THE DEDICATION OF A BOOK

AMBER LOVE 31-JAN-2017 You can support my writing at Patreon.com/amberunmasked. Backers get first looks at some posts and of my fiction; sometimes they even get a podcast before anyone else.

MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE: FARRAH WETHERS #3

The first Farrah Wethers book, Cardiac Arrest, was dedicated to everyone that created Murder, She Wrote. That reasoning should be apparent. It was formulaic, but by far, one of the best mysteries to grace television and it had twelve successful years led by an older woman.

The second Farrah Wethers book, Full Body Manslaughter, was dedicated to my cat Caico because she sat with me for every page, every edit, every moment where I felt like a failure as a writer for two whole books.

That brings me to the third book. I haven’t scheduled a publication date yet. It’s titled MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE where the pun of the title is more relevant than ever. Farrah Wethers takes on a massage client, Lenore Lexington, who is pregnant and in an unfortunate relationship with the Baby Daddy. I don’t want to spoil too much, but you can guess that Lenore miscarries. Farrah and her best friend June Cho along with their police friend, Detective Phil Morrison find clues that indicate Lenore’s miscarriage may not have been Mother Nature’s plan.

In each of the books, the subject of harassment comes up. In the first two, the harassment was specifically targeting Farrah online though it did escalate to where her husband Jackson was also a victim. Once people of the public track down someone’s information and significant data like where they work, it can easily become open season to trolls and hackers. Just yesterday, I saw Anonymous post a link to a set of instructions on how to hack Trump’s smartphone (maybe someone should do it since he loves WikiLeaks so much).

MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE is not a “whodunit” like the first two books. Not in the typical sense. There are still some red herrings and room for reader doubt so I won’t give it completely away. Lenore is being targeted, not by one person but two. Finding the accomplice and proving it is the biggest mystery.

In a way that I have never done before as a writer, I took this new character and have her go through the traumatic experience of gaslighting. Lenore is sweet and innocent. She’s young, in her twenties. She’s the once trusting, hippie-dippie version of myself in a few ways. (Another Mary Sue!) I felt awful about putting her through the wringer, but that was the story I wanted to tell. Each time she seems better, something else pecks at her until her mental state and her body are shattered. I just finished reading Stephen King’s Carrie and it’s pretty clear that’s what he was doing to her too with greater emphasis on teenage bullying.

I love this character and I love the expanded friendships that are made because I created her. It’s no longer a buddy-cop duo of Farrah and June. Lenore plays the biggest new role. Her sort of unofficial adoptive mother and boss, Star Turner, comes into the circle; and Farrah’s daughter Nova returns home for a few scenes. The way these characters choose to define what family is to them is a sub-theme of the story.

WHY WRITE IT THEN?

If you’re wondering, why then did I want to tell this painful story, there are short and long answers. Short: Because a lot of women, including myself, go through things like Lenore experiences.

Long: There is a war on women (all women, transwomen/men included, queer). The war is from the ridiculously long history of patriarchy that I didn’t even realize was there as a child. I just put up with it. I wanted to do this or that like the boys did and I wasn’t allowed. I liked boys and girls. I liked witchcraft, but entertainment media equated it with evil. It’s why a show like Murder, She Wrote matters such a great deal. Transwomen may not have the repro system Lenore does, but transmen might. So whoever has the baby-bearing duties, is definitely part of the war whether they want to be or not. The war also comes down to other usual things like making women in politics and STEM seem dumber than their male counterparts. Women in entertainment still making less money even after Oscar Award wins and nominations. Only two films being up for GLAAD Media Awards because there isn’t enough in the film industry to have more inclusion of queer people. The war is big, broad, and ugly.

If Lenore Lexington were a real woman living in Indiana in the Good Ol’ US of A (where VP Malleus Pence hails and governed), this is what she’d have to go through:

“Here’s what will happen after a woman gets an abortion in the state of Indiana, starting this July. She will be told, verbally and in writing, that she has the right to choose what she does with her aborted fetus. She will be given a list of her options for disposal, and offered counseling. The fetus does not have to be named, but it will receive its own burial-transit form, just like any dead body. This form will travel with it to a funeral home, where it will be buried or cremated. There won’t necessarily be a ceremony; the fetus may not get its own headstone or urn. But it will be laid to rest in the way of a human. Aborted fetuses in Indiana, nearly all smaller than a peapod, will no longer be treated as medical waste.

This is what the state’s legislature decided back in March. It passed a wide-ranging bill, making it a criminal offense to dispose of fetal remains in any other way besides burial or cremation, including in cases of abortions, miscarriages, and stillbirths.” Green, Emma. “State-Mandated Mourning for Aborted Fetuses.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 14 May 2016. Web. 31 Jan. 2017. (Color added for emphasis by AmberUnmasked.com)

THE DEDICATION

“To all the heartbroken souls who have tried to survive gaslighting and abuse.”

Maybe it’s not simple enough. It’s not “To Mom”. Maybe it’s not complex enough to explain what I’m trying to say. I hope the story makes it clear once you read it. Patreon backers will get the first news on a release date, sample chapters, and digital copies as a reward if the tip jar keeps growing.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.