Reflections of the Writer

Thought for the day: One fun thing about being an author: if someone does you dirty in real life, you can turn him into a character in your book and do with him what you will. [Me... not that I'd ever do such a cruel and heartless thing...]

As you can probably tell by that nifty badge on the left, it's that time again.Time for our monthly IWSG posts. As always, thanks to our fearless leader, Alex Cavanaugh, for founding this fine group, and
 thanks to all the other nurturing guys and gals who've helped turn it into the thriving community it is today. To join this super supportive group of writers and to see links to other participating blogs, please go HERE

Okay, so I'd love to say I've churned out twenty thousand or so fantabulous heart-wrenching words on my WIP since last we met, but that'd be a big fat lie. I haven't. I'm pretty sure my mind is still in vacation mode, but on the plus side, I've been editing an excellent book for another writer, so at least I'm doing something writerly. (ish)

Without further chatter, let's move on to this month's question, shall we?

What personal traits have you written into your characters? 

Moi? Insert myself into a story?

Would I do such a thing?

Of course I would! And I think most other writers would have to admit to doing the same thing to a certain extent. After all, those characters are our babies, so doesn't it stand to reason that they'd share a bit of our DNA?

I'm most guilty of doing this in my first novel, Hot Flashes and Cold Lemonade, where bits of my personality are scattered as liberally as salt in a bowl of popcorn. (Goes well with lemonade, dontcha think?)

Okay, you want details. The main character Pearl has more of me in her than any of the other characters. She's a bend-over-backwards people-pleaser who's a tad naive and gullible to a fault. But she loves fiercely, laughs easily, and always looks for the silver lining. Her mother Ida has my somewhat irreverent sense of humor and firmly believes that no matter what the situation, there's always something funny to be found in it. Alas, she's much more independent and assertive than I am.  A lot more stubborn, too. The only other character with a teensy bit of me in her is Rose. She and I both tend to be exuberant cooks with an inordinate knack for turning the kitchen into a veritable disaster area.

That's about it. For me, that is. Smarticus identified so much with Pearl's husband George, while he was reading the book, he said, "Hey! I never did that!" [George may or may not have a lot in common with my hubby.]

My second novel doesn't contain much, if any, of me at all. Initially, Samantha was going to be a conduit for telling about some bad stuff from my childhood, but I chickened out. Nobody wants to read that kinda stuff... and it was tearing me up to write about it. So I kinda let the characters take over and tell the story THEY wanted to tell. (Which ended up surprising me as much as it surprised my readers.)

It's hard to believe, but tomorrow is the 4th of July. Independence Day. (Where HAS this year gone?) Smarticus and I will be going to our small town festival (kinda like a big block part) and fireworks tonight. Pearl and I may not care for the noise and smoke, but he loves it, so we'll be grabbing our bug repellent (or in my case, finishing sauce... mosquitoes seem to love the way it enhances the taste of my blood!) and lawn chairs and heading that-a-way when the heat of the day loses some of its sizzle.

To all of you folks in the U.S.,  I hope you have a bang-up day tomorrow. The rest of you guys? You have a great one, too, okay?

                         Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.