Our club member, Di Taylor, has written a sequel to her first Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy “fan fiction” book, ‘Til the End of Time. The new volume, just released, is called Melody Immortal. The striking cover was designed by another club member, Don Schumann.
We have had a few writers re-imagine how Jeanette and Nelson’s lives should have turned out, with a happier ending and interesting twists. Some people are offended by fan fiction but I follow the viewpoint of J.K. Rowling who was “flattered people wanted to write their own stories [about the Harry Potter world]”. Let’s face it, if the original material didn’t inspire, no one would bother to create their own take on it!
And I’m happy when a good writer takes on the task…it is no easy task to write any book, whether fiction or non-fiction. In this new internet world of social media and off-the-cuff commentary, one can forget the amount of hard work and concentration it takes to complete such a project. So kudos to Di for writing not one but two excellent books!
I’m sure there’s not many of us who haven’t thought – in reading the actual Jeanette/Nelson story – that if only they had done this or that…ah, hindsight! So for those of you who enjoy romantic novels, you can savor Di’s take on “if only…”