Pinny Bugaeff

                          Pinny Bugaeff’s-7 Algonkian Assignments

Assignment 1

The Act of Story Statement

Save newborn baby Zoe, before she’s sold as an infant heart donor.

 ASSIGNMENT 2

THE ANTAGONIST

   Cybelle Chambers is the director of Riverview, a shelter for homeless, pregnant women.  She wears her thick auburn hair in a bun and has a habit of pursing her cupid bow lips as if she’s smelling something rancid, add to that her zaftig figure, and she looks like she just stepped out of a Botero painting, 

       Cybelle isn’t just your run of the mill psychopath. She also possesses the superficial charm and skillful manipulations of a narcissist. Like most narcissists she is able to feign emotion to get what she wants. Her smooth public persona, as a woman who funds a non-profit shelter for women, hides the fact that her real business is selling new born babies destined to be used as infant organ donors. For her, it’s all about the money. Cybelle has no more compunction about her business than a farmer who sells a crate of carrots to a baker, who’ll then use them to make carrot cake.

ASSIGNMENT 3

 BREAKOUT TITLE SUGGESTIONS

Since baby selling in a core theme of my book, before selecting my proposed title, I explored a variety of titles featuring the word Baby. I considered the following titles:

 Bye, Bye Baby, Buy Baby Bye and Red Market Baby. What I discovered was, there are currently 128 Romance novels on the market with the word Baby in the title. 

Next I considered using the word Heart in my title: Heart to Heart- Heartless and Have   a Heart. Goodreads lists 1,233 books with the word Heart in the title.

Therefore, I have tentatively thought of using MAD as my book title. Although there are 667 books with Mad in the title, I couldn’t find any that use just the one word- Mad. Here’s my reasoning on this title. For starters, Maddy Brinker, (her friends call her Mad) is the protagonist in a story that features a cast of characters that to one degree or other evidence a variety of mad psychological personalities. Cybelle Chambers, the major antagonist is a toxic narcissist. Her husband, Harlin is a murdering psychopath, Cybelle’s sister Trudy is a sociopath with psychopathic traits. And the theme of selling infants as organ donors certainly skirts the edge of madness.  Note: If Mad doesn’t seem appropriate I am very open to changing it. But if Mad does indeed become my official title, the next book in the series will be: Still Mad.

 

ASSIGNMENT 4

COMPABLE BOOKS AND MOVIES

I make no claim to even be on the same writing planet as Chelsea Cain but her courage and skillful writing featuring Gretchen Lowell, a vicious female killer with a taste for torture, gave me the courage to feature a truly vicious female psychopath- Cybelle Chambers, whose business is selling new born infants to be used for organ transplants.

Beginning with her first book, Heartsick, right through the other 5 in the series by Chelsea Cain, Gretchen Lowell, became wildly popular. Gretchen’s pursuit and torture of Detective Archie Sheridan which I would have assumed would have been distasteful to a large number of readers, garnered a readership that has resulted in multi-million dollar sales.

*

Again I have no illusions that my writing is on a par with Jeff Lindsay’s, author of the Dexter series, but beginning with Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Lindsay found a way to make psychopath/ anti-hero, Dexter, a sympathetic character whose motive for murder is not only understandable but is a service to society. I think of his mission as taking out the garbage, and judging by his vast audience a lot of people see it that way,

 I’m a retired social worker. I’ve worked in the New York City Juvenile Hall, and the Forensic unit of a state hospital.  I was a child protective services worker for the State of Connecticut and a psychotherapist for female felons. Jeff Lindsay’s courage and talent in writing so graphically about pedophile perverts gave me the courage to write about the equally despicable characters, the Chambers. I found real fellowship with Dexter because, truthfully there are some folks who need killing.  No amount of therapy will ever touch some of the psychopaths and deviants I’ve met. And I think it’s a vote of public agreement from the millions who have read and then enjoyed the Dexter TV series.

ASSIGNMENT 5

HOOK LINE FOR ALGONKIAN

Social Worker, Maddy Brinker, deeply guilt ridden because she blames herself for her mother’s suicide, tries to assuage her guilt by rescuing others. Maddy must save newborn baby Zoe, from being sold and used as an infant heart donor.

