Afterword for "I Love My Wife"

Click here to read my short story, "I Love My Wife"

You know, ya'll trip me out.

I gotta watch what I say in my posts, LOL.

No, I am not ready to write anything long about Sylvia and Fred. That sh** is just a bit too complicated. Maybe in a few years, or something. But these little stories are helping shape up some type of storyline.

And that right there is a good thang:)

But, what I was working on with "I Love My Wife" is writing from a male point of view. I pretty much suck when it comes to writing from a male perspective. I only have one male reader, the Infamous Hen-Dog, who likes to run around the cubicle area at work reciting from some of my writings where the males are conversating. Let's just say he recites those lines with a glowing smile, a strange twist in his hips, and a wonderful two snaps up.

Every now and then, he whispers "Gaaaay."

That was written all over the place when I had the first half of Sweet Heat edited. So it's just not him picking at me...

Oh, how I almost shed a tear because of these things.

Whatever. I am the Original Oldgirl. I big up! I man up!

And I WILL change.

Which means that I have to do a bit of "drill writing" in that area. "I Love My Wife" is a part of all that.

And a convo about the matter with the great Queen of Lurk City, Inc., Miss Celie herself, Tayari Jones, REALLY got this Oldgirl stomping in the right direction (as always the case).

So... I woke up one morning, and I was laying in bed thinking about why the heck Fred be trippin' like he do, when he got a good wife at home who doesn't complain one bit about his escapades. And I heard Fred say something quite interesting...

"LadyLee, I love my wife."

He went on to tell all the reasons why he loved his wife, and why at the same time he loves the chase. Then he explained how he felt guilty about it all, to the point where he couldn't look Sylvia in the eyes.

Because he knows that she knows what's up. And he's not too sure what to do about that and/or how to deal with that.

Yeah, that is a bit... spooky, I must say. But there was a HUGE situation that occurred in Sweet Heat where my elite critique team was like "Damn Lee, I want to know the story behind all of THAT!!!"

"Too complicated," I would respond. "Plus it steps away from the plot."

And it does. I am having a hard enough time understanding my main characters as it is. I am beginning to find that people are a bit smitten with the lives of my side characters rather than my main characters. This was a problem in my writing class also, with a story I'd written. That can be either a good or a bad thing, ya know.

But what I LOVE about the members of the Original Oldgirl Elite Critique Team(yeah, I came up with that, and I may just buy them some t-shirts or somethings, LOL), is that they, even though their editing skills are NOT there, ask the most intriguing questions, and make the most wonderful suggestions. I have also been cussed out a couple of times. That's cool, because it let's me know that I wrote something that got a rise out of them.

Hen-Dog is getting better. He will sit and listen to me read to him, and he won't whisper "Gaaaay!" or get all feminine on me. He is making GREAT suggestions. This is good because I NEEDS that. He helped me with the "they better wake up and apologize" line and the whole basketball metaphor.

And he gave me some good advice...

Which I plan to put to use.

Now the next story will be posted in the morning. It is a twice as long as "I Love My Wife". The name of it is either "Cold and Heavy" or "Gun". I will let you decide on which.

All I know is that it pissed my blog sister Serenity23 off. That girl WENT OFF over the email thread. Goodness. Calm down, S. DANG.

LadyTee didn't even let me get through the first few lines before she yelled "Whoa player... whoa! Hold up! This sounds a bit por.no.gr.aph.ic. Not sure where she got that from. Sometimes that chick got a dirty mind, LOL.

Another blog sister,the retired Ladybug Mocha, called me and just outright asked me, "You alright, Leezie? 'Cause you sure be writing about guns, and people being shoved and thrown up against walls..."

I'm alright, baby.

Just been watching too much "Snapped" on the Oxygen channel, that's all. And I have been reading a book entitled "100 little murder stories". Other than that, I'm cool.

Stay tuned tomorrow for "Gun. . . Cold and Heavy"