Everyone wants to be in a book...until they are!

Good afternoon!

I should be getting my 50 pages of "Lies in Chance" ready for the agent that requested them. And I will, but that's on the docket for tomorrow. It's already 1:30 here and I'm exhausted from two full days of field trips involving stairs. And tonight I'm supposed to go for a big long hike before "Biggest Loser" comes on? When was I drinking hard enough to agree to that?

Anyway, Sunday was the last Sunday School lesson I'm teaching until fall. (We have our party next week.) I thought, since I'd spent so much time hearing about branding at the WisRWA conference, that I'd tie the topic in for the outgoing 8th graders. You know, how your present, or brand yourself to the world and how that reflects on your faith...okay, it sounded really good in my head early Sunday morning when I didn't have anything else ready.

Of course the discussion went off course, because that's what 7th and 8th graders do to you, and we wound up talking about my book. They all want to read "Dream" which I've told them they can't do because it's really not appropriate for them to read. Well, that and I'm not comfortable with my Sunday School students knowing what my sexual fantasies are...oh wait, Ramona isn't me...right....

We talked a bit about things I'm currently writing and one of these cherubic savants suggested I write a book about my Sunday School class. There was much chatter then about plot and who would be in it and what story I would tell. I stepped back and listened, and inwardly smiled. See, everyone wants to be a character in someones book...until they are.

I remember writing stories back in high school. I wrote between classes, I wrote during classes (The teachers thought I was taking notes, my parents thought I was a B student. Truth is, I never paid attention. Had I done so I probably would have been the valedictorian.) I wrote after school. I was never without a notebook. Some kids, when they weren't trying to torment me, would ask what I was doing. (The only thing more strange in my high school than a person READING a book was someone WRITING one.) When I was an idiot and told them, they'd always ask what I was writing about them. And when I was an idiot and told them, they'd drag me by my hair down the hallway or stack my locker, or throw my book bag in the boys locker room.

And, of course, you already know that my high school bully is named in "Dream." She has a copy of it now...I wonder how that's going...

Yeah, everyone wants to be in a book, until they are.

So my writing friends, beware! Beware of people telling you they want to be in your book. Chances are, these are the people who don't want you to put THEM in your book, but rather some flattering fictional version of them. Writers draw from truth based on their perception of things. Readers like reality, but only if it's about someone else.

So keep writing. Just remember to change the names and ADMIT NOTHING!

:)

Revenge is a dish best served in literature.

Good morning!

It's Monday of RICK WEEK here. I'm headed to Potowatami Bingo and Casino in Milwaukee on Friday with my friend Dawn to rock out to Rick Springfield. I'm hoping to meet some of my virtual Facebook friends there as well, so all in all, it's going to be a fun time...if I can just get to Friday!

Speaking of Facebook, I got an astounding message over the weekend from my high school nemesis. I won't mention this person's name...or even gender, because it's not really important. In three years of high school, this person took GREAT delight in making my life miserable. This person (Okay, I'm starting to sound like someone giving their vote on Biggest Loser, I know.) shoved me down a flight of stairs, wrecking my favorite Bobbi Brooks jeans in the process. This person dragged me down the hallways by my hair more than once (Probably why I tend to favor short hair now.) This person generally spent three years tormenting me physically.

Yet, through the magic of Facebook, this person and I are now friends.

So the message from this person involved a request for a signed copy of "Dream in Color." I told my dad this. (My father was the most hated teacher at my high school...my nemesis especially hated him.) He suggested all sorts of great, evil inscriptions I could write down. We had great time, thinking about how to finally exact some sort of literary revenge. But, ultimately, we decided it would be best to just write something nice in there and be done with it.

And then I realized that I've already exacted my revenge in the book.

Yep, this person is mentioned, almost by name, as a person who tormented Ramona in grade school and high school. It's a small blip in the whole picture of the plot, and I'd actually forgotten about it until this person requested a copy. It never in a billion years occurred to me that anyone from my high school would read it. Mostly because, well, let's just say the idea of reading a whole book wasn't exactly something that was DONE in my high school. (Hence the torment.)

I think we all have that one person that humiliated us during those tender high school years. If you can't bring up your bully's name, then, I'm sorry to say, you were probably the bully. (My guess is, if you're a writer and you're reading this, you were never a bully.)

Writers draw from their own experiences. "Write what you know" is often pounded into our brains. Yet, if that were what writers did, there would be no fantasy books, there would be no dark romances involving vampires, and there would be very few murder mysteries. And the world would be a sad place, indeed. But, no matter how much fiction is in our fiction, there's always a large grain of truth in the stories we tell.

In my case, in "Dream in Color," I hearken back to my bully. Briefly, but it's there. And now my bully wants a copy of the book.

Wonder if my bully will get it?

Hmmmmm.....

Meanwhile, the countdown to Rick continues and I'm looking forward to that!

Have a great Monday all!