Or maybe it’s three lives? Writing is one of my existences. Teaching is the other, and the one that pays the bills. But we writers also have another life: the one (or ones) that we lead in our minds.
When I have characters dancing through my head, nine times out of ten it’s Nikk and Em’rald from my the third book in my Girls of Glam Rock Series, Live Vicariously Through Me.
When I created them, I set out to mold the ultimate rock and roll couple, and to drop them into the decadent world of 1980s hair metal. Nikk: dark, brooding, devastatingly handsome. Oh, and talented. Em’rald: a model-perfect man magnet, but a one man woman. Together, a tour de force that just won’t leave me alone! When I need a break from reality, Nikk and Em’rald come a-calling, and I live their lives for a while.
Weird? Truth be told, I love my real life. It’s nothing like the characters I write about, so when I’m living in my head I get to experience a different kind of life, one that I may not even be interested in living in reality. And on a more basic level, creating scenes in my mind helps me to later put them in writing. It’s a win-win situation.
All my characters make me think, and make me smile. But Nikk and Em’rald are my go-to guy and girl when the going gets tough.
Ahh, to live so many lives!
I Am Barb Lee 