Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway for a print or e-book copy of one of Darcy Burke’s backlist. If you missed out on the giveaway but still want to learn more about Darcy Burke, check out the original post at here.
Congratulations to Maria. Maria, Darcy will contact you by e-mail.
Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation. ~ Graham Greene
Warning: This is a post about why I have a literary tattoo. It’s not a review of The Great Gatsby (book or movie) nor does it have anything to do with Stieg Larsson. 
With the new movie coming out, I’ve been getting more and more questions about a particular tattoo I have on my right forearm. It reads “Gatsby believed in the green light” in a simple, almost-script writing.
Many people who have asked about this tattoo have a vague memory of Gatsby from school. They know they’ve encountered that name somewhere in the past, though they usually struggle for a more specific context. And then there’s the light of realization when the lessons from high school English classes click into place. “Oh yeah, like The Great Gatsby, right?” Right. And lately, of course, there’s been a lot of hype about the movie. (I am on vacation at the moment and haven’t seen it yet. Have you?)
Most people did not have a very good time being forced in a high school American Literature class to read this tale of the doomed Jazz Age generation . And I can’t say that I was overwhelmed with it on my first reading, either. Being a 16-year-old sophomore, I don’t think I was mature enough to understand the love, hate, malaise, and — ultimately — hope that F. Scott Fitzgerald put into his short tale. But as I’ve matured, I’ve re-read the novel many times and I’ve truly come to love it. Really. Enough to get one of the lines permanently tattooed on my arm.
The lines that I chose for the tattoo begin the last passage of the book:
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter –tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning –
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Our narrator Nick Carraway has returned to Gatsby’s beautiful mansion in the wake of [SPOILER ALERT] Gatsby’s death. Nick sits on the beach behind the house meditating on the story he has just told, one that has changed his own life and, he hopes, will influence us as well. He looks out over the water and sees the green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock. (Daisy is the woman Gatsby desires to win, the impetus behind all of his striving for wealth and fame.) Nick realizes that, throughout the story, the green light has become synonymous with a desire for something better, a belief that love is waiting for him, and that Gatsby can, in fact, achieve his goal and reach his dreams. The green light, for Gatsby, is hope.
The words at the end of the book, the ones I have tattooed on my forearm, remind me of this hope, this striving for a dream — even when the world, and sometimes your own mind, says that you can’t have or don’t deserve it.
This has become something of a mantra for me in my life, especially lately, when I am writing and I have moments where I think “what the hell am I doing?!” The lines remind me to persevere. Even though Gatsby is, ultimately, a tragedy, for me there’s a kind of infinite hope in the character that draws me in.
In addition to the meaning behind it, I love Fitzgerald’s prose at this moment in the novel. The entire last two pages of the book are beautiful enough to bring me to tears, no matter when I read them. All of the lost love, hope, and life that has been building in the novel is poured out in a few magnificent paragraphs.
So, for me, Gatsby is a symbol of hope and belief and life and love. I got the tattoo to remind me what great literature and writing can do.
And because I’m a total lit nerd.
P.S. If you need a Gatsby refresher, check out these excellent videos from Crash Course. Here’s Part 1 & Part 2.
*This post was adapted from my original blog post here.*
So, what’s your relationship to Gatsby? Or do you have nerdy tattoos to share? If you’ve seen the new movie, what did you think?
Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway for an ebook copy of Attempting Elizabeth. If you missed out on the giveaway but still want to learn more about AE check out the original post here.
Congratulations to Liz Smith. Liz, please email me at jessica@authorjessicagrey.com to claim your copy of Attempting Elizabeth. Thanks!
Today we welcome Collette Cameron whose debut novel Highlander’s Hope will be released in May. Thank you for joining us Collette. Tell us about yourself and how you got into writing.
I’m so excited to be here today! Thanks for hosting me. I’m one of those girly-girls. You know, the ones that like lots of frou-frou, lace, flowers, and anything remotely related to romance. Yes, I collect tea cups and teapots amongst other things like vintage tins.
I’m a teacher, editor, and certified interior decorator, but writing is what I’m completely enamored with—other than the hubby of thirty years, three adult kiddos and my dachshunds.
I’ve read romance for years, (decades to tell the truth) and on a whim, decided to try my hand at writing a romance novel. I had time as a substitute teacher, and with my children grown, I found myself with time to fill. Though I do have several hobbies, I was looking for something different, challenging and yet fulfilling.
I found it when I started writing. I finished Highlander’s Hope in six months. After two title changes and massive rewriting and cuts (it was originally 156,000 words and is now 84,000) I was ready to submit. Continue reading
Our first kiss as husband and wife (I’m wearing my something blue in the form of a Laura Ashley dress stolen from my mother).
People said it wouldn’t work for us and frankly I can’t blame them. Truthfully, we got married very young. I wasn’t even 21 years old yet and he only just. We got engaged 13 days after our first date and married 8 days later. Both sets of parents were divorced, we had no income and little by the way of prospects other than our smarts and this fragile bond we’d formed in oh so short a time.
And yet this past weekend marked my 24th wedding anniversary to a wonderful man that many of you have heard me refer to as “MrMr” (it’s short to type on Twitter) or “The Big Guy.” He’s my hero, my knight in shining armor, and the love and light of my life even after so many years together.
People have asked us many times over the years how we do it. We have not had easy lives, but still we magically stayed together despite all the hardships. So what makes it work for us? Honestly, sometimes I wonder that too, even though I’m in the thick of it. There’s no easy way to say “This is how we got to be living our ‘happily ever after’.” Everyone is different. But it’s had some common themes over the years that I think might help people understand a little better. and maybe, just maybe, help you write your happily ever afters a little better in whatever work in progress you happen to have going on right now. Continue reading
Do you know how many ways love can hit you? So it makes you happy, or miserable? It makes you sick in the belly or hurt in the heart. It makes everything brighter and sharper, or it blurs all the edges. It makes you feel like a king or a fool. Every way love can hit you, it’s hit me when it comes to you. ~ Nora Roberts, Black Hills
