(Slight change of plans for tomorrow's signing- the Provident Bookstore grand opening has been moved back one week to November 15. All the times are still the same, as far as I know.)
I wanted to send a shout-out to my book club friends and tie in to my odd post title. Book Club met last night and my sweet friends read my newest book this month. So we talked about it and they gushed appropriately for my ego's sake. The hostesses made Indian food and the main hostess wore her Indian shirt.
They were so good to me, and I was really grateful. Also, one of my friends mentioned that she wants to be Isabelle when she grows up. Me too! I love Isabelle. She's all things that are smart and brave and clever. Her flaws and weaknesses only serve to make her that much more wonderful.
When I wrote her in the Civil War series she was little more than a secondary character, a good friend of one of my main characters. It didn't take long, though, for Isabelle Webb to leap to the foreground and there were times I had to hold her back a bit. By the end, she got lots of her own scenes.
So this series is for her. She's so wonderful, and I do say that without guile. This is not an autobiographical book- I only wish it were! But I've come to love this character so much and was so gratified to see that other readers love her too.
So my question for readers is this: have you ever read a character and thought, "Man! I wish I could be her/him!"
My question for writers is this: who's your favorite character you've written to date and why?
Or am I the only writer out there egotistical enough to be totally enamored of one of her own creations? ;-)
4 comments:
Hmm...what if I'm enamoured with almost all of my characters equally? I used to tell people I was a complete weirdo because I fell in love with my characters.
You're so not weird. They become real, don't they? It's funny, but sometimes they become like family or something...
Maybe we're all weird. ;-)
To a certain extent, all of my characters have a part of me to them. Molly (from my Molly Mormon series), for sure, came to be from frustrations I still remember having as an LDS teen.
I'd love to be my latest character, Shayla, because she's half fairy and has magic capabilities.
As for someone else's characters I want to be--I suppose there's a slight fantasy that I could dress up in a huge fancy ball gown, fan my face and say silly things like, "fiddle-dee-dee."
It's very hard not to fall in love with the people in your head--the ones who talk to you and let you know who they are and what their preferences in life are. For example, in the book where I first introduced a character, her name was Jessica. But when I began to tell her story, she insisted on being called Jessie. She even woke me up at night to tell me that.
Even as close as she got to me, my favorite character is a male, James Owen. I've lived with him for a long time. Once when my husband and I were standing in line at a buffet, I gasped, and he looked at me, curious to know what had disturbed me. On the wall was a photograph in a massive frame of a 19th century man.
I said, "That's James!"
Through a couple of miracles, I was able to acquire that photo, and it sits over my fireplace at home.
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