Character Development

I'm starting to get involved with a new project at work and with that comes the meetings and the new people that I'll be associated with. On Friday, I immediately felt as if I recognized one of the participants. I glanced at her occassionally, trying to place her, when it finally hit me.

It wasn't her that I knew, but she reminded me of somebody. The somebody she reminded me of, I finally realized, was Geanie Bowen. I met Geanie a week earlier via another Kansas Citian -- the Kansas Citian that created her.

Geanie Bowen is a character in the book I referenced earlier and finished last week, and the woman in the meeting I attended looked exactly like I had pictured Geanie from the book. The likeness was so profound and my image of Geanie so developed that my mind attempted to associate reality with fiction.

I was careful not to regard Geanie's likeness like I would have the character herself.

It is a testament to the power of imagination and of engrossing writing that one can have an automatic response to someone that isn't even real. She reminded me of someone I know -- someone I know from a good book.