By Elaine Carlson

The novel looks interesting  as it opens with a woman attorney relaxing in front of a pool. Soon she will go on trial with charges she murdered her husband and desecrated his corpse. All I can say is that I hope as well as being an attorney she has a good attorney.

It is logical to think that if as alleged she hated her husband enough to kill him she could have thought mistreating his body after he is dead would be a wonderful thing to do. But why did the prosecution file that second charge? After all murder is a much more serious charge.

I suspect the DA filed that additional charge to pave the way for plea bargaining.

Also the prosecution could be trying to be prepared if their case for murder falls apart. So if they have some, but not overwhelming, proof of her involvement they would be glad to be able to ìat least get her on something.

I was at the library browsing through a stack of magazines when I saw a reference to that book. It has already won an industry prize. Its plot is compelling and it should be a good novel ñ at least if it is well written. I don't want to have a discussion about it with my husband. He would say something like, ìI am sure you will think it is a good book.î

Instead of trying to decide if I want to buy this book I think it would be better to think of this announcement as a Writing Prompt for a Writing Project. I rather like the the idea of having a woman attorney who has been accused of doing a heinous crime (or two crimes) as the main character in a novel. .

If I follow through on this Writing Project I want to start out by giving the attorney a name. Right away I settle on Beth. It is a short and simple name and it used to be my nickname. .

But I have more ideas for a last name. Perhaps Fox or Wolfe. I wish a pit bull had a form that is used as a surname. I guess I could proceed as if Pitt, Bull, Bulle, Pittbull, and Bullis are all acceptable last names and choose one of them.

Maybe Beth Bulle would be a good name for my woman attorney. I looked online and learned Bulle is the name of a city in Switzerland. That country has a lot of mountains but Bulle is at a relatively low elevation --- 2,530 feet which is less than half of ours here in Silver City. .

So Beth will be the first name and I am close to deciding if Bulle will be the last name. Maybe I can say Beth Bulle was born in Europe and grew up in Bulle Switzerland and then came to the United States after college. And then she went to law school here. That would be a good initial set up.

Next I will have to set the basic details such as location of the Court House where she has her trial. And the kind of law she practices. Do I aim for irony and say she is a Family Practice Attorney? Or make her a Criminal Defense Attorney?

Just think I am just describing the first and probably the easy steps in working on a novel. When I get them all done I will have to get to the real work --- The Real Slog is what I can call that effort. Now I can understand how many authors have struggled with alcoholism.

And I am not just talking about Dorothy Parker. She wrote so many good --- beautiful even, perfect even ñ short stories. And a lot of her prose poems are as close to perfect as any writing can be. But she never wrote a novel. And she always wanted to write a novel.

Oh my.
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