"Great lady, I have news."

This entry's title is a line from my novel, Virtue, which now exists in manuscript form. 

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Here is an independent script analyst's synopsis of  Virtue.

A tycoon in charge of Starling Worldwide, one of the largest media conglomerates in the world, puts his empire at risk when he falls for a controversial humanitarian and is transformed in the process.

Raised in wealth and privilege, successful executive GREG HAMMOND has followed in his father’s footsteps and rules the family empire, making money and his stockholders happy. Although his half-sister LYDIA and her son ANDRE want to topple Greg from the Starling throne, they can’t succeed as long as he holds patriarch Poppy’s approval.

Then Greg meets and falls for DARIA, who is as much of a warrior as he is only for a completely different agenda: she doesn’t want to profit from the world, she wants it to profit from her. Although he woos her enough to donate to her cause and spend a passionate weekend with her, she sees humanitarian DR.WREN as more her type.

 Falling in love with Daria strips off Greg’s blinders. As he really sees the world for the first time, he finds he can’t go back and goes out on a limb to take his company with him. Andre sees his new behavior as an opportunity to leverage for control of the company and plays dirty to get it. Greg and Andre’s duel comes to a head in a boardroom war that engages the public, puts their personal relationships at risk and has a worldwide impact.

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One of the central plot elements in Virtue is the female lead's quest to influence the people living in an Ethiopian slum. She brings them an initiative designed to educate and to empower, particularly the women,  The story puts a glaring spotlight on a cultural tradition practiced widely in Africa. It's called female genital cutting or FGC. In this tradition, girl children between three years and eight years of age are subjected to having their labia and clitoris' cut off.  This is thought to assure they will remain chaste and sexually pure when they get older.  More than 130 million women in Africa have had this done to them.  In a country like Ethiopia, 75% of girl children have been subjected to or are at risk of being subjected to FGC.  Not only is it a heinously cruel personal violation, women subjected to FGC also have huge problems later with child birthing due to the loss of elasticity in their vaginal areas, making natural child birth a highly risky prospect.

FGC may be tradition, but it is indefensible and has no place in a modern world.   There are two global non-profit groups I admire that are focused on empowering women and ending the practice of FGC. They are Tostan,  based in Senegal and the Orchid Project based in London.   Please go to their websites and learn about FGC and then stand with them as they work to make a difference for the women and girl children of Africa.

Here is a link to Tostan...  www.tostan.org 


Here is a link to the Orchid Project...www.orchidproject.org