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The PriVILEged By JW Edgar is now $2.99! #Assassin in #Drag #Avenges the #Catholic #Church. 

Press On

I've been here many times over the past decade when I've wanted to quit but none so strong as this day. In order to get back on the saddle I'd equate my quitting times to those of an addict struggling to stay sober and on the right path, but who really knows as an artist what that path is because it's a path that can only be determined by others.  We choose to become artists because it gives us a sense of control, but then why do those controlled artists become so out of control? (Enter your favorite artist here__________)

The real issue is that the artist doesn't know when it's enough and so he or she doesn't know when it is a good time to quit.  Should an artist quit because they never sold one song or appeared in one movie or should they quit after fifteen years of being on top?

I give my family all the credit for being so supportive of my artistic endeavors over the years but I don't feel as if I've given them much in return.  What I'm needing now is a really good reason to press on.

Book of Steve Job

I learned after working on The PriVILEged for eight years that pain and suffering make for a great story. The Book of Exodus serves as an example of tremendous pain and suffering. I also believe the same could be said of the Book of Steve Job.

We know that Steve wasn't exactly the embodiment of happiness. In fact, I'd say he had a depressive personality, yet he created such genius gadgets that forever changed our world. I wanted some of what he was feeling all those years because I have similar ambitions with my storytelling.

The idea of writing a story about Catholic priests and children of God was quite an undertaking after having been raised by atheist parents, so to tell the best story I could I felt as if I needed to suffer along with Catholics. Steve had this tremendous capacity for empathy and therefore understood exactly what his customers needed. I thought similarly and that if I suffered alongside Catholics, I could show my own capacity for empathy and demonstrate an understanding of their need to heal from sexual abuse. 

The story of The PriVILEged doesn't stray from themes of suffering and humility and that's why I think it took so long to write it. As I kept writing, I kept waiting for some kind of happy ending to surface but there wasn't one and I found that to be rather depressing. But for Steve, maybe suffering and depression was happiness. After all, just because we're happy it doesn't guarantee success, a longer life, or even acceptance. I'd even argue that Steve's personal trials of depression and suffering were very much like that of the Book of Job and that he used these feelings in a state that could be considered fertile ground for greatness.

Game On

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Leonora

I'd wanted to write sitcoms since I was in college and thought my chance finally came when Friends hit the airwaves in the early nineties. I figured it had to be my time because I resonated with all of the characters, mostly Ross, because I'd just divorced my first wife after she'd fell in love with another women. Classic, huh?

So, I wrote a few spec scripts in Colorado and then moved to California in search of an agent. In the land of miracles, I found one inside of three weeks at the Gersh Agency. I was told how much they loved the script, "The One With The Swedish Meatballs," about Joey and Chandler meeting twins who are porn stars seeking to recruit them for future movies. Everything then went really fast and the agent set up a meeting for us to meet with the producers.

I'd found a room to rent from Leonora, a woman with a heavy accent from South America.  I adored her because each time my girlfriend called Leonora would yell, "Yim, phone for chu!"  It was never "you."  That experience never left my head and so I decided when writing The PriVILEged that I would try to make Father Dominic just as interesting with him saying such things as, "Chu come with me, Mateo."

I was looking forward to starting a life in California with my girlfriend, but things didn't go as planned. However, if the only reason I ended up in San Francisco was to experience Leonora's accent, I think you'll agree it was worth it.

Mommy

From my research about serial killers, most had mommy problems. So there was this fantastic opportunity in The PriVILEged to not only discuss the role of the mommy but also the role a mother plays in the life of her son and of the church.

I wanted to bring the mommy role to life for this story, but I also wanted to transcend the mommy role from a mommy, to a sister, and finally to a mother.  Meaning, Rita is first known as Matty's mommy but she feels this strong sense of calling to become part of the church and no one knows her secret other than one other person so the church isn't aware that she has a son and thus applies to become Sister Rita.  As years go by, Matty realizes that his mommy is Mother Rita and that his father is Father...

Three Pigs

I wasn't convinced from the beginning that Matty could overcome all the obstacles that I would throw his way as the author, which meant that should he be killed in the end as a martyr there wouldn't be any heroes and that's not a good thing for a novel.

A few years before I had the idea for The PriVILEged I was working on a story that involved three detectives from Denver, Colorado. They were working a case involving high school cheerleaders. Isn't that what every beginning writer writes about? Okay, I'll admit that cheerleader stories are perfect for the first novel because sex sells and cheerleaders, even dead ones, are sexy. I have since returned to writing that first story because you never forget your first and giving up the story made me feel as if I let everyone down, fiction and nonfiction.

The detectives are extensions of who I am, in case you were interested in getting to know me better, and there are three of them.  Just like there are three sides of me. The first side is Adam Dasugo. He's neurotic as hell, struggles with his moods, desperately requires medication, and thinks that all women are in love with him, but that's not true because his partner, my androgynous side, Lacey Cain, is the right woman for him and yet she doesn't love him back. Lacey takes no shit, plays it "buy the book," (shameless suggestive sell) and is the most loyal woman on the force. And finally, there is Graham Castle. He's my third side, my third dimension, the laid back Jerry Garcia-type who began his illustrious career fixing computers around the police station, but since he was so damn good with puzzles, he was recruited to solve mysteries.

I often refer to the detectives as the Three Pigs. Over the course of eight-years, they probably taught me more about me than I did them. Once I mixed the detectives into the story, I had an immense challenge on my hands. How do Three Pigs solve a global mystery?