No, I'm not weird. I'm just an author!

"Hello, CL."
After reading through a bunch of conversations on various links I'm a member of, I've come to realize, we're an odd bunch. At least to those around us.
Someone recently asked if our family members and friends think we're weird. That was hard for me to answer. I mean, I've always been weird, writing has nothing to do with it. Come on, I prefer the color black, including in my eyeliner, I dye my hair a different color every couple of months, and I own lizards as pets. One of them is over five feet long, and I refer to him as my baby. While that may seem weird to others, it's completely normal for me. Did I mention I put my big green baby on a leash and take him outside to sun during the summer? Again, completely normal for me. Hey, the baby needs sun sometimes.

I think what people truly think is weird about writers is what comes out of our heads. My current work in progress, for instance, is about a petite red head who just happens to hunt and kill demons. "But, Christy, doesn't that sound a little dark? I mean, why are you thinking about demons?" My answer, I'm not thinking about demons, Tena is. Who's Tena? The red headed demon hunter...duh.

I also tend to talk to my characters, as well as talking about my characters as if they're real people. They do become real, at least to the creators. Ask any author about her/his characters and they'll tell you, once we're done with a book it's like telling an old friend good-bye. It hurts in a way. Seriously, I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Think about it this way...if you worked at a job for, say six months, became close to your coworkers, knew everything about them (and I do mean everything), wouldn't you be sad when you had to walk away, never to talk to them again? Of course you would. That's how it is for us. We're getting to know someone, albeit someone we created, then we kill them/marry them off/end the story, never to look back at their lives again. See, now you're sad, aren't you?

For those of you authors out there, feel free to chime in and explain to the non-authors how very NOT crazy we really are.