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Mary Magdalene from whence comes the story 3/27/2009 6:19:25 PM
where it all comes from and how my writing works Blog, blog, blog....
Sometimes I can't think of a thing to write about and other time I can think of too much. Mary Magdalene is a subject that I could talk about forever.
With the new book by my competition now out, MM has once again been thrust into the publishing light. However, this book doesn't truly focus on MM or Jesus and I can't figure out where she is going with the series. Who am I talking about? Kathleen McGowan. Her last book (2 yrs ago) The Expected One was one which idicated that "she" was the grail. She has said that she is from the Bloodline and this is supposed to be her raison d'etre, if you will. The weird thing is the timing of this revelation. The author claims never to have read the Da Vinvi Code or Holy Blood, Holy Grail and yet, her information mimics much of theirs. Now, I am not criticizing her. Far from it. Her books are selling and that is a credit to her. I do think she ought to admit to reading the competition and/or any other things about the subject instead of just saying she reseached it.
On the other hand, I originially wrote the first book of my Magdalene series in the 1970's. I was told so many times that it wasn't marketable that it nearly made me thrown away the pages. But I didn't. Instead I kept them until they WERE marketable and then I published book one. Book Two is on its way. I had hopes of bringing it out at the convention in Orlando but got behind with my husband's illness and now it is scheduled for May or June. But my story(ies) differ from McGowan's or anyone else's that I have read. Oh, yes,I admit I have read all things MM. Why wouldn't I want to see what the competition offers? The first of these "alternate" story lines was written ages ago and no one made a big deal about it.In fact, fiction about MM has been avilable for the general reader at least since the 50's.
Have I mentioned I was a religion major in college? Or that I have currentl re-enrolled in a more Christian based college lately and renewed those studies? Nah, wht would be the point. The truth is that the Bible, no matter how well written or to whom it was "given" isn't what it seems to be. There are hidden depths to every sentence in the Bible and there is often religious politics busy in translations from the original script. What really bothers me most is
this: what if God/Jesus sent/gave us a very important message about how we were supposed to live and then we, manknd, distorted that message to suit our own agenda? As a writer, even of fiction, there is a conscious effort to not pass on false information and call it fact.
My Scottish grandmother once told me that "legends are secrets couched so that they are more palatable". I think she might have been right. Through our family there are many legends that have been passed down orally. A lot of them never made sense and yet, I am sure originally they had a very good moral to them. I think this is what happened to relgion. Man distorts so many things for their own agenda. Religion has been used to control rather than to "save". Fiction such as mine is a way to pass on legends so that we might be able to decide for ourselves what might be true. I think there is "some" truth in every legend. It is our job to find it. I hope that my interpretations of the legends of MM don't offend before they are given the chance to teach the moral or story therein.
I chose to break down the legends as I know them into several books because there is too much information out there for one book. If you try to put in into one book you run the risk of leaving something important out. My series introduces the legends a few at a time and in a way that the reader can see how the stories were born. It is my job to tell the story; it is the reader's job to interpret it.
