by Robert Lopresti
My wife and I vacation in Port
Townsend, Washington most years, as I have written before (and before). She spends
most of the week taking music lessons and I spend mine communing with
the muse, or trying to.
But sometimes the best part of a
week off is spending time with old friends. That is certainly true of
this trip. Not only did I see various music buddies, but I also ran into
two writing friends: Elizabeth Ann Scarborough and Clyde Curley.
However, those aren't the friends I want to write about today.
I
first met Leopold Longshanks almost thirty years ago in a coffeeshop in
Montclair, New Jersey. I didn't really meet him there; I just got an
inkling that he existed. It took many years for him to solidify into
enough of a character to write a story about.
I spent
two days on vacation writing a story about Shanks and his wife and had a
great time visiting with them. After a dozen tales, they are like old
pals and it is great to catch up with them, see what trouble they are
getting into.
Then there are Thomas Gray and Delgardo.
They have only appeared in one novella and it is by no means certain
that I can turn them into series characters, but I got 2000 words into a
new piece, and had a lot of fun with them. Since they have had only
one outing I am still trying to figure out what is essential to their
stories and what is, so to speak, accidental.
These
are pleasures you only get by writing about a character more than once.
I was thinking about this recently as I read Janice Law's third story
about Madame Selina in AHMM. As I recall Janice said she had never
talked about reusing a character until I suggested this dishonest but oh
so clever spiritualist needed a return voyage.
So, hwo do you guys feel about revisiting your old friends/enemies?