- The Creamy Castle - This novel opens with the main character working in an ice cream shop. When I was sixteen years old I got a job at Baskin Robbins earning minimum wage. Shortly into this job, my manager handed me a key and left me in charge of the store and the other teenage girls who were just a few months younger than I was. Now, I was a fairly responsible teenager, but this did open the door for some interesting experiences. Yes, we did play frisbee with the ice cream lids, we did make a gigantic tip cup, and I did dare one of the other girls to try all 31 flavors of ice cream in under a minute, but I never did anything that would compare to what Brigid does in the opening scene of this book.
- Odd boyfriends - I may have had a boyfriend who told me it was his mission in life to defeat the antichrist. Afterwards, when I acted like this was perfectly normal and told him I was ready to go home, his car broke down and I had to call a friend to come and rescue me. It was frightening. He may be the inspiration for one of the characters in this book.
- Roman Numbers - I had a friend who lived down the street from me. She liked to pretend like she was going over to my house and walk around the neighborhood alone at night. I know, not a very smart thing to do and I didn't realize she was using me in her lie to her parents until she had a run-in with a strange man who chased her down the street to ask her what the roman numbers mean. She ran away and I think his last words to her were "see you later". As far as I know, she is alive and well. Looking back on this event, as a parent, I have to wonder if her mom and dad hired this guy to scare the pants off of her because she never did wander the neighborhood late at night ever again.
Anyway, these bits and pieces of my life have entered into this novel in one way or another, and the rest came from my imagination. Real life is often just as bizarre if not more bizarre than fiction at times.
Get your copy of Rubicon here.
Get your copy of Rubicon here.
