GUEST BLOG: Caprice Crane

I am so happy to have a guest blog from the wonderful Caprice Crane. Read on to learn how the premature death of her best friend informed the writing of Forget About It.

How do you stand up for yourself when you just can't stand yourself? Some people are truly incapable of self-defense. And what's worse, sometimes those unfortunate ones get dealt a really bad hand.

Forget About It is total fiction. I wrote the book as an exploration of a major "What if?" When I first had the idea, I thought it was brilliant. (Not the idea to write the book - I'm not *that* much of an ass - the idea of faking amnesia to totally reinvent yourself.) Of course, it wasn't something I'd ever do in real life but what a great concept, I thought. A do-over.

As I developed Jordan, the main character, I wanted her to be real. And the more I got to know her in the early passages of the book, the more she reminded me of my best friend Melissa who recently passed away at age 31 from cancer. Way too young.

In Melissa's final months, she showed more courage than the bravest soldier and more calm than a Buddhist leader. Despite all her pain, she showed unrelenting strength and tremendous compassion for those she loved. Her forgiveness was inspirational, her will indomitable, her love contagious.

But in the years prior, she had a really rough go. Her family life wasn't always great (to put it exceptionally politely), she struggled with depression and drug/alcohol addiction, and she attempted suicide on more than one occasion.

Yet, throughout a tumultuous young adulthood, she maintained the "I'm okay" façade. She never stood up for herself, though there were more than a few people who deserved to be put in their place and more than a few situations where an aggressive defense would have been justified. She never learned to love herself enough to deem herself worth fighting for. She took a lot of hits, swallowed a lot of pride and smiled through so much hurt that it's almost like the cancer was her escape from a life too painful. Enough was finally enough.

Jordan is not Melissa. Not at all. But Jordan stands up for herself in a way that Melissa never did and never could. Maybe the book is a love-letter to my lost friend. A wink at the heavens. I hope she loves it. And I hope you do too.

Thanks, Caprice. Your books make me laugh and now your Guest Blog's made me cry!

Joey

Lennart,

That was the PERFECT response to the pretentious crap in this blog.

Lennart (Blogger in Crane)

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