Like all aspiring writers, I've needed a literary agent since beginning the bucket list quest to write a novel. After I finished CARRINGTON/Vol. 1, 200+ queries later, digging in with a sequel was the only rational recourse. The ONE literary agent who read Causes of Affection liked it. But, she thought the novel had too many primary characters. She wanted me to flesh a few out or kill them off in the conquest. We've both moved on - she to another literary agency, and I to Volume 7, vehemently ignoring the advice. A good character is hard to waste.
Subsequently, all six volumes were independently published. Each "season" has met with paltry AMAZON sales. Suffice to say, social media fans and followers do not compute to calls for action. And yet, unfazed, I write-on. I do not seek an agent to recreate my stories, nor conform to political correctness, and I will not cave to The Cancel Culture. But still, I choose you, Netflix. In Vol. 7, we will finish strong, with the wing and prayer of adapting my stories Trending Now!
CARRINGTON has all the appealing characterization of a GREY'S ANATOMY. In Anne, Lacey, Katja, Lise, and Kate, the unspeakable bonds of loyalty play out in a tapestry of familiar settings--as rich as HEARTLAND's and YELLOWSTONE's splendid Rocky Mountains. Seasoned with the dilemmas provoked by love, their actions turn the screws and we come of age in every episode.
In Carrington, we do not relish in idle soap operas. Pithy dialogue is permitted if it can pass the Southern Woman Test - bless your heart, to slow down the narrative enough for pausing to laugh aloud. If our screenwriters would fail to research the diction and syntax (an example is the "F" word - which was not part of the national lexicon until the 1960s and is still considered a foul word), they will prove unprepared and be disciplined accordingly. Isn't that how we learn? As you can see, the tone and tenor appeals mostly to Hey Boomers and GenXers. While not preachy, the storylines will pick a few fights with the past. We take precious liberty to recast the narrative about America's long and storied history in today's filmmaking. Neither am I ashamed to live in CARRINGTON, still a Red State at heart.
Carringtonians are otherwise attuned to the cold truths that still divide our nation. They cannot ignore North & South's differences, Tech Giants vs. Parler, fighting for what's right against being wrong. In the ugly drone of politics or the misunderstood role of religion, Carrington will get agitated. Judgments are made about the culture. All of this culminates in what the Founding Fathers imagined when creating the framework for a republic. Public discourse is at the heart of our search for meaning, and it deserves to treat one another with dignity.
_____________________________________________________________
During the stay-at-home quarantine of 2020, I indulged my muse by watching hundreds of hours of Netflix. From the beautiful scenery in THE CROWN to MAISEL's iconic landmarks, I grew hungry to travel again. If only another grand epic could span the globe in time and take me there from the confines of my comfortable chair. It is not hard to imagine a film series as beautiful as Charlottesville's country byways, legendary like Jackson Hole, with Pasadena's architecture, or Berlin's mid-20th Century modern 'vibe. All this is peppered with the colloquialisms unique to Americana in real-time. Drafting such an itinerary, ladies and gentlemen, I nominate America's answer to DOWNTON ABBEY! Please take me back, take them home. Take it away, CARRINGTON, my CARRINGTON!
Our hearths have become the new sanctuaries. A film series that revisits the past and posits hope for our future is a prescription for unity. I long to come home for great TV in the Third Millennium, 'feeling goodness' inside old houses and empathizing with the customs of our recent past. With wisdom and wit, folly and foibles, the snarky characters' regrets dare to smooth the rough edges of current events. Ultimately, by faith and fortitude, they are ordinary Americans wired to take the roads less traveled. In CARRINGTON, we hear the timeless lyric of something beautiful, pastoral in its sentimentality, and bonded in brotherhood. But never is it an excuse to keep it all to ourselves.
Mr. Netflix, Ms. Clare Richardson: you asked for the first five pages. I'm counting on you to bring the glory back to The Paramount again.
From Volume 4 SEASONS of LIFE/An Ode to Joe