Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I met one of my characters--at the airport

Has this ever happened to you?

I’m sitting at the airport in Dallas on Sunday waiting for my flight to board. I’m reading through Original Sin (for the millionth time—I obsess, I can’t help it) and I hear a male voice behind me say, “Ladies,” in a sweet Texas drawl. I turn around and almost fall out of my chair. No, it isn’t Garth Brooks or Tim McGraw. It’s Dusty.

I know that means absolutely nothing to all of you, but he’s a character out of one of my novels. This guy had longish curly blond hair and blue eyes under a brown cowboy hat. He was beautiful in a rough, cowboy sort of way. He was wearing dark Wranglers with a big silver belt buckle. He might have been twentyish, a few years older than my Dusty, and I gleaned from the conversation between him and the girls sitting behind me that his name was, in fact, Travis, not Dusty, but everything, from the way he looked to the way he talked, and even the things he said, couldn’t have been more Dusty.

I felt all giddy and really wanted to say something, or take his picture or something, but that would look, well…a little crazy, or at best, stalkerish, so I didn’t. But I still really wish I had—maybe a quick cell phone pic on the sly…

So, I closed Original Sin, and opened Dusty Lane, which I’m revising for my truly fabulous agent. Now I’ll obsess over Dusty for a while. =)

So, is it just me, or do you see your characters sometimes?

5 comments:

  1. I haven't yet. At least not in person. My first WIP I saw the picture of an actor and almost jumped out of my seat. The guy looked exactly like my character. Right down to the rough 5 o'clock shadow. (Hugs)Indigo

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  2. Yep. Had it happen at a children's play gym of all places and my eyes kept gravitating towards a guy that looked exactly like my character. I seriously caught my breath when I saw him thinking he came to life. I also felt like a stalker though and tried to just ignore him after that, told myself I was losing my mind. But it was soooo weird!

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  3. Our characters are so real to us, but still, when it turns out they're REALY REAL it's a little freaky. :p

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  4. I bet if you'd said he reminded you of a character in a book and could you take his picture, he would've said, "Sure thing." Cowboys can be polite like that. :D

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  5. haha I LOVE that you saw DUSTY!!!!

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