Life Imitates Art – Pt. I

Life imitates art, right? That’s how it’s supposed to happen, but boy, when it does, it really creeps me out. I don’t think of myself as a predictor of the future. I simply create stories that are both realistic and incredible. The following are examples of when my writing actually came true and definitely contains spoilers, so if you have not read my books and DO NOT want to be spoiled, then stop now and turn to another article of mine…. here’s a good one for you, it’s one of my favorites: As the Ornaments Turn

If you proceed, you do so at your own risk. I don’t want comments saying I wrecked my stories for you.

The summer of 2014, I was researching for Falling for Freedom and contacted an EMT friend of mine, Doreen Sullivan, to create a fatal car crash. I needed the driver to live and the passenger to die. The driver was a male and husband to woman in the next seat over.  This crash was vital to my story and I needed it to be specific. Doreen and I worked out that they had to be in a small car, the sunroof needed to be open, her seatbelt had to be undone and he had to be secure.

A few months later, Doreen called me shocked as hell, freaking out over an accident she heard on the news.

The driver and passenger of the car that veered across the median, identified as Timothy Sotis of New Haven and Jacqueline Denning of East Hartford, sustained serious injuries. Sotis had to be extricated, and Denning was ejected from the vehicle. 

In the first crash, reported at 6:49 p.m., a Hyundai Elantra, headed east on I-84 veered off the road, shot through grassy center median and became airborne, then struck an Audi S4 Quattro traveling west near Exit 40 in West Hartford, police said. The crash caused a chain reaction that involved three other vehicles. –Hartford Currant

Luckily, none of these people died, but they wrecked just like the people in my book. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that at all. Sorry people of Connecticut if I predicted your car crash.

My second story happened only five days ago. Falling for Sacrifice ends on a very happy note, with Evan proposing to Isabel instead of giving a thank you speech at the Academy Awards, and he does so with her mother’s ring.

Much like in the case with Doreen, my friend Ann-Marie Zammit, who helped edit my lovely work of art, texted me on Sunday night frantic over whether I was watching the Emmy’s or not. When I said, No, she said I had to watch right now, because the end of my book was coming true right on live tv.

I ran downstairs and sped through the DVR to get to the proper place to see Glenn (which is also the name and spelling of Evan’s father in FFSac) Weiss say in his speech, “Jan, the reason why I don’t want to call you my girlfriend, is because I want to call you my wife.”

The audience erupts, the girlfriend is crying, and when she is brought to the stage, Glenn kneels and with his mother’s ring that stayed on her finger for 67 years of marriage, he proposes to his girlfriend. It was incredible.  I had chills. Annie is blowing my phone up with texts. It was amazing! Just watch…

Lastly, and this is actually just an added bonus. Everyone knows I love Once Upon A Time, and most of you know that I based my character Rhys Hannel on actor Colin O’Donoghue. Rhys is a driven stockbroker or investment banker, if you will, who dates high-classed women, drinks fine scotch, and drives a Maclaren of all things. He’s raucous and cunning, and his company unfortunately is taken down by insider trading.

Well, being the diligent author/fangirl that I am, I sent Colin a copy of Falling for Phoenix. I don’t know if he read it, or passed it along, or gave it to his wife… who knows. But about a month after I sent it to him, one little comment popped up in his convention panel in Denver, CO, that made me wonder if he had read my book. Colin was asked, if Captain Hook was cursed in season one (which he wasn’t — he didn’t arrive in Storybrooke until season two and he wasn’t cursed, so no cursed persona) what job would his cursed persona have?

In the past, Colin has answered this question from anything from a plumber and a car mechanic, to a fish and chips restaurant owner. Always something blue collar and using his skills as a working man. But this one panel, he said something very different… he said an investment banker. Yeah, I died. I remember I was munching on some popcorn watching the panel and choked on my kernels. It’s not really the same thing as the other two stories, but it’s still really cool!

 

 

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Have you ever had a story come true? Tell me about it in the comments.