The Girl in the Mirror
| The Girl in the Mirror | |
 | |
| Read this book | |
| Time frame | Spring 1987 – October 1998 |
|---|---|
| First posted | January 17 – March 11, 2011 |
| Series | Bradford Exiles |
| Series number | 3 |
| Chapters | 24 |
| Related | Locations Characters |
Summary
Copyright Wes Boyd ©2011.
Class Reunion: People have changed by the time of the Bradford High School Class of 1988 tenth reunion, some more than others. The star athlete has become a sportscaster; the class president is now manager of a convenience store; her best friend, a peppy cheerleader, has been through a messy divorce. The happy-go-lucky party girl now has a business card that reads "Medieval Wandering Minstrel." The class valedictorian is now a multimillionaire who flies her own Learjet -- and works part-time as a prostitute. And, the kid who was universally picked on and beaten up has changed more than anyone could have possibly dreamed . . .
Chapters
The Story Behind the Story
At 21:40:36 02/03/11 Wes posted on the Spearfish Lake Tales Forum: "I mentioned on the forum some time ago that I had a story to tell about The Girl in the Mirror when the time was right. It is this: back some time before I started writing it, I had written several stories about a number of female characters, especially Dayna, Sandy, and Jennlynn. One night I got to reflecting that those three gals are pretty independent, and that most of my female characters tended to be. That made me wonder just how well I was handling women characters in the first place. I did a lot of reading of "chick lit" and other such things to try to get a better idea of how women writers handled women, but I didn't feel like I learned a lot.
"As Candy said in Square One, "Women really are different from men." If you remember that scene, Danny said that Candy was doing something he didn't think he could do if he was a woman. That was both dead true and bothered me. I can think of several other points, but the primary one was that I couldn't quite understand how women could subordinate themselves to their husbands so easily. That may not have come out quite as well as I meant it, but can you imagine a woman like Jennlynn traipsing from air force base to air force base with Will? I sure can't. But a lot of women do subordinate their interests, their desires, and their careers to their men,and in the mood I was in that the time I didn't totally understand it. I probably still don't, which is why my women still tend to be pretty independent.
"Anyway, along in there somewhere an interesting idea crossed my mind: transsexuals have had to look across the fence both ways. Could there be a germ of wisdom there I was missing? I'll admit that at the time I thought like the members of the class are feeling along about chapter 3, that it's odd and maybe pretty sick, but I also thought that there might be some gold to mine there. So, I spent a lot of time researching the topic, and there were some interesting stories there of people struggling with their desires and their facts of life. There are definitely some kinks and weirdos in the "T" community, but there are also individuals that have a hand that life dealt them off the bottom of the deck. I have to admit that after some time I didn't really come across the germ of wisdom I was seeking, and eventually let the research go.
"But then one day, I was thinking about Magic Carpet, and the thought crossed my mind that the only thing -- I mean, the ONLY thing -- that could upstage Jennlynn at the reunion was for someone to get up and drop the T-bomb on the class. Hence Girl in the Mirror. As it happens, I think it turned out pretty well."
