Originally, I had another post planned for today, but I read a post at another blog and it made me remember all the things my characters have influenced me on. Seriously.
I tweeted last week that it's Kel's fault (the hero from In the Darkest Night) that I listen to Seether. It's his choice in music, but now I'm listening to them. I regularly pick up things my characters say. I seldom used the word crap until I wrote Cai in The Power of Two. That was her word of choice.
It happens with nearly every book, nearly every hero and heroine. I have two Polynesian characters, I'm now listening to Polynesian music and I was so tempted to buy a Tahitian drum even though I have no use for one and no need for it. The hero and his love of New Zealand's All Blacks had me following rugby teams on Twitter. I don't even understand rugby and I didn't know any of the players they were tweeting about.
When I was writing Through a Crimson Veil, the characters made me nocturnal. Both the h/h were half demon/half human and demons are nocturnal. So I couldn't write them in the afternoon. Seriously. I'd sit there spinning my wheels, but at about 8pm, they were firing on all cylinders even while I wanted to go to bed!
I'd like to blame my temporary interest on anthropology in Kendall from Eternal Nights, but I'm not 100% certain on that one since I did have an interest in archaeology when I was a kid. Still, I hadn't given much thought to it until I was working on her book.
The Light Warrior series got me hooked on Scotland. Since I never had any particular interest that direction before (I was more interested in Ireland), I fully put the blame on In the Midnight Hour and In Twilight's Shadow.
Then there was my fascination with glass art that lasted as long as I was working on Edge of Dawn. I guess I'm lucky that the stuff I liked was so expensive, otherwise I'd have things to dust and it's my goal in life to make cleaning as easy as possible, hence I own no dust catchers (like art glass).
I'm no longer surprised when I pick up words, phrases, music, or interests from my characters anymore. What I'm working on now is to identify what's a real interest and what's something that's going to fade when the book's done and released. Buying an album off iTunes isn't too expensive and I'm okay with that, but some of the more expensive things have to be squelched before I give in and buy. Seriously, what would I do with a Tahitian drum?
