Meeting the Real Jack Diamond

Meeting the Real Jack Diamond

When I first starting writing my murder mystery manuscript (nice alliteration, yes?), my husband came up with the name of Jack Diamond for the main character.  I've talked about all of this before at some point on this blog (perhaps try visiting here:  Dreams and Husbands).  He borrowed the name from a good friend of his named, obviously, Jack Diamond.

I finished the manuscript a while ago, and have recently started seeking representation while I begin plotting out Jack Diamond's next adventures.

A few months ago I attended one of my husband's rare work events, and my hubby casually mentioned, "Hey look!  There's Jack.  Want to go say hi?"

And I swear to God a wave of giddiness washed over me and I turned into a teenaged crazed idol-hunter.  Squee! I grinned like a fool and darted my eyes around, trying to spy him in the crowd.  My heart racing, my grin growing ever more expansive by the minute, I pulled my hubby across the room with me, so we could go meet him.  I felt just like the little kids at Christmas, dragging their parents (who didn't mind at all), to go meet Santa so they could ask for lovely Christmas presents.  Squee!

To me, it felt as if I was meeting THE Jack Diamond. MY Jack Diamond.  I couldn't wait to meet him in person.  I wanted to see if his black hair curled just so, like it did in my head.  I couldn't wait to see the dimple in his cheek.  I wanted to make him smile, to hear him laugh.  I longed to see that wonderful sparkle in his eye.  I wanted him to be as excited to meet me as I was to meet him.  I wanted to give him a hug to comfort him for all that he'd been through as a child.  I wanted to ask about his brother and find out how Nick,  his partner, was healing.  And yes, I wanted to see his incredible physique -- because yes, I'm that shallow.

It wasn't until we were half way across the room that I realized two things.  (1) I had no idea what the real Jack Diamond looked like, so this whole dragging my husband around the room thing was truly futile.  Then, as that harsh reality sank in, I slowly began to realize that (b) I wasn't actually going to meet MY Jack Diamond.   I had actually crossed over some invisible line from reality to crazy land, thinking that I was going to meet MY Jack Diamond in person.  He is so real to me in my head.  I can watch his dreams, and see the sweat pouring over his brow when he dreams of his father.  I can feel his heartbeat quicken as he sees Claire walk into a room.  I can feel his smile soften when his GranNini walks into a room.  He is so very real to me, and yet he's all made up.  Completely fictional.  Absolutely and thoroughly not really there.

So I slowed down my pace, and reset my expectations, and allowed a wee bit of a whimper to escape my lips when I realized Jack's not really real.  Sigh.  By the time I met the real Jack Diamond, whose name I stole (with permission) for my very own Jack Diamond, I had my brain screwed back on straight.  I was so very honored to meet him.  So tickled to confirm that he was still okay with my using his name.  He hasn't started reading my manuscript yet (I thought he might like to see the shenanigans his namesake is up to).  But he let me take my picture with him.

In person, the named Jack Diamond looks nothing like my Jack Diamond.  But his heart is still in the right place.  And I will forever be grateful for his allowing me to use his name.  

I was going to post a lovely picture of the two of us here:

BUT, I've managed to lose the darned photo in my digital hoarding photo files.  Ugh.  If I find it, I'll post it. And you can see what the REAL Jack Diamond looks like.  AND, once you read my fabulous book, you can compare it to what MY Jack Diamond looks like. :)  They're truly both wonderful, wonderful men.  And as for my Jack?  I can't wait for you to meet him.

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So Whilst We're at Dinner...

So Whilst We Were At Dinner...

Dinner at our house has always been an amusing affair.  That is, when we're actually eating at the dining room table as opposed to, oh, say, stuffing our faces while sitting on the couches, balancing plates on our laps and watching random Sci-Fi television programs.  Netflix Marathons are a commonality in our house, and we tend to binge on an entire series, and mourn the loss when we finally hit the series finale.  But that's a bit beside the point.

During the school year, during the school week, we try to refrain from Netflix Marathons until the weekends; and we generally, for the most part, try to eat dinner at the dining room table.  Breakfasts and lunches are eaten around the kitchen table, more often than not with one or more of us missing.  I'm not quite sure exactly why dinner is such the amusing experience, as opposed to our other meals.  But I'm guessing it has to do with the four of us being all together.  (Only on very, very rare occasions do the five of us eat together, but we seem to have just as much fun when we're all five, as opposed to just the four of us.)  Needless to say, dinner conversations at our house bring about much laughter.

Keeping that in mind, we, the four of us, (are we a gaggle? a pride? a herd?) have decided that many of the topics of conversation randomly approached at one point or another during the dinner conversation would make splendid blog topics for the future.

That said, I thought I would take a moment to preview a few of these topics here, lest I forget.

So here they are:  topics that have come up whilst we were at dinner, that I shall eventually, perhaps, turn into blog posts:

Bubba, The Sea Fern

The Ghost of Christmas Gallbladder

Hands in Unusual Places

Caution Ahead Ahead!

Gastroeconomics

So there's this octopus in Scotland...

The word for microwave in Icelandic is popty ping
(Actually, the Icelandic word for microwave is: örbylgjuofn; And from what I can tell, I believe it's the Welsh word for microwave that's popty ping. But I'll leave that up for the blog entry.)

Why would you oil the emus?

Abby and Little Mermaid?

So is it just me, or does Abby (Britney Spears) from How I Met Your Mother look a bit like the Little Mermaid wearing glasses?

 "When people yell at me, I have the tendency to start crying."

Just curious...

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Thank you to http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m32kfcS4mq1qmm3hho1_500.gif for the Abby photo.  And thank you to http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicaprobus/super-hard-disney-quiz#495ro6w for the Little Mermaid pic.