After this week’s work, it seems that I’m either writing some kind of  generational family saga or I am just writing a hell of a lot of backstory that won’t end up a part of the book at all.  Fine with me.  It’s interesting how a story that was originally meant to span seven days, now has major scenes in the 1900s, and the  ’30s.   

A few family melodramas keeping coming to mind — inspiration – as I’m writing:  “Middlesex”, “East of Eden”, “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”. 

I also keep coming back to Douglas Sirk’s “Written on the Wind” and “Imitation of Life” (colour version). Sirk was the king of melodrama and I love his films. They are so wickedly over the top but there’s also a lot of subtle stuff going on.

Here’s a snippet from Imitation of Life that always gets me … Annie’s death scene and her kick-ass funeral: