Fifteen + years ago I devised a blog, “stanza28”. T'was born from an experimental desire to promote a pseudonymously published novel. Along the way I have been happy to actively solicit particular types of posts for the blog as well as to develop and receive blog post submissions from & with third parties.
With respect to my creative projects, "stanza28" has been in use for over two decades.
Since the novel’s first publication, a number of issues it addresses have come to prominence. Perhaps most importantly, the issue of police misconduct (the subject of my law school admission application essay, consciously dated on the birthday of a dear departed friend) has possibly finally achieved the due concern it merits.
Also finally getting its due is the decriminalization of marijuana, an issue on which I have been of the same mind as many highly regarded medical doctors and now, more than thirty of our United States.
The novel’s main character “Sal” is an homage to my best friend from childhood who died in his twenties. His name was Antonio. The character in the novel is so named to facilitate deliberation upon the idea of “savior” in Latin, as well as that of “salt” (sal is spanish for “salt”) the subject of “The Salt Prince” folklore.
Though I began writing the novel in my teens, it was alchemized and finally completed following an era of distress I experienced following Antonio’s death. Not one day has gone by in the more than twenty years since he left us that I have not reflected on what he might think about the current events of the day, or the popular music of the era or how we might have continued to share perspectives on our respective travels and favorite places of repast. His memory is the inveterate gauge by which I continue to benchmark morality, charisma, and character.
The Queens we shared and in which we grew up has been greatly transformed. Robert De Niro’s influence continues to be felt in our hometown. Recently, I am told, he is building an entire complex at the end of Steinway Street. When we were young adults Antonio had a small role in the crime drama film “A Bronx Tale” (which was De Niro’s directorial debut). The church in the background of that film is the school we attended together. In the days that film was being made, my childhood friends and I went about our young lives and curiously watched as our neighborhood was reshaped by antique cars and movie trailers. I was working at a music store and Antonio would visit me there between film takes. In order to extend some tribute to those experiences, around Thanksgiving 2020 a playlist was released on YouTube, featuring music referenced in the novel.
It may be accessed for enjoyment here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh5fWlc3GnpOK9qSkO5bzgYWSqbRASwos .
The character in the novel “Sarena” is also an homage, to another of my oldest friends from childhood. She also distinguished herself, by appearing in “A Bronx Tale” as well as by going on to work at a super prestigious law firm in Manhattan. Out of courtesy for her and her family’s privacy, I do not identify her by her given name.
“Sal” and “Sarena” are fictional characters. The persons to whom they serve as an homage and I had, at times, extremely divergent views on the various topics addressed in the novel. We nevertheless loved each other dearly, and, until the iniquitous death, always showed up for each other.
In order to examine the events the novel considers, incidents, locations and quotes from “real life” were woven into the fictional piece of work. Literary folk call this "historical fiction" and its use is an excellent tool for teaching, generally speaking.
In 2021 the Supreme Court found for Google (Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., 593 US __ (2021).) in a years long litigation that considered “fair use”. Verisimilitude, so seminal to the process of devising narrative frameworks in fiction, is often the lens through which writers instinctively come to understand the concept of fair use.
At this time, of all of the legal spheres upon which the novel impinges, the fair use SCOTUS opinion is the disposition which fills me with the most optimism and confidence for our shared future.
To live in an age where sharing ones’ perspective is so accessible, is the subject of a great deal of gratitude, joy, and consternation, for many. Often I have endeavored to share, via the blog, my experiences practicing law, in order to help overcome skepticism that my literary and creative agenda was of a particularly radical or otherwise marginal nature. I have tried to maintain a tone that would be appropriate and credible for a 21st century teenager and I have tried to be a voice I wish I could have had when I was seventeen.
Thanks to everyone who ever read the novel or the blog. I hope you are being “edutained.” If you knew Antonio, I hope you remember him with as much love & laughter as I do.
Cheers to fifteen + years! XO,
Martha C. Chemas, Esq.
