Drinks with Alex

I had drinks with Alex today. (Alex the journalist, not Alex the coffee shop owner.) We met at Garryowen and he asked me a bunch of questions about writing. It was so fun! And legitimately? He's one of the nicest guys ever. Like, Alex is good to his core; you know he's only out to show the best sides of people. If I was only allowed two words to describe him, I would choose "good human," but he's also wicked smart and very funny and insanely kind and an animal lover.

Anyway.

I was answering Alex's questions about writing (because he writes nonfiction and I obviously write fiction), and so while we have much in common, there are clearly things we don't have in common.

One of the topics that was addressed was my characters. He was like, "You obviously know them very well. They live in your head." And so I proceeded to tell him all about how many of my characters are essentially my best friends. To non-writers, that probably sounds like a weird thing to say, but I know these characters so incredibly well. And I love them.

My marketing manager Mary recently asked me if Lucy Campbell (Sebastian's girlfriend) is essentially me. The short answer? No. I mean, Lucy and I have a lot in common -- don't get me wrong -- but she is not the character to whom I relate the most. And this sort of surprised Mary. She just thought maybe I had set it up that I could essentially date Bas via a novel. But the thing is... Bas loves Lucy and Lucy loves Bas and the two of them are meant to be together. And I love them together. It's what needs to be.

Now... that doesn't mean I don't fantasize about which one of my characters I would most like to date. I absolutely do! Take, for example, this text exchange with Mary that occurred earlier this evening:

For the benefit of my students, I would like to first draw attention to the fact that my friends and I also communicate in complete sentences with proper capitalization and punctuation. I know that many of you are fifteen years old and already know everything, but this is how adults communicate. See? I've taught you something new. 😉 And... you're welcome.

Secondly, how great is it that I have so many desirable male characters? I mean, I think there are some desirable female characters as well... but I'll admit that my demographic target is not male. Therefore...

Sebastian. 😍

Bert. 😍

Finn. 😍

Juli. 😍

Jonny. 😍

Petey. 😍

Chet. 😍

Alright. I need to get back to writing. Finn's being totally adorable right now and I've just got to finish that scene!