Recently, I met a wonderful person. Getting to know her made me want to read her books — because I LOVED her personality! Read this & see if you don’t want to just run out and read her works:

Meeting My Characters Face to Face

I couldn’t believe it! I was out and about minding my own business and suddenly out of the blue there he stood right in front of me—one of the characters from one of my books! Wow! I had no idea that they actually existed—until that moment!

It was a lovely Sunday afternoon. After church services I always go grocery shopping. I was wearing a bright yellow sundress. I pushed my shopping cart through the parking lot to my car and began unloading my bags into the trunk, when a husky voice called to me, “Don’t you look summery today. That’s a very pretty dress you’re wearing.” the man said.

I straightened to peer over the roof of my car. My eyes widened, my jaw dropped open, and a thin gasped escaped me before I could call it back. I couldn’t believe what my eyes were telling me … George Smuts was leaning against a white panel van parked diagonally from my car. He was wearing a white jumpsuit, aviator glasses, a ball cap, and he was cleaning a wrench with a dirty red rag. George was a horrible character from my first book, Deadly.Com. He was terrifying. He was mentally deranged. He found no remorse in killing or torture. My chest tightened. Instantly my throat went dry. I was barely able to mutter out, “T-thank you.”

Quickly I slammed my trunk closed, got in the car, and drove home well over the speed limit, while watching my rear view—not for the police, mind you, but for George Smuts. I was absolutely terrified that he would follow me home. I had created George. I knew what he was capable of, and I certainly didn’t want to be his next victim. Thankfully, he did not follow me. He probably finished cleaning his wrench and went home to watch the football game. Whew!

It was only weeks later when I bumped into another one of my characters, only this time the view was easy on the eyes—Mike West. It was a lazy morning. I had no appointments or set plans for the day, so I decided to take full advantage of the leisure time to wander about the house in my nightgown with a mug of coffee in hand. There was a knock at my door. Dang! I contemplated throwing on some clothes but decided against it.

Carefully, I opened the door just a crack to peek out at the man on the other side. Holy Moses, he was wearing a black tank and camo pants. His arms where sculpted with deep muscles and his hair was a thick nest of one wavy dark lock on top of the other. A character from my Unbridled Series that I work with on a daily basis was standing on my porch—Mike West! He flashed his 1000 megawatt smile at me, and politely informed me that they would be trimming the trees along my driveway, but if I needed out that they would be more than happy to move their big truck for me at any time.

To tell the truth, I’m amazed that I am able to reiterate what the man said to me, because I was so busy staring at him that I wasn’t sure that I actually heard one word the hot hunk had to say. I spent the day at my window watching him bend over, pick up branches, take long swigs of water from his thermos, and more bending over. I got absolutely no writing done what-so-ever all day long.

Okay, these characters are figments of my imagination—they are not real people—or so I thought. Coming face-to-face with George Smuts totally freaked me out, but coming face-to-face with Mike West, was an afternoon of high caloric eye candy. Delicious!

I have been keeping my eyes peeled. One never knows when Eric West will show up or perhaps someday I’ll be questioned by Lieutenant Lugowski—wouldn’t that be a kick?

People are always asking me: are any of your characters based on real people? My answer is always the same: no, they are imaginary. How will I answer that question now, when I know that they are out there…waiting to bump into me?

Reviewers: if you are interested in reading and reviewing my latest book from The Unbridled Series, Dangerous Deception, please contact me at: cindys.mcdonald@gmail.com

For twenty-six years my life whirled around a song and a dance: I was a professional dancer/ choreographer for most of my adult life and never gave much thought to a writing career until 2005. Don’t ask me what happened, but suddenly I felt drawn to my computer to write about things I have experienced (greatly exaggerated upon of course) with my husband’s Thoroughbreds and the happenings at the racetrack.

Surprised? Why didn’t I write about my experiences with dance? Eh, believe it or not life at the racetrack is more…racy. The drama is outrageous—not that dancers don’t know how to create drama, believe me, they do but race trackers just seem to get more down and dirty with it which makes great story telling—great fiction.

Cindy’s networks: www.cindymcwriter.com or