A SEASON’S INFLUENCE ON NOVELS, POEMS & SONGS by Wayne Avrashow
Can a season influence a work of art? Wayne Avrashow, author of the political thriller "ROLL THE DICE" shares his point of view on the matter.
A SEASON’S INFLUENCE ON NOVELS, POEMS & SONGS
Quick spring is here and you think of———?
Spring is the time of nature’s renewal. Any post-holiday blues have long past. Winter’s chill has dissipated. The poets write of spring’s optimism and hope.
Spring rituals include: the mundane spring cleaning, the youthful exuberance of spring break, and the optimism of baseball’s opening day where every fan dreams their team will reach the promised land.
Spring is a time of cleansing the past and being ready for a new beginning. In Los Angeles where I live, the temperatures are no longer a “freezing 55”, now we bask in our birthright of a balmy 75.
At one level it is rejuvenating to begin anew, at another it is odd that warmer days lead one to endless possibilities. Why should a season matter to one’s beliefs? No questions, optimism always works.
Does a season affect writers? Can it influence a novel?
My novel Roll the Dice is about mega-rock star Tyler Sloan’s campaign as an independent for the United States Senate in Nevada. The novel explores many themes; an estranged father-son relationship, his past returning to haunt him, and all the forces of opponents and media scrutiny are set against the backdrop of a three-month sprint of a political campaign. Sloan announces his candidacy June 8 with an August 22 election date.
Roll the Dice has both the intensity of an extremely tight time frame and the summer sun beating down on the candidates. The heat of a Las Vegas summer is no picnic. It is an energy-sapping, life-melting experience. The season adds to the intensity, the season is one more obstacle Sloan must battle and overcome.
Roll the Dice would be a different read, a different novel if I set the election during a Massachusetts winter. That would have its own challenges. The novel has the state of Nevada, specifically the city of Las Vegas, and its burning summer heat as a character in the novel.
My novel was set in the summer, while the poets have always praised spring.
Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass notes of the “The melted snow of March. . . spring-time is here!” Shakespeare termed, “In the spring time, the only pretty ring time.”
Bob Dylan paints a rich portrait with his memorable lyrics. Dylan was the greatest poet of the 20th Century. Listen to Dylan’s song, Simple Twist of Fate. The couple in the song, maybe it’s Dylan, were either a passionate one-night stand, a man finding a prostitute at the docks or former lovers who were reuniting in a “strange hotel.”
Dylan sings, “She was born in spring, but I was born too late, blame it on a simple twist of fate.” Deciphering Dylan lyrics is never for the faint of heart. The song is clearly about an older man who is charmed by a younger woman. She is younger, she was “born in spring.” She wears the glow of spring.
Stephen King’s Misery is set in a small northeastern town after a winter’s blizzard. The icy roads cause the car of the protagonist, a famous author, to skid out of control. He is “rescued” by his self-described “number one fan.” The winter season created the snow storm and added to the tension of the rescue-turned-capture-turned-torture.
The season can be a critical element to a story—spring, summer, fall or winter can be a force that must be reckoned with. You cannot ignore it. You cannot conquer it. You can only succumb to it.
ROLL THE DICE
By Wayne Avrashow
Fiery Seas Publishing
November 28, 2017
Political Thriller
What happens when one of America’s biggest rock stars leaves the Las Vegas stage to run for the United State Senate?
The ultimate celebrity candidate, Tyler Sloan is no stranger to politics – his estranged father was a California governor who narrowly lost a Presidential campaign. He runs as a political independent, refuses campaign contributions, and dismisses special interests and lobbyists.
Sloan is caught in a political campaign fraught with; sexual scandal, corruption and conflicting loyalties.
Will he be able to navigate through political turbulence and his own past to win the race?
Wayne Avrashow was the campaign manager for two successful Los Angeles City Council campaigns and a Deputy/Chief of Staff to those two elected City Council members. He served as a senior advisor for a successful city-wide referendum in the City of Los Angeles, co-authored ballot arguments on Los Angeles County-wide measures, served as Chairman for a Los Angeles County ballot measure, and was a Los Angeles government Commissioner for nearly twenty years. He currently serves as a Board Member of the Yaroslavsky Institute, a public policy institute founded by long time Southern California elected official, and now UCLA professor, Zev Yaroslavsky.
His background in politics, government, business, and law provides unique insight into the machinations and characters that populate political campaigns.
Wayne is a practicing attorney who specializes in government advocacy, real estate, and business law. Formerly, he was an officer in two real estate development firms. As a lawyer-lobbyist, he has represented clients before numerous California municipalities and in Nevada and Idaho. He has lectured at his law school and taught at Woodbury University in Los Angeles. He has also authored numerous op-ed articles that appeared in daily newspapers, legal, business, and real estate publications. In addition, he is the author of a self-published book for the legal community, Success at Mediation—10 Strategic Tools for Attorneys.
