“Like my grandmother always said, “Your opinions are valid and important. Unless it’s some stupid bullshit you’re being shitty about, in which case you can just go fuck yourself.”
― Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things
The duality of the grandmother’s role
Now, I’ve already done a story where I used my grandma for inspiration. The first story was The Family That Preys (click here to see) and my grandma loved it. She thought it was a nice story about the lengths grandmothers will go to maintain harmony in the family. However, she thought it was a bit over the top and I had to remind her that my writing is always dialed up to an eleven. Now! That particular conversation gave me a spark of inspiration and the motivation to write another “grandma” story: Child of Lovebirds.
Everything about this story I made sure was the complete opposite of My Family That Preys. I didn’t want to shine on the evil on my cousins. Instead, I wanted to showcase generational narcissism as I am a biracial man. Every day of my youth has always been being looked upon has people looking down at me because of my biracial ethnicity. It’s either I’m not “black enough” or I’m still a n****r. Actually, I punched a man for calling me that and slapped his wife for following suit. My grandma was not too pleased about that.
Anyway, I took the opportunity to make the story focus on the protagonist’s parents and how it’s the grandmother’s job to “keep the light in the family going through dark times”. Yes, I did use part of life as a plot device but in the way that you think. Instead, I did what I always do: dial it up to eleven. However, this time around, I made sure that it was just as realistic as its processor. Contemporary fiction seems to be growing on me.
I love both stories but the consensus is that this story is more satisfying than the previous one because of its grounded storyline. It makes sense, I suppose. Either, I can’t wait to hear what you think about the stories. And, with that, I hope you enjoy the story.
You can buy the book on Amazon. The link is here.
You can also learn about it on Goodreads. The link for it is here.
