review: The blind side of love

This is my review draft.

Sometimes, when I ask writers about their creative processes I can get answers from: “I saw a chair and made a story out of it” to “I was in a car and listened to a song and created a story about it” like Ingrid Diaz, the star behind “The blind side of love” a romantic light comedy packed with funny and exciting situations as well as familiar experiences that anyone can relate to. She has rewritten the novel to be published two times now. She couldn’t publish it before because of contract issues. The final version will be published officially in 2013. Also, she was the author of Alix & Valerie, her debut novel which was published in 2008. When asked about how she got the idea for TBSOL, Diaz laughs and says:

  “The idea came to me about four in the morning; back when I was in college...On the weekends we’d stay up all night watching movies and then go out to get food at weird hours... So, we were in the car, listening to the radio, and a song came on. ..That same week, I’d met a girl at school who was obsessed with that singer, and I started thinking how interesting it would be if this girl started chatting with the singer online and didn’t know it was her. The thought led me to wonder if one could build a love story on that premise...”

  Also, she explains that the idea stayed in her head and it slowly started to take shape. Over time, the concept of a singer meeting a fan online morphed into one of an actress meeting someone entirely by accident. She claims she sat down to start TBSOL about a year and a half after that.

Although she started writing a long time after she came with the idea, when she finished the book, her readers online told her they wanted more. They wanted a sequel. So, she started to upload a second version by chapters from time to time in LiveJournal while solving personal stuff. Then, people from all countries started to follow her uploads and she found herself thanking people when they confessed they would create an account just to read her. 

 “The first draft of TBSOL was under contract for publication about a week after I finished it. I was contacted by a popular publisher of lesbian fiction, who loved the book. I had an editor who sent me back a lot of notes. I began editing the book for publication, but the publisher closed down before my book was published. I was pretty disappointed. I decided to fix it a little at a time, and focus on my paranormal series, Rayne. Then, I started working as a professional blogger. For the next four years, I was busy and making decent money from my blogging and graphic design work. I abandoned Rayne, but always found myself going back to TBSOL. I felt guilty that people were still following the story and that I wasn't updating it very frequently, so I'd work on it from time to time. I knew people wanted more after version one because they told me. If my publishing contract hadn't fallen through back when it did, then TBSOL v1 would have been published, and there would be no version 2 or 3. So, it turned out to be a blessing.”

 But, does one endanger when wanting to rewrite something lots of people in the internet have read already? Well, challenges are what Ingrid Diaz wants to fight against when writing. TBSOL is filled with characters that deal with challenges and this is the message she tries to give us. In 2011, in an entry in her journal she says her biggest challenge has been figuring out the book all over again without disappointing her readers. She admits it was a daily struggle because their expectations were constantly affecting her creative process.  And she confesses:

 “I don’t write because I’m good at it, or because it comes easily to me. I don’t share what I’ve written because I think it’s so amazing and everyone should read it. I do it because it scares me. I do it because it’s difficult. I do it because I don’t want fear to stop me from doing what I love. And I don’t want fear to stop anyone else from doing what they love, or what they think they might love.” She writes to be brave to show others they are not alone and they can also be brave. Especially LGBTI people, because they can sometimes feel not relate to anyone that’s why she blogs and other things that are related to it.

 The blind side of love characters show the fear of being put out naked in the middle of the crowd and the fear to be judged for what you love and to be seen different from people who you care, the fear of being alone.

 Julianne Franqui one of the main characters in the novel is an actress who everybody knows and talks about, but only one person knows her, Adrian Cruz, her best friend. She is tired and feeling like she can relate to anybody. Until she sees the painting.

While she is in New York City she goes to Washington Square Park and sees a painting which shows a crowd gathered in circle looking at somebody and this person’s shadow is inside the circle but she is outside of it looking at other place. She feels identified and buys it. What she doesn't know is that this painting is going to be the path to fill in that emptiness she feels within her, that her head is soon going to be upside down.  