 

  

 

ASSIGNMENT 6

SKETCH INNER CONFLICT-AND ANXIETY

(This scene follows Maddy’s therapy session with Zee Perez, the pregnant mother of about to be born baby, Zoe.)  Zee left the therapy session precipitously because she had to find boyfriend Leo’s python, Sissy, who was missing. Zee was afraid that when Leo found out his snake was missing he would blame her for leaving the cage open, then beat the snot out of her.

 Maddy is snake phobic, nonetheless she feels compelled to drive over to Zee’s tenement to check on her. Before Maddy leaves, she meets with Cybelle, and has an intense confrontation with her because Cybelle refuses to support court ordered inpatient treatment for Zee. The meeting ends in an angry standoff.

*

Anxiety knotted my belly. I knew challenging Cybelle was going to cost me. I didn’t know how yet, but her methods of revenge tended to be well thought out. She’s a narcissist. I figured she’d have the whole week end to plan my comeuppance. But I couldn’t help myself. Although I had to be back at Riverview for group by seven, I needed to at least drive by Zee’s tenement.

 I was worried sick about her. If Sissy hadn’t yet slithered back to her cage, I was sure Leo would take it out on Zee. And if he did, what would happen to baby Zoe?

             Leo had done time for battery on his last girlfriend. I had no illusions that he wouldn’t do the same to Zee. The fact that Zee was pregnant with his child wasn’t going to be any source of protection for her.

It was drizzling when I left. As I drove towards Zee’s. I was hoping

maybe I’d catch her outside but in case I ran into Leo, I’d have to have a reason why I stopped by. Stomach clenched, I pulled up in front of a triplex that looked like the set for The Addams Family. I’d dropped Zee off there once and watched her take the outside staircase up to the second floor apartment.

I parked across the street from their driveway. If I wanted to check on Zee, I’d have to walk down the muddy drive in the dark and take the outside stairs up to the second floor. 

All I could think about was Sissy. What if she’d gotten outside and was coiled around a banister? What if she was stretched across the driveway, lurking in the mud?

Heart pounding, I crossed the street and started down the shadowed drive. At every step I expected to feel a snaky coil around my ankle. I was wound so tight, if I’d stepped on a garden hose, I’d a dropped dead.

            I noticed a sliver of blue light shining through a crack in one of the driveway-level basement windows that had been painted over. I hesitated. My stomach turned over— what if Leo was breeding pythons in the basement? I decided not to check. Thunder rumbled in the distance. The air was charged with ozone. Fat drops of rain spattered the mud puddles. 

Starting up the stairs, I was still trying to think of a plausible excuse why I’d stopped by to see Zee. As I reached the first landing of the outside stairs, the back door to the first-floor apartment flew open. A hairy guy in a wife-beater undershirt thrust a ham-sized fist toward my face.

“Hey, votch’yu doin’?”

“Uhhhh . . .” I could hardly talk. “Uhhhh . . .” I figured this was Leo’s father, Stash Jenks.

“You get the FUCK off my porch.”

Damn. Trying to think how to get past the guy I heard footsteps coming down the second-floor stairway. I looked up. Leo, head shaved, shirtless and tattooed neck to waist, stepped out onto the landing. Sissy, fat as a fire hose, was draped across his bare shoulders. Cradling her head in his hand, he took a step toward me

“Well, well, wel . . .” He was smirking.

Before the third “well” left his lips, I leapt off the porch. A blinding crack of lightning spurred my retreat back down the drive. Heedless of oncoming traffic I dashed across the street, threw myself into my truck and laid a block-long strip of rubber.

 As I peeled away from the house, my Inner Bitch, her voice dripping with contempt, started in on me: You gutless wonder.   I took a deep breath and screamed back, “You shut up!” She stopped. I was amazed. Dr. Sydney kept telling me to “stop colluding with the enemy.” Maybe he was right. The Bitch had stopped.

Breathless and drenched to the skin, trying to regain some kind of control, I pulled into a CVS and parked catawampus across two parking spots. I consciously tried to slow my breathing. Trying to talk myself back into as semblance of sanity, I started my Dr. Sydney prescribed mantra for regaining sanity after a PTSD freak out. I started to repeat the safety sequence out loud.

