New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, and
Sarah McLachlan, through their music, have inspired a national award-winning debut digital novel in the burgeoning New Adult genre, Saving The Innocents, by indie author Randall Kenneth Drake.
The three singers, which
Drake calls the "Magic 3", were responsible for the inspiration of scenes, sequences of scenes, characters, and even the title of the novel itself.
Drake was listening to the three, as many were, from the mid 90s into the early 2000s, when the story was first conceived. The novel centers around the exploits of Mary Jane Chevalier, a heroine with all the characteristics of a modern-day knight (without the horse), imbued with a sense of chivalry, calling for protection of the poor and weak, loyalty and devotion to one's companions, and preservation of personal honor. The story is a "hero's journey". Here's the synopsis:
Mary Jane Chevalier feels invisible, like she doesn't matter to anyone. Her good deeds seem to go unnoticed, and the voice in her mind, her conscience, won't stop bugging her. Alone and on her own, she searches for her father. She needs answers . . . why he did what he did. Answers only he can provide.
She finds Jack and Sera, an odd man and a little girl, hiding out in a condemned, deserted hotel . . . a pair of innocents in a harsh world. The two are being hunted down because Sera saw something she shouldn't have . . . something deadly. Hunted, by Edgar Lairdman, an overly-controlling and unstable real estate tycoon with ties to the police and the criminal underworld.
Compelled by a persistent inner voice and her own compassion, somehow Mary Jane must find a way . . .
To save the innocents.
Asked about the name Mary Jane,
Drake confessed, "If you listen to Morissette's "Mary Jane" from Jagged
Little Pill, and Crow's "Am I Getting Through" from The
Globe Sessions, you get a beautifully condensed, distilled and accurate description of Mary Jane Chevalier at the beginning of Saving The Innocents."
As a tribute to the three singers,
Drake has weaved the names of the songs that inspired into both narrative and dialogue. The author was motivated to write the novel as a response to a small child being abandoned on a country road. It's dedicated to all of those who've been abandoned, physically or emotionally.
The book, an Eric Hoffer Award Finalist and Fan Fiction winner in the Global Ebook Awards, fits into the New Adult category, sports initial character development, which morphs into a quick-moving plot. It is a crossover of mystery, suspense, action, and romance. Questioned about what the biggest benefits are for readers of Saving The Innocents, publisher
Silver Dragon Press stated, "The reader will feel powerful at the beginning, and love at the end, with a whole lot of excitement and emotion in between."
Saving The Innocents ($5.99, ISBN: 0-9747161-0-3) is available on the internet as a digital download for computers and e-readers in both Kindle and EPub formats only at: https://www.rkdrake.com/rkd/new-adult-genre.html
Randall Kenneth
Drake is the independent author of the national award-winning New Adult digital novel Saving The Innocents, written in response to a small child being abandoned on a country road. RKD currently resides and writes in Ohio, and is the world's most ardent supporter of both freedom for the individual citizen and empowerment for the human female.
