The book that, to date, I had the most fun writing, Griffin's Law, is being published as I type. It's out there on Smashwords and almost out there (it should be through the publishing grinder shortly ) at Kindle. It'll take a couple of weeks or so for us to get the paperback version out.
The Amazon process for Kindle puts the book out in stages. As I write this post, Griffin's Law is up on the Amazon site, complete with hubby's fantabulous cover image and, by the Great Green Toad Frog, with a buy button. The cover blurb hasn't fed up yet. And this blog post is partly about Griffin's and why it was my most fun book to write, and partly about that cover blurb.
Anyone who reads this blog knows that I'm a huge fan of Grey's Anatomy and of its creator, Shonda Sunshine (Rhimes). And Grey's Anatomy inspired this book. One night, as I watched the folks at Seattle Grace Hospital, I asked myself one question -- What if Grey's Anatomy took place in a law school?
But no book could be set in a law school without shades of The Paper Chase creeping in, so I let all of those thoughts twist and tangle in my perverted little brain, and Griffin's Law was born. The book is set in the University of South Carolina's School of Law in Columbia, SC, which I attended. Descriptions of the school are, as far as I recall, fairly accurate. The book includes scenes that take place near the "tunnel" that runs under a street. It allows students to park in the Carolina Coliseum lot and then trudge a long - long (did I say long) way to the law school. And law students carry huge, heavy stacks of books, and have to tote them uphill past the coliseum and through the tunnel. They emerge from the tunnel to walk up the staircase from hell before they arrive at the law school.
When the school was being built, some enterprising soul who wasn't a fan of lawyers, wrote in the wet concrete a quote from Shakespeare .. "First, kill all the lawyers." When I was there the quote remained to greet students entering the building. I also included an experience of mine from orientation. The Dean of the Law School was manning the keg to greet the first years. I thought that Dean was the spitting image of the (now) late Jerry Falwell. Getting a beer from the Reverend was an interesting experience for a girl that grew up going to Church a lot.
Unfortunately, the law school did not have a single Professor McDreamy when I was there, let alone one who had an almost equally yummy Professor pal. Sigh. It's just as well we didn't have those things, because I had enough trouble getting through law school without mooning around over a professor. Ah, but in Griffin's, Professors McDreamy and McSteamy are there.
The book starts when a first year student at the orientation party spills a beer on a guy outside the school, near the street. Things get hot and heavy without the pair exchanging much info at all. Then things go wrong, and the student, Shea Ramsey, delivers a kick to the balls to the McDreamy Grey Griffin. The next day, both are surprised when they meet again in the classroom of Shea's first law school class where Grey is the professor and Shea is the student.
Grey is a player and he has an ever-changing list of ladies' phone numbers in his Blackberry. All of his Blackberry ladies know that the only thing they can expect from him is hot sex and no strings. Grey generally has a string of students mooning around after him and batting their eyelashes at him, but the students are out of luck. Grey lives his life by the law that he'll never get involved with a student. But fate follows fewer laws than even the mysterious Professor Griffin.
When the book was finally edited and the amazing cover finally done, I had to write the "cover blurb" that appears on the back of the book and goes up as the product description at the sales sites. There I encountered the dilemma that inspired the title of this post -- To Compare or Not To Compare? The blurb I wanted to post went like this:
You'll find Professor Griffin at the intersection of Grey's Anatomy and The Paper Chase. That is, you'll find him there if he's not otherwise occupied with one of his Blackberry ladies. If he's at the intersection, he'll be teaching a class of law students how many ways the government forgets the Constitution on a daily basis. That's where 1L Shea Ramsey saw him the second time they met - standing at the podium of her Con Law class.
Griffin keeps the personal and the professional strictly separated by one law - he never, ever gets involved with a student. But aren't all laws made to be broken?
But hubby felt that including the comparison in the blurb was cheap and gaudy. Okay, I'll plead guilty to being a damned gaudy kind of gal. I search for the big gold earrings that hang down to my neck. I'm still hunting for a killer pair of gold or bronze shoes that are also comfy (I'll only sacrifice so much to the God of Gaudy!). And boy, howdy, you should see my purse. Got it at a TJ Maxx sale where a horde of women were pulling out and showing each other these tasteful (boring) little handbags. I had to crawl up to the top shelf (I'm short) and fish for Bagzilla - but it's as big and gaudy and gold as you'd ever want to see. So gaudy, I am. But cheap? Hubby would be the first to tell you I tend more to the "high maintenance" than the cheap.
So hubby's opinion of my proposed blurb made me pause and think. He's good at that. While Iwas thinking, I started to ponder the thought to end all other thoughts - WWSD - What Would Shonda Do? Or, more accurately, WWST - What Would Shonda Think? Shonda Sunshine might not like my book or might not appreciate me being so bold and brassy as to compare it to the world that she built.
Griffin's doesn't include the characters, the setting or the plots of Grey's. It's more a similarity of attidude and ambiance. And while I hope I got some of the atmosphere spot on, Griffin's is also my take on everything. My take is, as always, over the top. In my version, you'll get The Paper Chase version of Grey's --- on steroids.
In the end, I went with a cover blurb that doesn't include the comparison. I describe the professor as McDreamy and I did name him Grey, so I hope readers get the intent anyway. Maybe, at some point, when my gaudy roots finally conquer my efforts to be tasteful (likely a futile battle), I'll change the blurbs to see how the books sell with the comparison in place.
Griffin's Law is the same as Grey's Anatomy - except that it's completely different. What do I mean by that? The facts and the location are different. It's the spirit that's the same. I hope that Griffin's will take the reader to the same emotional place they visit when they watch Grey's Anatomy.
For now, I'm happy to have the book getting out there and being available for the readers to discover. I had a fabulous time writing this one and I hope the readers will have just as much fun reading the book. So go, and pick up Griffin's Law on Amazon's Kindle site or on Smashwords, and tell me what you think.