“I am safe. I am safe in my truck.” I made myself rub my hands together to create warmth and also to help remind myself that I was alive. I continued to slow my breathing. Trying to feel grounded, I started to name objects out loud. “I see the steering wheel. I see the numbers on the gauges on my dashboard.  I see the signs in the windows of the store. I made myself read one out loud. Ex-Lax. Well I sure didn’t need that. I began to feel my heart rate slowing. My breathing got more regular.

 Still worried about Zee, I thought about calling the police and asking them to do a well person check. In Connecticut, even if there isn’t any particular emergency, you can call the police and ask them to go check on a relative or someone you think might need help. But in this case, if the police showed up while Leo was there, Zee’d deny anything was wrong, and as soon as the police left Leo would beat the crap out of her.

 

ASSIGNMENT 7

SETTING DETAILS FOR MAD

Local- Just off Connecticut Route 84, a wide bridge spans the Connecticut River and is the route one takes into the(fictional) town of Greenport. The Chambers Riverview Estate and Maddy Brinker’s fixer-upper farm lie on the near side of the bridge. One crosses the bridge to get to the town of Greenport, where the State Police barracks, the Jenk’s triplex, and the hospital are located. Maddy’s friend, Tyler’s Peale’s home is located just out of town on Swan Lane.

Riverview Estate-now a maternity home for homeless, pregnant, women, once belonged to General William Williams, a shipping magnet and whaling merchant. Set on bluff overlooking the Connecticut River, it is now owned by Dr. Harlin Chambers and his wife, Cybelle Chase Chambers. There is a gated entry lined with ancient maples and a charming stone gate-house which marks the beginning of the property and serves as the Chambers residence.

 Further down the lane lies the main house, Riverview.  It’s a grand, pale yellow, Second Empire, Victorian with a wraparound porch. It serves as the residence for the women living at Riverview, there is a small parking lot behind the house and from there Maddy can easily get to her office which is set in an alcove of the wrap-around porch.

Close to the river, a windowless 3 car garage, once a stable, is located at the far end of the lane. There is an attached coach house, which has been converted into a home for the house- manager, Cybelle’s sister, Trudy Chase. Inside the locked garage is a very basic delivery room. A door from inside Trudy’s kitchen leads into the “delivery room.” A van and the Chambers car are parked inside the other spaces in the garage.

Maddy Brinker-Her “fixer upper” farm lies east of the Chamber’s estate. A rutted dirt drive leads to her house which has to be redone top to bottom. A tired red barn sits behind the house and other issues aside, it badly needs a new roof. Maddy’s 4 acres’ end at a stand of pines at the back of the property. Just beyond the stand of trees is a steep embankment that leads down to a pond that lies in a protected cove of the river.

 Leo and Elsa- Zee and Stash Jenks –A rundown Triplex on Furnace Street, located at the far end of Greenport, is home to the Jenks family. Leo’s father, Stash Jenks and his wife Elsa live on the first floor. Leo and Zee live in the second floor unit.  The roof of the place is leaky and no one lives in the top floor unit.  A line of beat up garbage cans sit on the sidewalk.

Attorney Tyler Peale-Maddy’s best friend, Tyler lives across the river from her, just on the outskirts of Greenport. His beautiful home is located in a quiet and well established neighborhood located on Swan Lane

Firestone Construction-Home Remolding- Owned by Mary Jane Pietroinferno and Fran Low and their adopted son Rob. (Years before Maddy had rescued 3-year-old Rob and had been instrumental in placing him with Mary Jane and Fran who later married then adopted Rob.)

   

 

                                                                                     

                             

 

Maddy’s

file:///C:/Users/MY/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image015.pngfile:///C:/Users/MY/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image018.png                                                                                                         

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                       

 

                                                                                                                               e                                                                    

file:///C:/Users/MY/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image023.pngfile:///C:/Users/MY/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image025.png                                                                    

 

file:///C:/Users/MY/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image029.pngfile:///C:/Users/MY/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image031.png                                                                                                            

                  

 

                                                                                                                                                                      

 

 

 

 

Fantastic article. You nailed the narcissist persona perfectly. They are indeed malignent and will infect any relationship that does not offer them the laurel wreath of wonderfulness.  Seems like they are breeding because I don't remember havng met so many in the last few years. Ironically one of the characters in my current project is, in fact, a toxic narcisscist. I will say they do make for meaty materail.

Thanks agin for publishing the article, it just might save some one not familiar with this disorder from devastation.