Fuse #8

Monday, October 30, 2006

Plus Some Anne With An "E" News

Apparently the success of Geraldine McCaughrean's Peter Pan In Scarlet is giving people ideas. Craaaaazy ideas.
Budge Wilson, a Governor General's Literary Award finalist with twenty-nine novels to her name, has been commissioned to write the prequel, titled BEFORE GREEN GABLES. "When Penguin asked me to write this prequel, I was faced with an enormous challenge. But it was this challenge that made me want to write the book. "Given the appalling deprivation and emotional starvation of Anne's years in the Thomas and Hammond households and during her four agonized months in the orphanage, one is mystified as to how she became the person she was when she made her first journey to Green Gables with Matthew Cuthbert. How could she have become so vibrant a person, so talkative, so articulate, so optimistic, so full of extravagant dreams? This was the enticing puzzle that drew me into the project."
Because when you sit down and think about it, there just aren't enough bad ideas in this world being put into play.

Budge, for the record, has never had a book that took America by storm. This, however, may launch her little name heavenward.

Thanks to Galleycat for the link.

9 Comments:

At 2:03 PM , Blogger Nancy said...

No no no no no no noooooooooooooo!

 
At 4:51 PM , Blogger Saints and Spinners said...

Some ideas make for amusing writing assignments. For example, in high school, I had no end of fun rewriting the end of The Scarlet Letter in such a way that involved time-machines and warrior women. It was not publish-worthy material, though. I'll reserve judgement on this pre-Anne project until I hear reports of its actual quality (or lack thereof).

 
At 6:57 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like complete madness to me.

 
At 8:38 PM , Blogger David T. Macknet said...

Because the author wanted it to start there, obviously, and just forgot to write about it, right? I mean, L.M. was going to get there, obviously, but got to all of the other life bits of Anne and never got around to it.

Bah!

Who accepts an assignment like that? Do they have a soul?

All the more reason to nail down these things in your estate plan ...

 
At 11:16 PM , Blogger Little Willow said...

Is NOTHING SACRED?!

I just thought and was about to type the exact same comment that Nancy has already left here! I love the Anne series so much. Oh, gracious. Anne TELLS them what happened before GG. The multiple families. The multiple babies. The ECHO. It was plenty. It was enough.

I have yet to read Scarlet because I worry about that. (See last month's The Edge of the Forest re: Peter Pan stories.)

I am now scared that someone will try to write a prequel to The Great Gatsby (What happened to Jay Gatsby as a teenager?) or The NeverEnding Story (When did Bastian's poor eating habits begin?) or . . .

 
At 9:52 AM , Blogger fusenumber8 said...

... or The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy lost both her parents (never explained, no?), or Holes when Stanley's relatives had all that bad luck, or...

 
At 5:06 PM , Blogger Jackie Parker said...

I feel like I've been assulted. I don't know if I could bring myself to read it or not. On one hand there's the unlikely off-chance that it might be good... Or it could be a painfull train wreck. Like Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story. Ugh.

 
At 10:07 PM , Blogger Little Willow said...

. . . or Before She was a Bride: The Havershim Story . . .

. . . or Before He Had Fangs: White Puppy.

Jackie: The Continuing Story was (The Great Cast is (Mostly) Back, but It is) The Wrong Story. Sigh.

 
At 9:23 AM , Blogger Little Willow said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7zBXQrvuYg

My sister sent me this link this morning.

 

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