Book Club

Reaching Out To The Readers

If you've gotten this far, you've probably read the first full Book Club story, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Callie Hyde. My intent for the full novel is six interconnected episodic stories in this universe.

I'm curious to find out if people find this project worth pursing. to give you some idea, here are the ideas for the next two stories in this series:

PERSUSION by Jane Austen

ACTUAL BOOK - More than eight years before the novel opens, Anne Elliot, then a lovely, thoughtful, warm-hearted 19 year old, accepts a proposal of marriage from the handsome young naval officer Frederick Wentworth. He is clever, confident, and ambitious, but poor. Sir Walter, Anne's fatuous, snobbish father and her equally self-involved older sister Elizabeth are dissatisfied with her choice and they persuade her to break the engagement. Now 27 and still unmarried, Anne re-encounters her former love who is now a captain and wealthy from maritime victories in the Napoleonic wars. However, he has not forgiven Anne for rejecting him. While publicly declaring that he is ready to marry any suitable young woman who catches his fancy, he privately resolves that he is ready to become attached to any appealing young woman except for Anne Elliot.

BOOK CLUB STORY - Katherine's newest client, Jacob, is a social media billionaire who is facing a lawsuit from his former best friend over ownership of the company. Callie soon discovers that Jacob also happens to be Katherine's ex-boyfriend. Katherine broke it off with him years earlier because he didn't have solid long-term financial prospects. Callie becomes obsessed with reuniting the former lovers (after coming to believe Katherine is in a dead marriage) and invites Jacob to drop by Book Club. However, when the charming billionaire is swarmed by single women, Katherine's jealousy and anger bubbles to the surface. Soon enough this ill-conceived plan completely blows up in Callie's face as it threatens the outcome of the case. Callie needs to use all over her crafty ingenuity to keep everything from crashing down around her. Meanwhile, when Patrick claims to care nothing about a suitor's success or status, Holly calls his bluff by fixing him up with a parade of the chronically unemployed and unambitious until Patrick cries uncle.

THE SCARLET LETTER by Nathaniel Hawthorne

ACTUAL BOOK - Set in 17th-century Puritan Salem, Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an adulterous affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

BOOK CLUB STORY - Katherine finds herself representing Rebecca, a single woman and member of a fundamentalist Mennonite type community who is shunned for "sexting" an outsider boyfriend on a (forbidden in their community) cellphone. Katherine must argue that sexting (especially Mennonite sexting) does not constitute adultery and is not a Shun-able offense. At Book Club, Callie introduces the gang to Ed, a nice, but unexciting, guy she started dating. She is horrified when Ed openly admits to the gang that he is a virgin. Can this burgeoning relationship withstand the humiliation and ribbing Callie will receive for dating an adult male virgin. Or is his scarlet V too much for her to bear?

Please feel free to share your thoughts.