Publishing A Book: The Surreal World

Many of my former high school classmates have read BAND GEEK. It's flattering that they're supporting my work, but I think that at least part of their reasons for reading my book are to see if they "recognize" any of my characters.

As I've said before, I did base some characters on real people, though most were a composite of people whom I knew. However, there were a couple of cases where I just out-and-out used a person's name. It's no secret that the character Principal Scott Muller is based on my friend of the same name. It's just a cameo role and I named him after my pal as a little joke; happily, the real Scott is pleased to be "in" the story.

Things got a little weird, though, when I had a discussion with his MOM about my story. I know his family very well and count them among my friends, but still, it felt strange to be talking about Book!Scott with the mother of Real!Scott. She was very encouraging, though, and went out of her way to tell me how much she enjoyed BAND GEEK. I didn't ask her about it or even if she'd read it; she sought me out, which was really sweet. I did ask her what she thought of Book!Scott, though, and she laughed.

I think that most authors name at least a couple of characters after real people in their lives. I'm actually a character in my cousin Barbara's ESL books; she wrote several books that are used to teach English and named her characters after relatives, including me. It's a fun way to give props to the people you care about and who encouraged your writing. I'm just glad that my real-life friends and family -- and their family members! -- like my literary shout-outs.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, just 99 cents!

Greetings From California -- New Twitter Address!

Hello from sunny California! We're having a great time in Los Angeles. The weather is gorgeous and we're missing the "Frankenstorm" Sandy that's barreling toward the East Coast. Seems like we picked a good time to get out of town.

My cousin lives in a beautiful Spanish-style ranch with nice, open rooms. She and her husband have two dogs and an African Gray Parrot -- and the bird and I are roomies! Their guest room also doubles as the room where the parrot's cage is kept, so I got to sleep with the bird last night (not in the bed; he was safe in his cage). When I awoke this morning, the bird was staring right at me.

Last night, I had a couple of odd experiences. First, I was jolted awake when I heard an electronic voice barking at me from beneath the mattress. I thought tht I was going crazy -- or the house was haunted. But when I woke a bit more, I realized that it was one of those toys that says things. I managed to dislodge it and it stopped talking to me, but man, did that freak me out. I then woke again around 4 a.m. and could see a single bright star when I looked out the window. I didn't expect to see any stars in Los Angeles, so this one was super bright. I'm thinking that maybe it was Venus?

Once we were up for real, we spent the day relaxing, reading, writing and puttering around the neighborhood. We're having a barbecue tonight and I'm going to reunite with a couple of my old pals from Soap Opera Digest. I worked with these guys for 14 years so it's going to feel weird seeing them with me no longer working for the magazine. Still, we'll always share a bond because we went through something together that not too many people can understand. Tomorrow, I'm seeing an old childhood friend who is also in the publishing industry. It's cool to be surrounded by so many other writers.

Meanwhile, some exciting news -- I finally set up an official Naomi Rabinowitz Author page on Twitter, so I'm no longer using my jewelry page for book tweets. My handle is simply @NaomiRabinowitz Check in and follow me so you can get news on me and my book!

And you can still get REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD for 99 cents!