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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

The Fictional Cheating Husband: from Novels to Flash

15/11/2014

 
PictureIf I'd meant to take a photo of my foot I'd have done it better
While it’s often difficult to trace the creative process, I love how we build our fiction from seemingly random elements of our lives. A snatch of conversation meets with a snip of memory merged with the odd gait of a passing stranger and we’re off, incubating a story in our minds. We find a similar process in the blogosphere: prompts, questions and opinions the cue for our own next post. Sometimes the blending of ideas occurs unconsciously; sometimes the links are more intentional, as when I took great delight in satisfying two blog prompts with my bad-hair-day flash.

This week, when Charli asked for a 99-word story about a photo bomb (a serious scene interrupted by something absurd or unexpected), I was still musing over Clare O’Dea’s post about horrible husbands in fiction. They make such great characters, yet they haven’t often taken a starring role in my own reading and writing. Nor are mine as deliciously evil as those Clare has dished up.

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In Carys Bray’s A Song for Issy Bradley, we can’t help but extend our sympathy to Ian, even as his religious fervour exacerbates his wife’s distress. In Paula Daly’s Keep Your Friends Close, it’s the “other woman” who gets the blame for the husband’s infidelity. The philanderer’s ex-wife still is sufficiently forgiving to show up in his hour of need in Jill Dawson’s The Tell-Tale Heart.

It’s not only female writers who find a way to excuse a husband’s infidelity: Richard Flanagan has described his Booker-winning novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, as a love story, yet little of that love can be found in his marriage. Morgan McCarthy is a little less sympathetic to Jasper in Strange Girls and Ordinary Women, but his extramarital affair is nevertheless addressed as less his problem than that of the two women in the triangle.

The most chilling husband in my recent reading is Hector in Emma Chapman’s How to Be a Good Wife. The control he asserts over Marta is camouflaged by a patient sympathy. But even this is left for the reader to decide whether to believe the husband or the wife.

Two of my short stories begin with straying husbands: The Good News and In the Interim, by sheer happenstance both on the same site. But to redress the balance, I also have a story there with a wandering wife.

The fictional wounded wives of my acquaintance are regrettably slow to punish their recalcitrant husbands. While Natalie Young serves up a dish of cold revenge in Season to Taste, her husband’s main offence seems to have been being boring.

So how much of this has found its way into my flash? I leave for you to judge.

When I found the texts on Brian’s phone I assumed our marriage over. Yet, following the tears, slings and arrows, we booked the second honeymoon we couldn’t afford first time. Confirming our vows in a hot-air balloon above the rift valley, a champagne breakfast laid out for us below. Our Massai guide was somewhat clumsy with the camera, but we raised our glasses and beamed.

Brian had been dead a year before I could face the photos. Our joyful innocence made me weep. Distant, but crystal clear, our marriage end was looming: it was breakfast time for lions too.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
sarah link
15/11/2014 07:20:47 am

That is deliciously wicked. :-) Certainly an unexpected flash photobomb.

Interesting thoughts and characters in these books -- how different women respond so differently to the same (or similar) situation. Though the description of How to Be a Good Wife is giving me the creeps.

I still have to get to your Strange Girls and Ordinary Women post. I love that one.

Annecdotist
16/11/2014 03:46:54 am

Thank you, Sarah. I'd certainly recommend How to Be a Good Wife – definitely creepy!
I do hope you can make it to my Strange Girls post – I'd welcome your views on the pros and cons of interweaving separate story strands

heather folwer
23/2/2020 03:54:36 pm

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You can also visit his website:https://thetempleofmoney.com/ 

rose
23/2/2020 04:01:00 pm

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Ever since my husband got me divorced for the past 2 years, i v'e not been my self. I was reviewing some post of how i could get back my husband then, i saw a testimony shared by sherry rays from SWEDEN about a spell caster named Dr. Ojoka. I contacted Marina Chaos to confirm about how Dr. Ojoka helped her and she clarified everything to me of how he helped her and that gave me the courage to get in touch with Dr. Ojoka for help. Dr. Ojoka assured me that my days of sorrows will be over within 12 to 16 hours after he has finished with his work. I followed his instructions he gave to me because i had the believe, faith, hope and trust in him. Verily i say to you today that i and my husband are back together and i can proudly say and testify to the world of what Dr. Ojoka did for me. Contact him today via E-mail: [email protected] OR whats app him on +2348144172934

Charli Mills
15/11/2014 03:36:03 pm

Evidently the Massai guide was clumsy with a rifle, too! I can just picture the drooling lion in the background...champagne and tourists on the menu!

Such thought-provoking points from your exploration of this subject (cheating husbands) through your reading and writing. I think it can be handled in many ways because it's more complex than "he cheated." Now there are multiple relationships--him/wife, him/mistress, wife/mistress. I'm tackling this topic in my own WIP and finding it complex. When I think I understand it, another aspect pops up. When my characters leave NC the mistress makes two new friends, one she "almost" has an affair with. No wonder 150 years later we have trouble trying to understand the human dynamic of what happened in a single day at Rock Creek!

Your flash has elements of the topic's influence, yet has that delicious photo bomb twist at the end! Great job!

Annecdotist
16/11/2014 03:54:04 am

Good point, Charli, about the complexity of cheating. I'd forgotten you were delving into this in your WIP – I imagine that story contributed to the genesis of this flash too.
Your comment reminds me that psychoanalysis has a lot to say about triangular relationships as a step forward from the dyad, because you've got the potential for one person to observe and be affected by the interactions between the other two. It's basically the re-enactment of the Oedipal situation.

