Channeling Marilyn: How Writing a “Marilyn Monroe Afterlife” Book Helped Me Grieve (Guest Post by Mima Tipper)
During the years I researched background material for my paranormal YA novel Channeling Marilyn , I read a lot about Marilyn Monroe’s life and death. To be honest, though many of those books—fiction and non-fiction—probably hold truth, I wasn’t interested in adding to that arena of Marilyn stories. I wanted to follow my inspiration and write a story around the premise of “What if Marilyn’s spirit could come back down to earth?” I wanted to tell a story about what Marilyn’s spirit would think of the world and her legacy today. How would she feel? What would she do? What would she want to do? Who would she visit, and why? Hello fiction and fantasy! And so I began writing, diving deep into what I imagined would be a fun, funny, poignant tale about my very made-up characters and my very made-up world. What I didn’t understand until much later was that a common writing prompt for those who’ve lost a loved one is to write another story for that person. After spending years revising my Maril...
