My colleague and pal Lisa de Nikolits is guesting here today, with a fun post that features a literary heroine who might actually fit into my own family...or rather, Gina Gallo's family from The Goddaughter series!
A NeoNoir Cinderella
by Lisa de Nikolits
Write what you know. Isn’t that what they always say? If I were to write what I know, I’d write about a daydreamer with her head in the clouds, a butterfly struggling to survive in the corporate world, an avid reader with a fondness for all things that glitter and sparkle.
She’s a romantic, a believer in fairy-tale happy endings, a woman who’s not afraid to get her hands dirty while keeping her stylish hat firmly in place, with her sunglasses perched on her nose and her lips full and glossy.
So I wrote what I know into Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon, a noir, darkly comedic gangster caper written as a 1950’s hard-boiled suspense thriller but set in current time. The central plot is a series of age-old cons playing out in real time. The reader isn’t sure who to trust. Is our stylish heroine an unreliable narrator? And you don’t want to mess with our mob boss antagonist, Vincenzo Esposito, whose love for 1950’s crime scene photographer, Weegee (Arthur Fellig), finds its way into his business dealings. Greed drives the stakes higher and higher, complicated by sibling rivalry, doomed love affairs, familicide and enough cocaine to build a replica of the Roy Neary’s mashed potato’s mountain in Close Encounters of the Third Time (1977).
As a young child about seven or eight, I had a playdate with a friend. We discovered a discarded box of her mother’s fancy cocktail dresses and I thought it would be absolutely fabulous to dress like that all the time.
I wondered what people would think of a woman dressed like a 1950’s heroine and, even more importantly, why would someone day dress like a 50’s heroine? I needed to create the right backstory for Jessica Wren and she soon became one of my favourite characters.
Jessica is a modern-day feisty Cinderella and her backstory is an unusual one. I don’t want to give away any spoilers because you need to read the book!
When it came to Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon, there were myriad inspirations for the book apart from Jessica Wren. There was a leafy sea dragon at Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto, a gallery exhibit of Weegee photographs, a pressing need to write a short story for Thirteen Claws, a Mesdames of Mayhem anthology (2017), and a bunch of characters who’d been floating around my brain for some time and who desperately wanted out.
Thirteen Claws needed to feature an animal of some kind, and I fell in love with the leafy sea dragon, so that was a given. And Mad Dog Esposito, as photographed by Weegee, was completely irresistible. And what about Jessica? I’d had her in mind for ages, ever since I played dress up in that small suburban house near a veldt in Johannesburg, South Africa, all those years ago.
Sometimes it’s good to take stock of one’s own life and our own Cinderella stories. We live in a world where everyone’s social media looks so wonderful and polished and successful that it’s hard to remember back how far one has come.
To all writers out there, one of my favourite tips is “write what you know, with a twist.” I could have journalled about that day with my little friend Lorna, but instead, I dug deep into a fictional character, using the seeds of that day to grow an entirely different garden.
So here’s to Mad Dog and Jessica Wren, and a day from a long time ago, in a veldt far, far away, and here’s to all our Cinderella stories and, like Jessica Wren, let’s be feisty when we have to be, strong and quiet when we have to, and ever glamorous, sparkly and shiny!
BIO:
Lisa de Nikolits is the award-winning author of eleven novels (twelve, with Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon) as well as numerous short stories and poetry, garnering five-star reviews and a strong international fanbase. Originally from South Africa, Canada has been her home since 2000. Forthcoming works include That Time I Killed You (2026, Level Best Books). She lives and writes in the Beaches in Toronto.
LINKS:
Facebook author page:
https://www.facebook.com/lisadenikolitsauthor/
Twitter:
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/ireadsomewherethatbylisa/
Author website:
Thank you very much for having me as a guest today Dear Melodie! It is greatly appreciated by both Mad Dog and me!
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