Friday, April 24, 2015

HOPE CAN BE A SLIPPERY LITTLE DEVIL

By Linda Lovely

“There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.” 
 
Leonard Cohen, Selected Poems, 1956-1968

This month’s blog theme is hope—a slippery little devil that seems hardest to grasp when we need its restorative powers most. I must admit I’ve all but abandoned hope of finding an amicable solution to a controversy that has me sleeping too little and worrying too much. In this instance, hope eludes me because so many elements are beyond my control.

So what does that say about hope? Let’s pretend my fondest hope is that a leopard will change its spots. Not going to happen. About the only folks who might realistically expect that hope to come to fruition are brave beauticians armed with stun guns and hair dye or, perhaps, geneticists willing to play with DNA in order to alter spots in future generations of leopards.  

This scenario relates directly to both my personal frustration and the turmoil and troubles my heroine encounters in my newest—soon-to-be-released—romantic suspense novel. I think we all need hope. So once it appears a given situation—or at least one aspect of it—is hopeless, I simply transfer my hope elsewhere. I look for a crack in the gloom, a place where a sliver of light can let a new hope take root, a place where there’s a possibility, however slim, that my actions can influence the outcome.

It’s no surprise my fictional heroines react the same way I do when all hope seems lost. They search for those cracks where even a trickle of light shines through. My new suspense novel is set in 1938 Keokuk, Iowa. While I grew up in Keokuk, I’m happy to say the story unfolds long before I was born. Because the book is set during the Great Depression, a number of editors have told me it runs the risk of getting labeled as “depressing” before anyone read page one. That would be a shame since the exact opposite is true. This romantic suspense is uplifting because the heroine doesn’t lose hope for a better tomorrow. She finds ways to live, laugh, and love despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles and dangers she is powerless to change—economic hardships and a few other tiny problems like a police chief determined to frame her for her estranged husband’s death and a faceless foe who wants to kill her and her two-year-old son. Of course, you’ll have to read the book to find out where she finds cracks in the gloom and how she pins her hopes on things she can influence with her own talents and determination.
  

I think this is my best novel, my favorite so far. Will it become one of your favorites, too? I guess I can say I “hope” so, since I’ve already done all I can to make that outcome a reality. The title is LIES. Release date will be early summer.

4 comments:

Robin Weaver, Author said...

Lies is a great book. Hope not required. :)

Judith Ashley said...

If I have No Control over the outcome and I've done everything I can to influence it to no avail, then I'm only making myself miserable if I continue to 'hope' something will be different.

Recently I paid for something in order to get the problem fixed instead of "hoping" the person actually responsible for the mess would do it (10 years and she hadn't).

Finding a piece of the problem I do have control over (and I always have control over how I respond to it) is one tactic. Finding something else I do have control over and concentrating on that is another.

Great quote and great post! I'm sure LIES will be a winner. When you have the actual date, let us know!

Echo Ishii said...

I think LIES sounds wonderful and the setting is a great one. A part of history overlooked, but powerful.

Ashantay said...

Hope is overrated and may sometimes keep your preferred outcome at bay! Best wishes with Lies!