I'm an X. I had a Y along the way in the genetic code, but not being a scientist or a geneticist, I cannot explain to you where it went and why I became a double XX. Eating too many pasta dishes may have had something to do with that, but honestly, that is for another blog.
Way, way back in time, when all of the stars were lined up just perfectly for my creation to begin, it was determined by the good Lord above that I would be a girl. I'm not sure how I got so lucky. But I did, and I am forever grateful. I have fully embraced being a girl from the time I was tiny to this very minute. I love everything about my gender. I would not want to trade places with my male counterparts for all the pasta in Italy. Nor, I suspect, do any of them wish to trade places with me!
My second book is well under way. Okay, well under way may be stretching things, but it's coming along. Character development is key in the early chapters of a book, as is the plot. Herein lies the problem, that darn Y chromosome that dropped off into the black void when my cells were dividing in rapid succession 55 years ago. When I lost that chromosome I lost the ability to think like a male. I am after all, a female. I have been a female all of my life.
Oh, I've lived with my husband, who is a male through and through, for 63% of my life, but that really hasn't helped me think like he thinks. In fact, I think I think less like he thinks now than I did when we had only lived together for .04% of my life. You would think I would have learned something about how a man thinks over the course of 35 years, but I am here to tell you, I have not.
"The Liars' Club: Town Hall Chapter" is my new book, written from the male perspective by me, a female author. Talk about a the ultimate dichotomy! I am wrestling with tone and timbre, inflection and tempo. Typically, I am wordy and flowery in my descriptions and writing. Men are clear cut and concise. Do you know how difficult it is for a woman like me to just get to the bottom line? For heaven's sake. If there is a line in front of me, with say, seven people waiting to check out, chances are I will know something about at least three or four of those people before I reach the check out clerk, and then I will learn something interesting about that clerk as well! My husband on the other hand could not even tell you the color of a woman's jacket standing directly in front of him for twelve minutes while he was waiting to pay for his purchases. He could however, recite to you every shot he took on a golf course in the summer of 1981 in Kankakee, Illinois and tell you what the weather was like and where every water hazard was while we were moving along in that line!
How do I wiggle my way into the male psyche with this terribly slanted female perspective? Oh, the challenge. My peers are offering all kinds of suggestions--read Women are from Venus; Men are from Mars or hang out at the sports bar on a Sunday afternoons or watch the Superbowl with your husband and his friends. In essence, a crash course in male bonding rituals. Oh my aching head!
As an author, research is paramount to a believable storyline. After all, if your facts don't line up because you have not done your research, then your credibility goes straight out the window, unless of course you are a fantasy writer where you have card blanche to write whatever your heart desires because the facts are made up anyway!
So, do I suddenly start belching after supper, scratch myself in inappropriate places, and laugh loudly and slap my friends on the back when they say something remotely funny in order to understand where men are coming from? Of course not, my husband doesn't do any of those things. He is a gentle man, a quiet man, an intelligent man. He takes time to think through things and doesn't act impulsively. He is calm and collected in a crisis. He has reasoning ability beyond my comprehension and he is trustworthy and loves deeply. I am a lucky woman. I hit the jackpot when I met him at the tender age of 15. I have learned a lot from him over the years, but I still have difficulty understanding how he thinks.
So, for now, I think my best option is to continue being the observant person that I am. Listen intently to my husband and male friends when they are sharing their lives with me and learn from them just what makes them tick. Who better to help me understand the male psyche, than those I love most, the men in my life?
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