This e-mail has come around a few times but it always makes me laugh.
Dear Ms. Davis ,
I want to be very clear on my child’s illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This drawing is of me selling a shovel.
Mrs. Harrington
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Very fitting with all our recent snow and although I was not a stripper, a main character one in a book I recently submitted used to be one. I had a roommate on Kauai that swore I was a stripper running from my past. Ookay… whatever. I guess I had a better bod than I thought way back when…. 
Anyway, it fit in nicely with the story so I ran with it. Again, I stole a bit of my life, so to speak, and threw it in a story. I find that’s what I’m doing with the one I’m currently writing.
My son’s girlfriend posts a picture of a boxer that her mother is fostering and it needs a home. Bam – my MC goes to pick up a boxer that a coworker is fostering. The smoke detector goes off while we are at a cousin’s house for dinner. Bam – my MC burns her spaghetti sauce and the smoke detector goes off. It’s funny how the little daily things make their way into my stories and give them that little touch that it needed to make it more real. I didn’t even realize until yesterday who my male MC was. He’s handsome, sings, plays guitar and shaves his head. Gee my AW friends… which music mod would that be? I recently made this shirt kind of as a joke, but it’s really true.
Do watch yourself around me. This will be your only warning. 
P.S. When the whole “Rusty” nickname thing first came up, I did tease that it was my former stripper name. Yes, I’m evil that way.
I srsly doubt you’d write a book about a turkey. I think I’m in the clear. *Wait! Don’t shoot!*
many a person and moment have ended up in the things I’ve written. Even the very supernatural current WIP has moments and people I know it in. As writers we’re supposed to observe the world around us…though often I feel more like a circling vulture, waiting to swipe a moment (even from total strangers) for my pages.
That picture is hilarious.
A little while ago I was bitching about my neighbor AGAIN and then it hit me — she’s going to be my MC’s grandmother. Well, not her completely, but all the little imaginary conversations I have where I tell her what I’m thinking — those will become her dialogue. Perhaps that means the g’ma will really be me, but it’s inspired by the neighbor.
So…wait…are you saying that you’d dance on a shovel?
Monkey – no shovel – just lamps
Turkey – your day will come. Have no fear.
Glad to see I’m in good company. I do remember you talking about your neighbor, Hoo. Friday night my BIL said something & I said, “Oh. I am so stealing that!”
It’s true though, all the best stuff comes from day-to-day happenings, and the people we know.
LOL! Love that picture and letter.
OMG, that’s hilarious! How have I never seen that one before?
I’d bet a lot of us do that, put people and events that have struck us into our writing. The fun is when you tell someone they’re in your book but say they’re disguised…and they desperately try to figure out just who, exactly, they are. (Okay, well, it’s fun for ME…)
*waves to Gini*
I did it again with my current WIP & didn’t even realize it. I thought I changed the city ‘to protect the innocent’- whoops. My bad