O Tessa, wherefore art thou Tessa?

I BEGAN THIS DAY not knowing what to write. They say in writing, the blank page is the scariest of all demons. That has never been my problem, give me a blank page and a subject and I can whack out 4000 words about nothing easy.  It wasn't that I was scared, my problem was I had this  crawling sensation in the back of my head,  I knew exactly what it was I wanted to write. I rejected the idea out of hand, I didn't  want to write that!  I took my dog for a walk, hoping that I'd come up with a brilliant  new idea.  Nothing came. I knew sooner or later I had to write something, after all I’m a writer and writing is what I do.  

      I have what you might call a confession to make.  I don’t know whether to chalk it up to happenstance, coincidence, or foul chance. These are the kinds of things that only happen to me. I mean what are the chances?  I could get struck by lightning twice and still not have another swipe at such a foul turn of events.
     Growing up; my brother David and I would play marathon sessions of Monopoly. I remember one game in particular. I was winning; David was on the ropes, down to one property, Boardwalk with hotels.  A wounded beast is the most dangerous foe, but I was sitting pretty, I knew it was only a matter of time before I crushed him. All that changed when I landed on Boardwalk. It took all my cash reserves, I was forced to mortgaged all my available minor properties and hand over the two-thousand dollars rent. My railroads were gone, my utilities in hock.  I tried to convince myself that this represented only a minor set-back; I still had hotels on the reds and the greens. I was cash poor but I was still winning; it was only a matter of time. What I hadn’t counted on, was that I had rolled doubles, which means you get a second turn. This normally is a good thing, however in Monopoly, in the late stages of the game, strategically, this is a bad thing, the more turns you take, the more opportunity you have to land on the other guy's property.  I wasn't worried, I was free and clear, nothing but undeveloped purple, light blue and orange.  I rolled the dice with smug confidence, not knowing just how bad my luck was.  The dice came  up three. One, two, three, pass GO, collect two-hundred dollars, all right so far. Three landed me on CHANCE . . . no worries, maybe I'd win a $10  second prize in a breauty contest. I drew my card and in an instant I knew I was ruined!  ADVANCE TO BOARDWALK.

     What sort of evil karma must I possess to bring me to such ruination?  In one throw of the dice, I was bankrupt! There was no way I could come up with two-thousand dollars a second time.  As strange as it might seem, this was a life changing moment for me. It was in that moment I had an epiphany of sorts. That’s a long story and quite the round about way to make my point.  This is why I never play the lottery or go to the casino.  At just ten-years-old and I knew in that moment I was forever cursed with abysmal bad luck. 

    *Sigh* This was bound to come out sooner or later, so I might as well be upfront about it. I still can’t quite believe it myself. Just what is this post all about?  I'll tell you, Dakota's new movie,  NOW IS GOOD (2012).  Dakota Fanning  plays a girl dying of leukemia who compiles a list of things she'd like to do before passing away. Topping the list is her desire to lose her virginity . . . alright so far.  Okay, here comes  the bombshell, are you sitting down? The name of Dakota’s character is Tessa Scott! Could this be any worse? What am I supposed to say? How am I supposed to respond? To make matters worse, Dakota has her hair cut short and she looks like a boy! I guess it could be worse; her name could be Tessa Claiborne.

     In 2006 I began work on what was to become my first novel,  RUFF STUFF.  A story about a  private investigator Lea Swift and her sometime tumultuous relationship with  her grandfather, a war criminal, a Nazi hunter who also turns out to be a shape shifter. These stories represented   just a  compilation of tales of my past characters from previous role-playing games turned into a novel.
      In '07 I began work on a new novel, an origial  novel about a subject I was passionate about. A story I wanted to tell. Set against the backdrop of nineteenth century British imperialism, TESSA CLAIBORNE tells the story of a young Welsh girl who escapes poverty and indentured servitude. Tessa disguises herself as a boy joins the army, where she finds herself in Africa, inexplicably intertwined in some of the greatest colonial battles in history. Tessa Claiborne is an historical novel, a hero’s journey about love, loss and ultimate redemption.

     Well, that's all I got to say about that. It's impossible to know whether to call it foul coincidence or cruel happenstance! You can be the judge yourself who came first, Tessa Scott or Tessa Claiborne.  Here's the link to my web page  TESSA CLAIBORNE.COM   Where you can watch the book trailer. You can read my a preliminary draft of my novel on Wordpress @  TESSA CLAIBORNE the novel .