I took a peek at the New York Times mainstream fiction besteller list today, and noticed that up there near the top was "The Sandworms of Dune". Written not by Herbert, who is dead, in the nonfiction sense of the word, but by his son & one other from the late Frank's notes.
Add to that the Tolkein book--which was mostly written by the late JRR himself, but with significant help from son Christopher--and I wonder if I'm going the wrong way about this writing business. I don't have any dead relatives with unfinished manuscripts, but perhaps I can invent one. Here's a couple of ideas inspired by my recent trip to the Minnesota State Fair.
"The Lost Book of Madame Buckley's Dairy Cow Chronicles". Would have lots of mooing. I would need to do extensive research at an actual dairy farm, and manufacture some terrible crime to take place in the proximity of a mechanical milking machine. In order to continue to qualify as "literary fiction" rather than some version of genre fiction (cow fiction? bovine mystery?) I would need either the human protagonist, or one of the cows, to have deep internal conflicts over the nature of her universe. Perhaps one of the cows would be carnivorous.
"The Life of Cookie"
The lost manuscript of my dear greatly removed and long worm-ridden Aunt, who baked. Wherin a woman and a zoo animal become hopelessly trapped inside this menacing cookie barn. They will have esoteric philosophical discussions while eating cookies. There will also be milk. In order to add conflict, the zoo animal will be a Republican, and the woman will be a Unitarian.
Add to that the Tolkein book--which was mostly written by the late JRR himself, but with significant help from son Christopher--and I wonder if I'm going the wrong way about this writing business. I don't have any dead relatives with unfinished manuscripts, but perhaps I can invent one. Here's a couple of ideas inspired by my recent trip to the Minnesota State Fair.
"The Lost Book of Madame Buckley's Dairy Cow Chronicles". Would have lots of mooing. I would need to do extensive research at an actual dairy farm, and manufacture some terrible crime to take place in the proximity of a mechanical milking machine. In order to continue to qualify as "literary fiction" rather than some version of genre fiction (cow fiction? bovine mystery?) I would need either the human protagonist, or one of the cows, to have deep internal conflicts over the nature of her universe. Perhaps one of the cows would be carnivorous.
"The Life of Cookie"
The lost manuscript of my dear greatly removed and long worm-ridden Aunt, who baked. Wherin a woman and a zoo animal become hopelessly trapped inside this menacing cookie barn. They will have esoteric philosophical discussions while eating cookies. There will also be milk. In order to add conflict, the zoo animal will be a Republican, and the woman will be a Unitarian.
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