Sunday 27 September 2015

FAREWELL, JACKIE COLLINS





 

True story: when Jackie Collins succumbed to breast cancer on September 19th I had a dream that day that a different author had died: Judith Krantz of SCRUPLES fame. Woke up in a flash, all confused and tense, wondering why the heck I had dreamt about her passing.  Was this some sort of a premonition, an ESP kind of thing?  I immediately got up and hurried over to my PC to check if my prediction was correct.  It was not—thank God.  So I went back to bed, shaking my head in discouragement for having been such a drama queen—totally clueless to the fact that another grand dame of commercial fiction had just met her maker.
 
Yes, the queen of fluff is gone, kids.  And this sucks—big time.  Like many of you I had spent many hours reading her work, wishing that one day we would meet face to face.  Alas, it was not meant to be.  But I got the next best thing.  We became acquaintances online.  But to tell you the truth, I doubt she really knew who I was.  Because let’s face it, she had millions of fans like moi.  And between writing her many sizzlers and promoting them extensively, she barely had time to socialize with any of us.  Still it felt good getting a quick e-mail from her acknowledging a comment of sort; or being picked at a Q & A live stream during one of her book tours; or the best, having her retweeting me because I blogged about one of her titles or acknowledged one of her adapted films or mini-series.  We may not have been close friends in the real sense of the word but in my mind it felt like we were.  
 
Having been around the block a few times, I occasionally let myself be tempted by other genres (horror mostly).  But because of Collins I always return to my first love: glam fiction. It gives me the extra oomph I need whenever the world seems cold and distant.  And now that she’s gone, I need the escape more than ever. I’ll probably pick up her latest, but before I do that, tell me this: why do we always wait until someone has passed on to finally acknowledge all the good they have brought into our lives?  I mean I could have easily told her how I felt when she was around. I think it would have pleased her, even touched her. Then again, she probably knew it already. I just wonder if she really was aware of how much of an impact she had on people, especially on the gay community.  She was one of the few commercial writers who embraced the gay lifestyle in her work. She made no qualms about it and got a whole new readership in return. Whether this was coming from the heart or a simple use of business acumen (or both) barely matters.  What does is that she was indeed a kick-ass writer and I will miss her dearly.  So here’s to you, Jackie Collins.  Hope they make room for your steamy novels up there.  If not, I’m sure you’ll break the mold—as you always have done.





  
Until next post—Martin



4 comments:

MBoccardo said...

What a beautiful tribute! I, too, was very saddened to hear of Jackie's passing. I fondly remember my mother devouring her books like they were water, and now that my mother is sinking into the depths of dementia, it's those memories that brings a smile to my face. Because of Ms. Collins I can wrap around me those fond moments of sweeping through bookstores and seeing Mom grab the latest potboiler from the shelf. Although I've only read one of her novels, I most certainly own a few more that will move to the top of the heap. Thanks for posting this, Martin! And thanks to Jackie for being the first class dame that she was, and really, still is.

Authorfan said...

No, thank you--for your warm comments and for sharing your story.

Kurt said...

Nice post. My sister and I read Rock Star many many years ago. It's the only one of her books I've read. Reading about her in the past few weeks she sounded like quite a person. Writers write and she knew her audience and how to entertain them.

Fred said...

Such an amazing way to say goodbye!! I discovered Jackie Collins when I was a teen-ager in my remote area of Abitibi. You are reminding ourselves to tell author, artist and family surrounding ourselves that we love their work and them as human while their still around. Your dream was fight on the money.. Sometimes it is taking à while to decipjer those.. But it is coming from à woo woo Guy so.. Lol