TRAVEL BUG

    
     I'm hooked on travel. It's a bug, it's a virus, it's something I look forward too. Travel to distant lands, short excursions to a nearby spot, I've somehow missed--museums, parks, city streets, unexpected adventures and meeting with new friends. Traveling has led to articles about places, food and people and short stories when something I've seen or heard about invades my thoughts and won't leave until I find an ending that leaves me satisfied.

     On a wall in my living room are paintings from my travels--one from Pompeii, several from Sydney, Melbourne, NY's Greenwich Village, Florence, Italy, London, Paris, all places I love and can never get enough of. Stirring up images that he;p me in my writing.

What stirs your imagination?

Bests,

Elise

I KNOW THAT CHARACTER

A dear, longtime friend of mine was given an eReader for Christmas. The first ebook she bought was the book on Thomas Jefferson and the second my cozy mystery titled Scene Stealer.

I received a phone call.
FRIEND
I liked your book, I really enjoyed reading it and I know who the characters are.

ME
(Confused)
You do?

FRIEND
Sure. You’re Augusta Weidenmaier. You based the lead character on yourself.

ME
Uhh…no. Miss Weidenmaier is much older than me. I never taught children. She may be loosely, very loosely based on an old character actress I worked with.

FRIEND
C’mon. And what about the actor that does hand commercials? You had that fat tenor we worked with at the beach in mind, didn’t you? I could just see him. It has to be him.

ME
What fat tenor?

FRIEND
You know. What’s his name?

ME
I don’t remember what’s his name. Actually, part of him is a her, based on the ex wife of a dancer who did hand commercials and had her husband do the dishes. And the character is not fat and can’t sing a note and has extremely small feet just like a supervisor I once worked for.

FRIEND
Well don’t tell me I’m not Annalise. I could sing, I could tap and I certainly worked off-off Broadway.

ME
Oh, my God.

FRIEND
Don’t worry—I’m not going to sue you or anything. I like being in your book.
At that moment I thought of a teacher who told us not to worry about the meaning of what we write. “If people like what you write,” he said “they’ll tell you what it means.”


Bests,
Elise

SIDE EFFECT

June 28th was a memorable day in my life. The day when Scene Stealer was launched by Carina Press, I can’t remember what the weather was like but in my mind it must have been sunny, warm and lovely. I expected to receive “Congratulations,” from family and friends and I eagerly and nervously awaited reviews but something I never expected would happen—happened—once a few of the relatives and friends read the book and expressed their secret desire to write. My problem was they wanted to partner up and write with me. How do you tell the people you love and care about that you’re a loner enjoy characters that emerge from my imagination and—in your humble opinion—they should sit down with pen, paper, typewriter or computer and give it a try.

It isn’t easy. One relative continued communicating but I don’t think he finished the book. A friend took my advice but I’ve heard nothing further.

How many of you enjoy a partner? How many are loners like me? How many have friends who suddenly decide to write?

Bests,

Elise

Who?

A friend called this morning. she had been given an eReader for Christmas and was in the middle of reading Scene Stealer. We had worked in musicals together and she asked if a character in one of my chapters was based on a tenor we worked with. "Who?" I asked. I finally remembered the man she was talking about but I guess He hadn't made that much of an impression on me and he wasn't the character. Different height, weight, sexual orientation, outllook--in my mind he was completely different than the personality she imagined. Prhaps that's why when a book is made into a picture, many readers are disappointed.

Writers--have you had an experience like mine?

Bests,

Elise