| Gown
With The Wind
By Stephanie Blackmoore is a parody of the classic movie Gone
With The Wind. It has the famous line of "As G-d is my
witness," characters that have similar personalities,
and names to match. Readers will have fun with the comparisons
and might even be interested in viewing the timeless masterpiece
movie.
Blackmoore noted, "I respect and enjoy the movie, but
I do wonder about the historical accuracy and the political
correctness. Of course, it is a wonderful story that I enjoyed
re-watching as I picked apart things to lay on the relationship
structure of Keith, Mallory, and Becca. There were a lot of
echoes that I totally plucked."
As with the film, the book storyline has a murder, attempted
murder, vandalism, and even arson. This is all happening during
the planning of the wedding of Keith Pierce and Becca Cunningham.
They have asked Keith's ex-fiancé, Mallory Shepard
to plan their wedding since she and her sister Rachel have
turned a renovated Thistle Park, the home Mallory inherited
from her ex-fiancé, Keith Pierce's, grandmother in
Port Quincy Pennsylvania, into a B&B and wedding/event
venue.
"I do agree there are strong women characters that dominated
the male characters. I chose to mirror them as I was writing
this book. For example, everyone was pushing Mallory to get
married. Yet, she responded, ‘I don't need to get married.'
I think both in the movie and my book the women characters
don't fit into roles people prescribe to them. I wrote this
book quote that Alma says to Mallory, "Alma dismissed
her daughter-in-law with a wave of her hand. ‘She can
be helpful at times and is more of a Melanie Wilkes... All
quiet strength and Goody Two-shoes affect. But for this project,
we need more of a Scarlett-type woman. Someone like you, dear,
or me' Mallory has some elements of Scarlett, but I think
she is more like Melanie. As you mentioned earlier, Melanie
is quiet, but strong in her own way, and is able to make decisions
that change the course of everyone else's life. Becca has
the attitude, ‘Tomorrow is another day,' similar to
Scarlett's. She forged ahead and made her own way. Becca woke
up and muddled through with new plans because the old ones
went up in flames. Keith and Ashley Wilkes are both wusses.
I think he and Ashley from the movie are total doormats. Even
the dog in the story was named Wilkes."
After Becca's grandmother Alma, a huge Gone With The Wind
collector, is strangled, the theme of the wedding is changed
to this classic film to honor her. The bride-to-be found the
perfect wedding dress that is a Scarlett O'Hara lookalike.
Unfortunately, her childhood rival, Felicity Fournier, also
a huge fan of the movie, wants the dress. After Felicity is
found murdered Mallory decides to become an amateur sleuth
Besides planning a wedding, trying to find the culprits, Mallory
also takes over the arranging for the upcoming reception of
The Duchess Theater's reopening. This old-time movie theater
will play classic films beginning with Gone With The Wind.
But during the premiere someone sets fire to the theatre almost
destroying it. Mallory and company have their hands filled
finding those responsible for all the disastrous events.
During
this holiday season, people might want to snuggle up while
reading this fun book. It is full of quirky characters and
the Gone With The Wind similarities makes the story
very enjoyable.
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