A while back I was standing geekily against the wall at a writers’ party listening. Two writers were talking. There was an intense discussion about the fate of a character who had had some fantastic experiences that made the Spiderman biography seem uncontrived. Then one asked the other, the other being mystery writer Michael Malone, “but did that happen in the Spirit World?”
Yes, these were/are writers of soap operas. And yes part of what they were discussing took place in the Spirit World. A place about which I am woefully uninformed.
Michael Malone has a rich Spirit World life as well as lives in other Worlds. One of his soap opera characters, Marcie Walsh of “One Life to Live,” has written a murder mystery (with Malone) called “The Killing Club.”
First, “One Life to Live” isn’t exactly true as the New York Times Magazine explains, “she had picked up a rare disease after being thrown into a Dumpster (long story) and given it to her boyfriend, who died.” But then we learn about “her new boyfriend (who is actually her old boyfriend’s soul in a different man — long story).”
No matter, her book has become a plot device as well as a product and I hope a book worthy of joining Michael Malone‘s other wonderful and fun work on my shelf.
Today’s NY Times Magazine, quoted in part above, has a good article on the artifice behind the creation of the book/event/plot device.
Bonus connection: Michael Malone’s home is on property ajoining Saint Matthews Church in Hillsborough.