Illegal Gringo Crosser Part 1 read by male avatar in multiple voices including woman's

Illegal Gringo Crosser by Paul D Edwards

Illegal Gringo Crosser

Paul Edwards

Independently Published

979-8231037179             $5.99 eBook

https://www.amazon.com/Illegal-Gringo-Crosser-Paul-Edwards-ebook/dp/B0FL2Y917R

Illegal Gringo Crosser adopts an unusual countenance, taking the form of a novel about the author’s efforts to pitch his screenplay (of the same title) to producer Harvey Wains. The line between fiction and nonfiction appears to blur as Edwards struggles to market his story about immigrant experience but faces not only a money-hungry producer’s narrowed focus on what will be profitable, but insights about his own estranged Mexican-American mother and his heritage.

The edits Harvey suggests to Edwards aren’t just clarifications, but a complete readjustment of his screenplay’s political and social focus. And so Edwards resists the opportunity to disempower his manuscript, his life, and his heritage even as he battles these possibilities on a personal level.

The cost of selling one’s soul and values for the sake of creating a marketable (albeit shallower) production comes to light as the screenplay about his character Jake takes on unexpected life.

Readers anticipating a novel format receive a screenplay which, in and of itself, represents both the nature of drama and the ironies of pairing the general public’s interests in emotional connections with bigger-picture portraits of immigrant experience.

The screenplay format becomes, itself, a selling point for the novel’s shifting focus as Jake dreams of more than a dead-end job, at the beginning of the tale:

JAKE

Another spreadsheet. Another soul-crushing day.

He sighs, pushing away the keyboard. He picks up a crumpled travel brochure featuring vibrant images of Mexican landscapes – turquoise waters, ancient ruins bathed in sunlight. He traces a finger along a picture of a bustling marketplace.

Screenwriter Edwards interjects his own writer’s observations, craft, and struggles in the course of evolving his screenplay. This neatly juxtaposes the play’s scenes with its writer’s eye for detail and trouble:

Paul, his eyes burning with a fire that belied his sun-baked skin and threadbare clothes, leaned closer. The glint of steel in his gaze was sharper than any knife. "Poor, Harvey? Yes, we're as barren as this cursed land. But helpless? *Never*. This desert has etched its lessons into our very bones. We've stared down the devil himself, and his name isn't always Smugglers. We've bled for this sand, and it's soaked up more than just our sweat." His voice, low and gravelly, carried the weight of a thousand unspoken battles. The heat shimmering off the sand seemed to amplify the intensity of his words, the very air crackling with the unspoken threat. "This time, the devil will learn what it means to underestimate the fury of a cornered desert viper."

The intersection of fiction, writer, and economic and political pressures to tell a different kind of story creates a fine literary dialogue between creator and production. This will especially intrigue literature readers who are, themselves, aspiring screenplay writers or producers.

All audiences, however, will readily appreciate the moral, ethical, and professional quandaries Edwards faces in the course of his pursuit. They also will relish how issues of immigrant experience wind into an adventure that involves family reconciliation, a new path in Mexico, and Jake’s impossible choice to stay and build a new life or go where he’s really needed.

Replete with powerful interactions and scenarios heightened by the form of a screenplay and the adjunct scenes of the writer’s struggles to create and shape his world, Illegal Gringo Crosser is especially highly recommended for libraries interested in literary explorations of personal, economic, and political struggles where ideals are tested and realities faced.

Filled with thought-provoking moments of change and adaptation, Illegal Gringo Crosser crosses not only physical but mental borders during its astute portrait of a writer struggling with his own best interests on many different fronts.

 Diane Donovan, Editor, Donovan's Literary Services