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March 4 question – Other than the obvious holiday traditions, have you ever included any personal or family traditions/customs in your stories?

The awesome co-hosts for the March 4 posting of the IWSG are Jacqui Murray, Lisa Buie-Collard, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and Shannon Lawrence!

Private Holidays and Personal Traditions

Private holidays? I’m not really sure I have any that would be worth adding to a book. There are certainly private remembrances, but in terms of parties? Well, I suppose there are some small-interest group holidays that might be fun to put into a book. Not that I’ve actually done it.

I don’t really have a lot of holidays in my stories. Not recognizable, human holidays, anyway. There’s no Christmas on Mars, Hanukkah on Jupiter, Trick-or-Treats on a spaceship type thing. No. I make up the holidays I think my characters need. The ones that the story needs. Sometimes, they’re holidays I think the planet Earth needs, or holidays that I’m shocked are missing from real-life.

I have a festival of immigrants in the story I just finished revising. It was something the book needed, but the more time I spend thinking about it… isn’t it weird that we don’t have that kind of thing in real life? Something where a society of immigrants just gets together and celebrates the more-ness of each new arrival. It would be one hell of a party. Imagine the food.

Sometimes, birthdays work their way into my rough drafts, either as holidays celebrating an attribute of the person whose birthday it is, or just as a character’s birthday. When is my character’s birthday? Same as my Aunt Thelma’s. Of course, by the time I’m done revising, December will probably be “Second Snows” or something like that. No need to share some poor sucker’s personally identifiable information in my (almost certainly bestselling) novel. But it does help keep the timeline straight.

Insecurities of the Month

I just finished revising my manuscript (again), so I’m gearing up to start submitting to literary agents (again.) My current irrational fear is appearance. Maybe I should get a haircut. And a new set of glasses. And a new wardrobe… and uhm… a body double or something? What is my most marketable color? Would I look more literary, if I got something waxed?

Oh, yes. And I’ve volunteered to host IWSG for the first time, and I’m terrified. Promise not to be disappointed?

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