My dog and my mother-in-law. . .

. . .affect the cars I buy.  I used to have a really great convertible, but my mother-in-law, a very nice woman still capable of making cutting remarks, dropped loud hints that she didn't enjoy riding in a convertible, even though we let her ride up front.  So when I got a new car, it was a big, 4-door Pontiac Grand Prix, with a large backseat and a solid roof covering everything.  I liked the car, so I guess it was for me and my mother-in-law.  

     I've now had Grand Prix for more than 7 years and almost 120,000 miles; therefore, it's time to shop for a new one.  I could buy a convertible now, because Linda drives an SUV that we can chauffeur her mom around in.  In fact, I looked at a neat Beetle convertible the other day, but there was a problem.  Our dog Lucy, as is the norm with our dogs, is my traveling companion, and Lucy likes to sit on a couple of pillows jammed down onto the floor in the middle of the back seat.  Then, she puts her front paws and the front half of her body through the opening between the front seats.  She rests her paws on the console and her head, often, on my shoulder.  The problem with the Beetle?  Well, Lucy suffers from yellow lab disease.  She's really chunky.  There's no way she could fit her rotund body between the front seats of a Beetle.  If she couldn't sit as she always has, her canine heart would be broken.  So a Beetle is out, and my search continues.

     What does this have to do with my writing?  Simply, cars are important in the stories I tell.  I try to be cognizant of pop culture in my writings, and the cars I give to my characters tend to reflect their personalities.  In TISHA AND THE GIANT, Tisha drives a 4 year old Camry that used to belong to her absent mom and which she has named 'Kevin,' while the villain drives a wrecked old Chevy Lumina that the Giant nicknames the "Lumpmobile."  In MAGGIE AND THE GHOSTIES, dependable, stalwart Maggie drives a dependable, stalwart Jeep Cherokee.   In THEIR VERY DIFFERENT AUTUMN, James Dean wannabe Eddie Kilgore dreams of driving an early 80's vintage Camaro Z-28.  I hope that the next car I choose will be the proper representation of my personality as they represent my characters' personalities.

     Note:  I discovered in my cleaning, a pristine copy of THE LAUGHING MAN.  Tomorrow, I plan on sending it to a publisher.