I've Got an Idea for MAMA

By Deborah Sharp

You want to know the sweetest words to an author's ear? "Your characters seem so real!''

Okay, maybe the very sweetest words are: ''Your royalty check is in the mail, and boy, is it a big one!''

Still, that first sentence sounds pretty delicious, doesn't it? Since 2008, when my first Mace Bauer Mystery came out, I've been lucky enough to hear from readers who see my characters as real people. They identify with the tomboyish Mace. They'd like to date -- or marry -- her hottie love interest, Carlos. Or, they know someone like the wacky Mama character. Furthermore, that person drives them crazy, just like Mama drives Mace and her two sisters crazy.

This is great because it lets me know my fictional characters have real enough traits that they come alive on the page. The downside? Sometimes the readers know the characters better than I do. That leads to statements like these:
''That was so unlike Mace. Normally she'd never do something like that.'' (Usually the reader is right!)
Or, ''Why is Carlos so jealous in this book? He was never that insecure or jealous before.'' (Right again, and a mistake on my part, looking back.)

The best feeling is when the two different perspectives on the characters line up -- what I've tried to accomplish as an author, and what the reader perceives.
''I like how Mace's bossy older sister seems softer in this book,'' one reader told me.
I beamed, thinking of the effort I put into ''growing'' Maddie's character -- giving the older sister her own developmental arc.

I was thrilled to hear by email the other day from one especially enthusiastic reader. Cathy Katrovitz, of Vero Beach, Fla., has followed the series from the start. She had some fun making up a snippet about running into my characters on a shopping trip. It was my very first experience with ''fan fiction.'' No danger that my series will transform into a fan-fiction-generating machine like Stephenie Meyer's Twilight or J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. Even so, I was flattered by Cathy's effort. Here's an excerpt:

I was in Bernice's Fashion Apparel for Well-Endowed Ladies the other day.  Guess who I saw?  Mace and Mama, would you believe?  Judging from the conversation I overheard, Mama is entering a Senior Pageant, and she needed some new outfits to wear . . . 

Well, Mama had that store turned upside down, what with trying on umpteen outfits, admiring the costume jewelry, and wondering who in the world could wear the shoes that could double as weapons, with their stiletto heels . . . 

Mace looked like she'd had enough of shopping and wanted to get back to her animals.  I hope she didn't take out her frustration later on that hunky guy of hers.  Mama made some reference to him - said he was a "Tony Bandito" look-alike.  Mace corrected her with "That's Antonio Banderas, Mama."  I just smiled and left the store.  I'd forgotten why I went there anyway. 

Cute, right? 

How about you? Do you think of characters in books as real people? Do you wonder how they might behave in a particular situation? 

It's a Long Way to Timaru

By Deborah Sharp

I'm in Timaru, on the South Island of New Zealand, where today is already tomorrow.

Well, actually I'm not in Timaru. My first book is. Some 8,300 miles and many, many time zones from my home in Florida, the Timaru District Library holds a copy of Mama Does Time. This, of course, raises the question of how in the world a library at the other end of the earth came to possess a book about a crazy Southern belle who lands in the slammer when she can't explain a body in the trunk of her turquoise convertible. Someday, I may find out that answer.

But for now, I'm jazzed at the knowledge that Mama is traveling the world. How do I know this, you might ask?

WorldCat.

At the risk of giving my fellow authors yet one more list to obsess about, I'll explain. WorldCat accesses the catalogs of thousands upon thousands of libraries all over the globe. You can go to the site, plug in the title of your book, and find out where it is -- or isn't -- in the collections of more than 70,000 libraries worldwide.

Hence, Timaru: Two hours south of Christchurch, known for Caroline Bay and the annual Rose Festival. And now, of course, for ordering the debut novel of the Mace Bauer Mystery series. I know you won't be able to resist looking for your own books on WorldCat. (FYI: Some of you are in more libraries than I am; some are in fewer. Don't plug in Twilight for comparison, unless you have a case of wine handy.)

Here's the exact web address I used, to get you started:

http://www.worldcat.org/title/mama-does-time/

Of course, being an insecure author, I immediately began to worry. Why did I find Book One but not Book 2 in Timaru? Didn't they like the first one enough to order Mama Rides Shotgun? Did they have trouble deciphering the Southernisms? How would you say "Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit'' in Kiwi?

I was somewhat mollified that the number of libraries holding a Mama novel has risen from Book One to Book Two, even though I haven't (yet!) received that important Library Journal review. I also discovered that Mama Rides Shotgun has made its way all the way north from the cattle belt of Florida to the library in Wasilla, Alaska.

I wonder whether Sarah Palin has a library card? If so, do you think she's had time to check out Shotgun?

All of this does lead somewhere, y'all. Libraries are hugely important to readers, and to writers. They help expose our work to the world. So here's the question: With so many of them struggling, how have you reached out to help a library?