Since I haven’t written much about writing this month, I’ve decided to explain a little something I do in order to get the creative juices flowing. Usually I play this game when I’m bored (at the airport) or in need of a major distraction (while running), where I’ll pick out two distinct things that set random people apart. The last time I did this was on my layover in San Diego while running by the marina where many unique and interesting characters tend to hang out. It’s the little things, like the man wearing way too short Bermuda shorts, his white sock-less feet jammed into a pair of brown leather loafers, that stand out. One man, a homeless guy holding a cardboard sign, I remember quite well, as he sat on a bench across from the ocean, his rusted grocery cart full of god knows what parked beside him, chatting away on what looked to be a brand new flip phone, a cell phone that was actually plugged into an outlet. It made me wonder, who the heck is he talking to? And does he pay the bill? This is how a story idea comes to me, through interesting characters I see in day to day life. And that’s the where the problem begins.

Once I let my sister read a chapter of DOUBLE DIAMOND DELUXE, a story about three sisters looking for love in Las Vegas. The chapter my sister read was about a character named Jackie. I remember her putting the pages down, and saying, and she said this very angrily, “I never did that!”

My sister was right, she never did do that, but Jackie did. Sure, Jackie looked a lot like my sister, with her beautiful long curly brown hair, and had the same fiery temper (my sister’s a Gemini, she can’t help it) but in reality Jackie was me, in disguise, at a particular time in my life, doing the exact same things I had done – and maybe a couple things I wish I had done. The same thing happened when my mother read SKYDOLL and DOUBLE DIAMOND DELUXE, two stories with two different “motherly” minor characters. “Mom, it’s not you!” I kept telling her, because it wasn’t – anymore. Friends and ex boyfriends also make a few appearances. Sometimes I’ll take all the good qualities from one person, to make the perfect hero, and then I’ll take all the bad qualities from the exact same person to create the perfect villain – One person, two new characters. These characters will then begin to morph into other friends I know as the book moves along, until the characters themselves actually begin to form a life of their own.

It’s confusing, I know. Here’s an example of how this sort of thing works. I’ve created a flight attendant character named Holly (yes, that’s my sister’s name) in SKYDOLL. She’s the best friend to the lead character. Now Holly is actually based on my real life best friend Cady (who will be guest blogging sometime this month.) After a couple of rewrites, Holly began to look and dress like another friend, Grace. Not long ago, an agent read SKYDOLL and stated that she thought the book would make for good TV. Well that got me thinking…how about Will and Grace in the air! A fantastic idea! So now the flight attendant best friend character in the book, who originally was Holly, is now John, and John is now doing things that Holly had done. As you know, I have a very funny friend named John in real life (Who may also be guest blogging – if I ever hear back from him. He’s in Paris, lucky guy)

The other day I spoke to Cady over the phone. For a couple minutes, she seemed to be really upset about quitting her job as a flight attendant. I’m not kidding, she actually missed slaving away on a flying silver tampon. Her husband, a pilot, had suggested she try teaching when she was ready to go back to work. “But I don’t want to teach,” she sobbed to me. “I want to serve coke!”

Flying, I tell you, is a disease. Once you do it, it’s impossible to quit. And of course Cady’s reaction got me thinking, perhaps Holly’s character should be a stay at home mother who misses flying. Yes, it’s art imitating life. Now why am I telling you this, because there’s been a little bit of drama lately concerning one of the minor characters, the villain, in my book. It’s happened before, and I know it will happen again.