Have you ever fallen "in love" with a car? I was certainly crazy about my first one (yes, that's me on the left), but I've also adored cars that have been used as characters in books, tv, and the movies. If you're as old as I am, you may remember Bo and Luke Duke's General Lee, the red and white grand Torino of Starsky & Hutch, the talkative KITT from Knight Rider, or Magnum's Ferrari. To this day I remember Nancy Drew and George driving around in that convertible, two adventurous girls stirring up mysteries to be solved. Cars can serve as character, symbol, or metaphor. All we have to do is recall the iconic last shot of Thelma and Louise to know that.In my next book, House of Secrets, which comes out in April, my heroine June has an unbreakable attachment to her car, a 1968 Corvette Roadster.
She's a widow, and the car was a favored gift from her late husband. In the book, it's part character/part symbol of June's inability to move on with her life. When the car becomes part of the suspense, she has to make some difficult choices. I think her struggle will be familiar to anyone who's had to make a hard change in her life.
But all is not somber for June. She's my feistiest heroine ever; so much, in fact, that the editors had me tone her back a bit. She's funny, honest, outspoken, straightforward and down-to-earth. She hates liars, so, of course, I pit her against one of the slickest, most manipulative sociopaths I've ever written. Two of them...
I loved that Corvette Roadster. But I also love the bright orange Pontiac GTO I use in the next book...
So...do you have a favorite car you'd love to get in and head out to find trouble?
9 comments:
I had a 1972 gold camaro when I was in high school. It had a V-8 engine. Boy, I loved that car.
Now, I have a blue mini-van with legos on the floorboards and handprints on the windows. Boy, I love that kid.
My first car was a candy-apple red 1978 mustang. Been driving 'practical' cars ever since. Still miss that little 'stang though...
Connie,
So glad you stopped by. I love how you think of it as your 'stang.
Well you won't believe it, but I LOVE the first car I ever bought, and I still drive it! It's a twenty something year old Toyota and it runs like a top. I know it's not a collectible, but I paid every penny on my own and that car has paid me back with interest!
My car of choice has always been the 1968 Camaro convertible. LOVE that car. Okay, I can do the Firebird too if I had to. But my soft spot is the Camaro.
OMG@@!! Fabulous car.
My first love was a 1968 GTO convertible. WHITE!
Your book sounds wonderful as well.
I love the cover, and I loved Magnum. But I was too poor to even drive. I grew up to be too practical to yearn for anything but the basic cars.
And now my little put-put's in our driveway reflect that.
I can't wait for this book! You keep tempting me with tidbits!!
Ken the hubby just bought his mid-life crisis car in lieu of bothering to actually have the crisis. It is a Miata roadster convertible. And , yes, it is red. Such a cliche. Yesterday we went down to Charlotte and since the weather was sunny and in the high sixties for the first time in months, we put down the top and tooled around. He chortled...my hand on my heart, he chortled.
And he posted pictures of us in the car with the top down to all his Boston kin trying to dig out from under a blessed YARD of snow this weekend. And he chortled over that too.
OF course, if he is a middle aged Jewish balding man, who has to ease into his red red roadster with the aid of baby powder, I get to be the blonde shiksha trophy wife...HEY!!! Now that's a cliche I can live with!!!
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