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Although the Demontange Saga is fiction, St. Lucia is a real place with a wonderful story of its own. We are psychotherapists with an intimate knowledge of psychological processes and motivations. The columns in this section provide insight into the settings, culture and characters in our works as well as perceptions about the writing process... We want to share this material and our perceptions with other authors but believe that many of our readers will find these columns of interest as well.
Recently we took back all our rights to A Dream Across Time and are now self publishing the Demontagne Saga. It is very gratifying to have the entire publishing process under our control.
If you would like to see what we have been up to and to see some of what we are dealing with as we move to self publish, go to our blog at http://letmedigress.blogspot.com. We want it to be interactive so join in. The columns from the Author to Author section will also appear in the blog.
At the end of the latest column, you'll find clicks for past columns.
Column 4
Paul and Danielle
We tried. Honestly we really tried to come up with some baddies but found we were incapable of creating truly dreadful people. Paul and Danielle were the "best" we could do. We aren't counting Ian who was pretty awful but a really minor character.
True enough, a philandering alcoholic and a spoiled rich girl who toys with other women's husbands don't qualify as wonderful people. But let's take a closer look at them.
Poor Paul. He opened the door to life just enough to admit Jamie with all of her potential and then he ran back to the frat house to drink beer. He wasn't evil. He was immature.
We call what happened to Paul, a "Caribbean Meltdown". People like Paul arrive in "Paradise" but fail to understand that it is more like the Garden of Eden and there is definitely a snake around. If not a whole bunch of snakes. The Pauls of the Caribbean populate the local bars at night. Generally not the tourist establishments but where the ex-pats hang out. They get caught up in booze, women and drugs. The Leave Before the Fight Breaks Out Bar should probably be the universal name for them. Actually both sexes are found in these bars and the stories can be quite pathetic. For the women, they may end up being soft hookers who cadge rides on boats down at the marina.
Have you seen a good heist flick recently? They are great and they have changed over the years. Crime often DOES pay now. And, at the end, these loveable rogues are sitting on their yacht toasting each other at sunset. Fun ending. But what do they do the next day? Start it with the hair of the dog? Nurse their hangover? And the day after? There are just a few traps here. A life plan is needed.
Paul not only did not have a goal or a life plan, he was also lacking a stable sense of himself and an inner compass. Whatever you want to call it. We call it a stable center. Many people come to Paradise and completely lose their way because there is little in them to help guide them. Remove the familiar structure and they are lost. Jamie had a good, stable center. Paul did not. And he wouldn't turn to her to help him through it. What happened to Paul is more the rule than the exception. He had choices. He might have seen warning signs in himself through his experience with his alcoholic mother. Turning to a good woman who loved him would have been an excellent choice. Maybe if he'd just stayed home, he might have been safe. In time he might have matured.
Then there is Danielle. Poor little rich girl. Too much money. Too much time. Nowhere to go. Years ago there was a study of therapy with the children of the super rich. Very interesting. When they got into trouble, the trouble was deep. Some of them had no sense of worth of anything including themselves. It is difficult to feel something is worth anything if you can have virtually anything. Astonishingly, women like Danielle can often have no feeling of self worth at all. They prop themselves up playing acquisition games with other women's husbands. Once the acquisition is made, it has no worth and they cast it aside.
Jean-Pierre must have seen something in her that she did not see in herself. He wasn't developed much in the story but he could have a self esteem problem himself which permitted him to accept her abuse. Or maybe he thought he might see things through to a successful conclusion someday.
So, Danielle drifts on with no future and no fulfillment. Such people are to be pitied AND kept at distance. We feel sorry for people like Paul and Danielle who cannot dream but we cheer the Jamies and the Andres who do dare to dream and then pursue their dreams.
Past Columns
Column 1 - St. Lucia
Column 2 - Jamie Elliott
Column 3 - Andre Demontagne
Column 4 - Paul and Danielle
Column 5 - Marcus Deroche
Column 6 - Bertille Deroche
Column 7 - What It's Like Living in the Tropics, Part 1
Column 8 - What It's Like Living in the Tropics, Part 2
Column 9 - Taylor, Clarisse and Barbara
Column 10 - How Does Our Writing Partnership Work?
Column 11 - Goal, Motivation, Conflict and Creativity
Column 12 - Family Life is a Saga
Column 13 - Toward A Circle of Dreams; I don't believe in ghosts.
Column 14 - A Book Walked in the Door
Column 15 - Every Woman Knows This Story
Column 16 - The Bridge
Column 17 - Why the Mystical Element in A Dream Across Time?
Column 18 - Gaia and myth in the Demontagne Saga
Column 19 - Carl Jung, Mythology and the Demontagne Saga
Column 20 - Carl Jung's Concepts in the Demontagne Saga
Column 21 - Martinique
Column 22 – Janine-Yvette Demontange (Yvie)
Column 23 – Anne-Clarisse Demontagne (Lissa)
Column 24 - Philippe Diamant Demontagne (Philippe)
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