Michael’s Comments (group member since Mar 14, 2010)

Michael’s comments from the Q&A with Michael Cogdill about She-Rain group.

Danna, thank you. I love it when someone tells me She-Rain entertained AND held lasting meaning, and reviews have been laced with both thus far. Writing it gave me the same duality. I pray it does so for you!!

Please, let me hear your unvarnished thoughts, knowing I'm miles beyond grateful for your embrace of She-Rain. Thank you for spending a part of your life in that world of my imagination! Here's to imagining the best of times and living up to them!

Warmest peace. More soon,
m

...readers, writers, I'm curious about your thoughts on the synopsis in this review. It sums up She-Rain with crystal brevity! Let me hear your thoughts.

http://thecrowdedleaf.wordpress.com/2...

Group members, WELCOME. These questions below grew out of a recent radio interview invitation, and they seem to provoke some passionate conversation. Pick any of them, expand on them as you wish, and send them flying back at me. As someone used to ASKING questions for a living, it's a joy to answer some for a change. I welcome your candor, vowing to answer you with the same!!

Warm wishes, thanking you all for the kind embrace of She-Rain and me!!


1. The protagonist begins as a boy and ends as an aged man. You're not so terribly elderly yet. How much of you do we find in She-Rain's narrator?

2. You witnessed addiction and domestic violence from a very early age. Yet She-Rain speaks of relationships that nurture and improve people -- of body, soul and mind. What made you an exception to the rule of boys becoming abusers after growing up in abuse? Why do you so cherish women?

3. You wrote a love triangle into She-Rain -- one that is, perhaps, unique in all of literature. What do you want readers to take away from the incurable longing of that triangle?

4. Romantic love, according to some good science, shows up in the brain chemistry as something awfully akin to obsessive-compulsive disorder. Yet She-Rain contains romance. Sounds like you're trying, as a writer, to re-define love as many know it.

5. Humility weaves itself into several narrative threads of She-Rain, especially those dealing with religious fundamentalism, racism, and classism. How do you want a reader to define true humility when they come away from She-Rain?

6. I understand She-Rain amounts to a celebration of strong women. On that point, tell me about a comment you consider one of the highest compliments ever paid to you as a writer.

7. What do the letters E.F. mean to you as a writer? I understand that's a simple mantra for you.

8. Back to that love triangle. Adultery makes news now the way war once did. Cheating scandals are a major part of the news today. Who inspired the TWO women of that love triangle in She-Rain?

9. You grew up in the American South during the 1960's and '70's. How did that shape the evolution of the She-Rain story?

10. You wrote a sermon into She-Rain that would scandalize many ministers, even today. Where on earth did you get the idea of opening a sermon with "are there any whores in this congregation today?"