Charli Mills
16/11/2014 04:29:35 pm

Which is why this topic has so many varied potentials!

Annecdotist
19/11/2014 02:02:46 am

Indeed, and for the reader too, since it connects us with something fundamental

geoff link
16/11/2014 02:37:48 am

Nope, wasn't expecting that; I had to read it twice to be sure I'd seen it coming, which I hadn't and which made it all the better when I realised what the photo-bomb was. Positively fissile that particular bomb. I've only read How to be a Good Wife of those you list and it did give me the creeps. More to ponder

Annecdotist
16/11/2014 03:55:23 am

Thanks, Geoff, glad you liked my photo bomb. I wonder who you sided with in How to Be a Good Wife?

irene waters link
17/11/2014 03:36:03 am

I think you managed to do a post around your flash brilliantly Anne. Another lot of books to add to the reading list which gets longer and longer. Great flash, photo/writing bomb. Loved the last line.

Annecdotist
19/11/2014 02:03:31 am

Thanks, Irene, glad it worked for you

Clare O'Dea link
17/11/2014 08:30:40 am

Loved the flash fiction Anne. Now I know what a photo bomb is! And I'm delighted to have partly inspired this post.
One of the nastiest cheating husbands I can think of is from Douglas Kennedy's A Special Relationship. It's a Charles and Camilla type scenario where the other woman has been around before the wedding and will be there after it's ended. The nasty twist is their plot to try and get custody of the new wife's baby by discrediting her with the authorities while she has post-natal depression. Really awful!
If you're curious about Kennedy, I reviewed his most recent book, Five Days, which is about a cheating wife this time. But she's a totally sympathetic character!
http://clareodea.com/2013/06/07/what-a-difference-five-days-makes/

Annecdotist
19/11/2014 02:08:39 am

Thanks, Clare, I wouldn't have known what a photo bomb was either if it hadn't been for Charli. There's so much to discover in the blogosphere!
The Kennedy novel sounds perfectly yuck– there's something similar in Sophie Hannah's Little Face
http://www.sophiehannah.com/crime-fiction/little-face/
I don't normally do detective stories but this one worked for me Because the situation was so appalling.
Will need to check out your cheating wife – thanks for the link

Norah Colvin link
18/11/2014 03:10:24 am

I love the flash. So the marriage was over, though not in the way she was thinking! Definitely a photo bomb! I love the way you worked it in so well with your post about cheating husbands. I really enjoyed re-reading "The Good News, which is a very touching story. "In the Interim" was quite painful and chilling though. I love the variety you have in your characters, plots and viewpoints. There are no two the same. They are always a pleasure to read. :)

Annecdotist
19/11/2014 02:11:18 am

Thanks for taking the time with all three stories, Norah, and so glad they worked for you. I think In the Interim, along with the novel Season to Taste, fed into my flash – it was certainly a much more dramatic ending to their marriage than his boring old affair.
Thanks for your continuing support, it's very much appreciated.

Caroline link
21/11/2014 11:53:09 pm

loved your photo bomb. Nicely low key! But also your tour through fictional errant husbands. Thanks.

Annecdotist
22/11/2014 04:39:09 am

Thanks, Caroline, glad you were able to join in.

ellen
23/1/2015 04:18:08 pm

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Annecdotist
24/1/2015 05:18:56 am

Glad things worked out for you, Ellen, and hope you enjoy my blog.

AnneHathaway
29/4/2015 04:27:52 pm

Thank Dr.Ken for restoring my marriage. I had been separated from my husband. I was told about Dr.Ken spell how he restored my Marriage the source of my encouragement and wisdom. I had been praying and standing on the promises of Dr.Ken My husband mailed me and said we will be reunited and living as a family in the country where he lives. Above all, my husband has grown in faith you can reach Dr.Ken true email [email protected]

SHARMA
20/1/2017 03:17:30 am

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Annecdotist
20/1/2017 05:17:23 pm

Welcome to my blog, Sharma, and good to know your own broken marriage has been healed. Just to note however that this post was about fiction and I don’t want my blog transformed into a forum for advertising marriage guidance services!!! I trust that you’ll respect that in future.

Annecdotist
20/1/2017 05:19:33 pm

NOTE THAT ANY FURTHER COMMENTS WHICH INCLUDE EMAILS FOR MARRIAGE GUIDANCE SERVICES OR SIMILAR WILL BE DELETED.

Charli Mills
2/2/2020 12:16:38 am

I'm sorry, Anne but I'm laughing! If you don't use how to cast spells to save a marriage I will!

Anne Goodwin
3/2/2020 09:31:30 am

Be my guest, Charli!
I’m sure it’s harmless to some but when anyone raises the spectre of contemporary witches I can’t help thinking of the children who have been murdered by crazies accusing them of witchcraft.

Charli Mills
4/2/2020 05:48:14 pm

That's a sobering thought. I see you deleted the comment that caused me amusement, offering you spells for cheating husbands in response to a book review. I did not realize modern children were being killed, accused of witchcraft. People fear what doesn't align with their interpretation of beliefs. But to be so zealous as to commit murder, I can't fathom it.

Anne Goodwin
6/2/2020 01:55:22 pm

Sorry, Charli, i did realise that your new comment must've been sparked by the latest spam, but as it was attached to a different piece I thought it was safe to delete. In fact, I didn't even read right through the comment, assuming it was almost identical to the earlier ones that I left in. I want to stifle debate but they should have heeded my warning!!!

I guess there are a range of interpretations to witchcraft from dressing up and having fun through alternative therapies to downright evil. But there have been at least two disturbing cases in the UK of children tortured and murdered for this phoney offence for which of course there's no way of proving innocence.


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