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Well, I spoke too soon! Laura Battyanyi-Petose, aka Nicole Grey, did
write back to me about the Girl Friends series and my review of
it here, and gave me the Inside Scoop... plus her plans for the future.
Turns out the Girl Friends might -- might! -- be back in
some way after all! Check this out:
First, Kensington actually dreamed up the GF concept, named the town, school, girls and provided very bare bones character sketches, i.e. Janis = hippie radical (I got to pick which kind of radical), Nat = mixed race (I got to pick the how and why of it, if I remember correctly), Cass = upper class African American (I got to build habits, families, family names, hobbies, personalities, problems, etc.) well, you get the idea.
I was a very new writer and just had my first book signed with HarperCollins under my real name when my agent called and told me of the series, and that the editor wanted me to audition for it. (She'd worked with me in Harper and then gone to Z*Fave if memory serves me right.) I really liked working with this editor -- and besides, what writer wouldn't jump at the opportunity to snag a 10 book series for her very own? -- so I auditioned and got it. I was so happy, scared and excited that I couldn't even breathe and from that moment on, those girls in GF were completely real to me.
The writing schedule was grueling; I had to write one 55,000 word book per month for 10 months straight, and at the end of each month, edit the previous one. I loved it. I wrote on a Panasonic Word Processor everyday for 10 months from noon until 4 am, slept from 4 till 11 am or so and then got up and started all over again. (My late husband, who celebrated with me when I landed the series, was there when I needed him but didn't mind staying out of my way for the whole 10 months, bless his heart. He died unexpectedly at age 38 in 1994 and never saw my next
independent title come out.) My animals were really good, too and I never missed a deadline. (Can you tell that I'm very proud of that?)
Since there was no big publicity budget for GF, I did as many signings as I could schedule here in NJ, local newspapers interviews (I think I topped out at 3 or 4. Guess my publicity kits were somehow lacking. ;) and wrote answers to nearly every piece of fan mail I received. I had bookmarks and postcards made, and sent packets of them to any school class who wrote and asked. It wasn't enough, of course, and even though Book One received a decent review in Publisher's Weekly, for me this was pre-Internet so I was pretty severely limited by out-of-pocket expenses and the fearsome deadlines. Hell, my local public library didn't have copies until I donated them. sigh.
GF did end up in Canada and Germany, though, which felt great, even though it was quietly dying here. By the time Book Ten rolled around, I kept hoping that the series would be extended for just one more book so everything could be wrapped-up but unfortunately, it didn't happen.
So Cass was left in the ER waiting to find out who was dead and Maria was left propositioned by Landau while not wearing her best underwear. Janis's father was gone and Brian's parents' separating. Jesse had finally managed to get past himself and be with Cleo, and Nat was face-to-face with her father. Stephanie's mother was growing up and Stephanie was tangling with Kai, of Hawaii. And Edan (who had the biggest fan club of all) missed hearing Nat propose to him so they could adopt Hope.
All these years later, after receiving a handful of letters asking WHAT HAPPENED? I stumbled into
Amazon.com and found not only the series but shock of shocks, reviews of the series! Readers actually applauding the series and wanting to know
how it
ended. So I posted and I've been lucky enough to receive even more emails -- not alot, but every so often several will drop in -- asking for closure.
The thing is, I don't know it all. When no one asked for Book Eleven, I left the girls exactly where they were, gently and regretfully shutting the door on Chandler, and began writing the next independent book under contract. I didn't know who was dead or if Maria was with Landau. I had some ideas but nothing solid and the girls were willed to silence.
But now they're whispering again and someone, for some reason, has cracked open the door and let me inch back inside. It's good to see them again but it's funny; I thought shutting the door would suspend time but it hasn't. They've continued on without me and I've discovered that for each one of them the night of the shooting was an incredible turning point.
As of now, there can't be an Book Eleven that picks up precisely where Ten left off. They're not 17 anymore, they're young women, 27 - 28 years old. They've built lives, made choices, have triumphs and regrets, careers, marriages, lifestyles...but that doesn't stop them from going back in time every so often and wondering what if?
And what if now, today, an invitation arrives in each of their mailboxes, asking them to come back for a very important reason? What would it be like to go back in time, to be reunited with the best friends you ever had, to look into the eyes of the one that got away and wonder at a second chance? Would they have the courage to change tomorrow by reconnecting with yesterday, beginning with the night of the shooting and all the misery and upheaval it spawned? Not in a soap opera way or with much bosom-clutching but in the same way each one of us are subject to the whims of our parents when we're underage, the limits of our experiences, our coping skills, reactions and personalities. The way we each make a life out of what we have and what we reach for.
I can see Janis, where she is right now. The invitation hasn't gotten to her yet. She's outside in a clearing, alone. Her t-shirt and jeans are drenched in sweat and the worn treads on the soles of her battered workboots are clodded with dark, moist dirt. She's crying the way you do when no one's around to hear or see you, when nothing matters more than what's lost. She grunts everytime she stabs the shovel into the ground and heaves away another load of soil. She is completely alone and the silence is cruel.
This is what's simmering in my beady little brain. God only knows if it'll ever get anywhere but I'm hoping it does because just the thought of what comes next makes me smile, then laugh like hell. I'll cry, too. I know that. And I look forward to it.
So do I, man... so do I!
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