In many ways this week\u2019s blog will be a continuation of last week\u2019s, but it also contains a major spoiler alert. If any of my blog readers have never read Until Proven Guilty, Beaumont #1, you need to stop reading now. For everyone else? You\u2019re good to go.<\/p>\n
I wrote UPG, as I refer to it, in the latter part of 1982 and early 1983. It was published in June of 1985, the year I turned 41. In the book, homicide cop J.P. Beaumont crosses paths with a woman named Anne Corley. She\u2019s rich, smart, and dangerous. Only at the end of the book does he discover that she\u2019s a one-woman vigilante posse determined to meet out her own kind of justice to pedophiles.<\/p>\n
As I said, the book came out in 1985. Four years later I learned that Juanita High School in Kirkland had started a \u201cReading for Pleasure\u201d program. Every day the school shut down for twenty minutes while everyone there\u2014kids, teachers, and staff\u2014including cafeteria workers and custodians\u2014were expected to read for FUN. Not required homework reading; not work-related reading\u2014reading something for pure enjoyment.<\/p>\n
As a provider of reading for fun, I wanted to back this program, so I called the school and spoke the principal telling him who I was and what I did and saying that, on October 27, I wanted to give myself Juanita High School for my 45th birthday. I said that on that day I wanted to come to the school and do an hour-long assembly in front of all 1600 students and that I would do it for free. His first question was: Who are you again? He went on to say that the school had a very nice auditorium that held 400 students at a time. Wouldn\u2019t I rather speak there?<\/p>\n
I said, \u201cNo, I want to do one assembly not four. I want to speak to the entire school on October 27, and I\u2019ll do it for free.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me get back to you,\u201d he said. A week or so later, he called to say fine, but then, the day after that he changed his mind: \u201cThat\u2019s the day the shop teachers have their pumpkin carving contest, so it\u2019s a no go.\u201d The next day he called again. It turned out some of the shop teachers were big fans of mine, and they were willing to move the date of the pumpkin carving contest. So we set it up. I was due to be there about mid morning\u2014during the reading for pleasure time slot.<\/p>\n
The night before my daughter took me aside and told me, \u201cMom, tomorrow when you go to Juanita High, wear a long skirt.\u201d So I did\u2014a flared wool skirt with tall boots. I\u2019m glad I took her advice because she knew something I didn\u2019t. \u201cOne of the shop teachers who was a fan had read UPG and knew Anne Corley drove a Guard\u2019s Red Porsche. In honor of the event, the shop teacher borrowed a friend\u2019s Porche and drove me into the gym homecoming queen style, handed me out of that very low car, and gave me a bouquet of flowers. That was the lightning-bolt moment when it came home to me that it\u2019s really pretty wonderful to be a late bloomer!<\/p>\n
I gave my talk. Gyms are notoriously tough places to do talks because the audience is on either side of the room seated on bleachers, but I spoke and they listened. At the end of my talk, one of the kids stood up and asked, \u201cWhere did Anne Corley come from?\u201d And that\u2019s when I was hit by yet another lightning-bolt moment.<\/p>\n
In last week\u2019s blog, I recounted what happened to me as a child at the hands of my paternal grandfather. In my late twenties I had told my father about it and in the early eighties I had discussed the situation with a few women friends. But I had never spoken out in public about it\u2014not until then. But that young man\u2019s question crystallized something in my head and and heart. Years after creating the character, I suddenly realized that Anne Corley was me\u2014my alter ego going out into the world and wreaking vengeance on SOBs who might otherwise get away with preying on little kids.<\/p>\n
But that morning I told the story in public\u2014what had happened, when it happened, and how\u2014in front of an audience of 1600 high school students. Afterwards, when I was signing books a young woman, a freshman most likely, came up to the table and said, \u201cThe same thing happened to me. What should I do?\u201d<\/p>\n
I pointed her to the nearest counselor and said, \u201cGo talk to her. Tell her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harvey Weinstein was found guilty this week, but only because some of the up and coming movie stars he victimized were finally willing and able to come forward. Is he in jail? No, my understanding is he\u2019s faking illness and lounging around in a hospital room somewhere, wearing PJs and watching TV. I want the man under lock and key.<\/p>\n
As for Anne Corley? I wasn\u2019t at all conscious of what I was doing when I created that character. She grew out of my heart and my soul, but I wrote her for all the rest of us\u2014the ones who weren\u2019t rich and famous and could call our abusers out or see them punished.<\/p>\n
I know there are more than a few of you who are reading this, and you know what? Anne Corley\u2019s for you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In many ways this week\u2019s blog will be a continuation of last week\u2019s, but it also contains a major spoiler alert. If any of my blog readers have never read Until Proven Guilty, Beaumont #1, you need to stop reading now. For everyone else? You\u2019re good to go. I wrote UPG, as I refer to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-family","category-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-wq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2011,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010\/revisions\/2011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}