Hawthorne had probably the best-ever plot for exploring the themes of punishment, guilt, and revenge; I include sin and forgiveness and explore basic themes of human desires that are even more relevant in today's complex culture.

That makes my book sound ponderous. Ugh. My book is light-heartedly profound.

Hawthorne could not create characters. My characters — Hester, Roger, Arthur, and Pearl — come to life. That gives their interactions depth and importance. Hawthorne created some of the best "moments" in all of literature, though you might not know that because Hawthorne also could not write scenes.

I mostly follow Hawthorne's story, hopefully retaining everything you might have remembered from that book. I start the story earlier, so that the characters are real and established at the point of Hester's punishment. Why did Hester marry Roger? Why did she have sex with Arthur? I dive into the actual details of how Roger torments Arthur, and involve Hester in this.

Hawthorne left out the sex scene! Seriously, he left out all description of Hester and Arthur's relationship, taking the meaning out of the rest of the story.

I made Hester a poet and I gave her a stutter. A stutter sounds stupid, but it works really well in the story. And she often has a 17th century way of thinking about the world. So this is my version of The Scarlet Letter.

Intelligent, skilled, brave, lusty, insightful, painful, funny, romantic.

Oh, I almost forgot, plot. Hester is technically married, she becomes pregnant and will not reveal the father. So she is publicly shamed and forced to wear an A for adulteress. Her husband Roger, thought dead, appears and stays in Boston to get revenge on the man who has cuckolded him. That man, meanwhile, is a minister who tortures himself with guilt, Roger eventually helping. The book is mostly a tragedy; Hester's daughter, Pearl, represents hope.

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Roger stares at me. Coldly. He has already decided on his next question, he is letting me fear its coming. Finally he asks, calmly, as if it is merely another question, "Did you enjoy it?"
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Then, with horror, I feel a pressure in my loins. My flesh forces me to confront the truth — we are not merely friends. I pull my hand away, yet I want to reach out and softly touch Hester's face, not return my hand to my lap! This is wrong. I must flee!
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I slide my arm out of my dress, then pull the right side of my dress forward, exposing my breast. Arthur has stopped breathing. I could kill him with a naked breast. But I do not, I pick up Pearl and put her to my breast, and she begins to suck.