones would break if the wind blew the wrong way. Et cetera.

Have at it. Let’s cheer ourselves up by being Masters of Our Universe–at least when it comes to fiction.

Technorati Tags: Books, Reading, Movies, Lord of the Rings, How It Should Have Ended, Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, A Knight’s Tale

Posted on Monday, October 2nd, 2006 at 7:40 pm under Movies & TV, Reading . Subscribe to responses: RSS 2.0 Comment Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.