Happy Holidays to you all!!
Twas the week before Christmas and the blog fest is here
For reasons that really aren't exactly clear
We're writing about how our family deeds
Translate into delicous writing scenes
In other words: How do your family experiences translate into
writing scenes?
In spite of various family members recurring nightmares about being characters in my books, I’ve been pretty easy on most of them. Sure, the odd friend has appeared as a victim or an innocent bystander in my mysteries, but I never portray them as awful people. For the most part, rather than blatantly use one person in my books I tend to mesh two or three people into one character using traits, features, and habits from each in different ways. The writing group in The Bookstore Lady is a great example. No, they are not based on my local writing group aside from bits of various personalities.
Any family or even friend experiences I may use will
definitely be embellished. When book one of my Gilda Wright Mysteries, Dead Without Honor, first came out, there
was an ongoing debate for years as to which of my senseis at the time were the one I modeled Mick Williams after! I
can honestly say none of them. Mick was a combination of many people. Kane
Garrick is also a combination of various.
One of the most fun scenes I’ve ever put into a book was
about a gingerbread house we made one year. While putting it together, the
icing was still too warm and a roof panel slid off and broke. Since perfection
wasn’t going to happen, we put a candy Santa beneath the rubble. The joys of
having three boys!
Our own gingerbread disasters inspired Christina Davidson’s whole catastrophe with building a gingerbread house for Lucy Stephens in The Bakery Lady. Although I can honestly say I’ve never trapped a bowl inside of one but did come darn close!
Becoming a single mom came after I’d written The Mystery Lady, but Lucy was loosely
based on a couple people I knew at the time. Then I became her, which was a
switch. Just like Lucy, life went on and has become better again one step at a
time.
Let’s hop on down the list to find out how the rest of the
Round Robin group’s family experiences translate into writing scenes!
Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-2ue
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com
Rhobin L Courtright http://www.rhobincourtright.com
Hi Diane and Happy Christmas with a healthy New Year to follow. Love the way gingerbread houses feature heavily in your life and fiction. Being a Scot, it's scones and soup in mine. Hadn't realised but, now you point it up, some of my heroes do cook soup... Anne
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas! Ooh, I love a good soup!
DeleteIt is funny how our own experiences can enter our stories (although most often suitably altered). Enjoyed your post, have a great Christmas and New Year.
ReplyDeleteLove the gingerbread house story. I had a similar disaster with one my kids and I created, from scratch, one year but I wasn't nearly as inventive with the solution which is priceless!
ReplyDeleteOh, I think your family will be honored rather than horrified at featuring in your books, even disguised and plaited with others!
ReplyDeleteCan I admit here that my family and I have never made a gingerbread house? Gingerbread boys and girls, but never a house. Our Christmas group activity was painting the edges and veins of holly and ivy leaves silver. Time consuming but effective, even more so if the holly had berries on it. Hm. Maybe that might work its way into a Christmas story some time.
ReplyDeleteDiane, I adore gingerbread! I bake cakes, cookies, and other desserts. What a wonderful idea to feature a gingerbread story in your book. I believe family members are always to be featured in a cameo role :-).
ReplyDelete