My fascination with organized crime started when my father rented a VHS tape of The Godfather in
the early '90s. I was 15 or 16, maybe younger. I didn't watch it then.
What I knew about The Godfather, I learned from my father through his
impassioned storytelling. I was convinced that I could sit through the
entire length of the movie without having my head explode in boredom. I
watched the movie before I turned 18. I was glad I did. To this day, it
sits on the sweet top spot of my all time best films list. I read the
book when I was old enough to understand difficult words, but I still
had the dictionary on standby (a physical one; no smartphones back
then). I was 21.
Then of course, there was the Godfather 2, 3,
Goodfellas, Casino, Donnie Brasco, and The Sopranos. At this point, it
is clear that I am a mobster movie/story junkie. But I didn't think it
would figure in my writing in a meaningful way. So when somebody asked
me what my philosophy was in writing my book "Caterer to the Mob", I didn't know what to say. Should there be one, given that my book is within the Chick Lit genre, which is usually considered "light reading" or "light entertainment" (whatever that means!).
Then I remembered Mario Puzo's epigraph on the page before Chapter 1.
Behind every great fortune there is a crime - BALZAC
This
summed up the mob and the lifestyle that go with it. I'm not certain if
it would pass as philosophy in writing a book. Between this and "I'll give him an offer he can't refuse", I'd take the latter any day.
Truth be told, the very early draft of Caterer to the Mob
was not even about a caterer, and certainly not about the mob. Strange
things do happen when writing in a trance (or under the influence,
tee-hee). So I really do not think or worry about what philosophy I
should take while writing a book. To me, it's about
amalgamating the things that interest me at the moment and hoping the
result would be coherent (hah!). At this point, I write about what I
would enjoy reading even if I'm up to my neck in office work. When I am
finally comfortable with writing, I can perhaps start to think of
writing books that would actually sell in droves [yes I'm talking about
you, you vampire-dystopian-wizardry-erotica-romance genre].
Oh, you can follow my 140-word ramblings on Twitter @cjsumner8.