 Kris Milano, the artist of the painting is the other protagonist. She is a Puerto Rican who lives in New York City. She is twenty years old, studies visual arts and loves it. She has a boyfriend called Nathan but actually her parents are the ones who are in love with him, not Kris, so she is with him to please them. She does what her parents tell her to do, so she is always thinking about what her family would think about everything she wants to do. Kris personally thinks the actress; Julianne Franqui is a snob until she meets her. Although but she doesn’t know she know her, because they talk through internet. The only person that encourages Kris’ dream to make it as an artist is Leigh Radlin, her roommate and best friend. Leigh wants to be an actress and it’s principally who makes Kris’ life easier to live.

 One good day Julia Raye (Julianne’s real name) emails Kris to thank her for having painted the piece. They soon start talking to each other about how they feel and although they seem to relate to different stuff they start to get be friends. Also, soon they find themselves doing things they are advice to do by the other one. Reading, staying awake to watch the sunrise, go to museums and let the paintings fill their soul with the peace they lack. All of this without Julianne telling her, she is actually the actress. Julia tells her she is gay. Kris starts wondering how she is like; Leigh tells her she is blond, because the day she bought her the painting Leigh was in charge of their selling spot at the park. Julianne is offered a gay role in a movie; she thinks it through and decides to take it because it's filmed in New York where Kris lives. She and Nathan break up after that he tries her to have sex with him. Kris starts to be happier than usual, because of her friendship with Julianne but there Julianne realizes Kris hates the actress. The lie starts to get bigger. And at the end explodes. Kris gets angry with Julianne but forgives her. From that, there friendship change and soon this starts to become something else, they start to fall in love.

 During all this, we watch a series of secondary characters which seem to be there for a reason but aren’t less developed than the others. Diaz while talking about the design of her characters claimed that for her, secondary characters are as important as the main ones. And this, not being unnecessary for the story makes it, even more interesting, complex and complete.

When reading TBSOL for the first time, you found yourself so entangled in the plot, that you feel anything that you do before finishing are distractions and even then, you find yourself wanting to know more, as not wanting it to end.

 I think this occurs because unlike other novels I’ve read, I feel like the characters are alive and their lives have to continue. I feel that if I don’t read about them, they can’t live. This makes me read the story from the beginning and following this line I dare to compare TBSOL with J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Because, I feel like I would like to live in the world the characters live, to see what happens with their lives after the end of the book.

This feeling is what makes readers want to read a book over and over again. After all, stories aren’t stories if somebody doesn’t relive them while reading them.

 Diaz in an entry of her journal confesses she has no idea if TBSOL v3 will be as good as v1 or v2 or even better, or it will at list be successful among the critics.

 Not all books have this particularity and when they do, they speak for themselves as good literature. Diaz in an entry of her journal confesses she has no idea if TBSOL v3 will be as good as v1 or v2 or even better, or it will at list be successful among the critics. This also makes me admire the details and reasons her writing has. Over everything I admire her and this book, because it’s revolutionary and not only speaks for the life of LGTBI people but also for the author. She pushes away her fears when publishing her stuff and encourages others to do so.  

 “…What I do know is that pushing through fear is the hardest part of doing anything that forces you to put yourself out there. Creating is hard, but sharing what you’ve created is the true challenge. But that’s why it matters. That’s why we have to do it anyway.”

 This previous claim is as certain as anything. Personally, reading TBSOL made me push myself forward in my dream of being a writer. I pushed away the doubts and started writing. She made me write without the fear of doing it in the wrong way and found myself writing one day without these feelings. She made me go chase my dream by showing me that I would never know how it was going to be if I didn’t at list try.  That’s why this book, is so recommendable because it makes you laugh, it makes you cry and it makes you change your perspective on lots of things you see in your daily life but never pay attention to. It makes you do what you don’t feel capable of doing. It shows you that no matter if you have no wings; you can fly if you really want to.