Meeting Uma

I had a chat with Uma the other day. Each time I drove to the school, she rode shotgun. She wasn’t very talkative the first time around; I suppose she’s upset at me for having ignored her for so long. But later in the day, she was quite chatty. And I learned quite a bit about her. For example, she doesn’t like being “shrinked” and certainly doesn’t like being mocked. She’s a little sensitive to jokes about her past choices. She would probably not like my husband very much, but that’s fine since she’ll never have to meet him. Someday, perhaps he’ll meet her, but even that is doubtful, since he doesn’t like to read.

You see, Uma is a character from my novel. She’s the one I just wrote about revisiting and letting come out of her holding cell. I want to find out more about her. So I decided I would spend some more time with her, not at the grocery store where I won’t be able to focus any attention on her – which would surely piss her off more and make her less likely to tell me anything – but on a car ride where she won’t have to share my attention.

Sounds crazy, I know, but welcome to the mind of a writer (well, this one anyhow).