The Laughing Rule

There are a few moments and phrases that reoccur in the books.

A biggie, at least for me? The characters have to laugh together at some point in every book. Having the friends trade zingers is one thing but seeing people lose it together is a thing I personally love, in real life and in fiction.

Call it The Laughing Rule.

Monty, Gomery, and Fair laugh, if not together, then at the same time in "Wilfair" when Fair stands at her bedroom window and sees Gomery looking up at her. She then does something dorky that sends him into a small fit.

The group-laugh in "Redwoodian" comes when Sutton talks about Prior Yates and his devotion to products that bear his name and/or likeness. She's trying to keep quiet because she'll wake people but she ends up crying with giggles into Fair's shoulder.

Fair has not yet heard Gomery's big laugh.

House Guests

I've enjoyed hosting some guests over the weekend. It got me thinking about the kind of hosts the people of Wilfair might be. Without further ado (and because I hear my guests waking up)...

Fair Finley: She'd probably give her visiting friend or relative the hotel room next to hers, the better to keep an eye on them. I don't think she's a smotherer but I do sense she'd "Are you having a good time?" and "Can I get you anything?"-them half-silly. There is an exception to this and it comes halfway through "Redwoodian," when she daydreams that a particular neighbor of hers could rest in her room for a few days while she stays in another hotel room. Oh, and when Sutton spends the night at the hotel, she of course stays with Fair. When they were younger they probably tried out different rooms around The Wilfair Hotel but now they stick to Fair's bedroom. It's closer to the kitchen inside the Finleys' suite. And Fair has to keep an eye on her brothers.

Sutton Von Hunt: Sutton would drag out-of-towners to her workplace, Farmers Market, since it is a real tourist destination, and tell them that she has to work and they have to entertain themselves. If she and Grandma were particularly strapped for help she'd probably make her guests don aprons and chop bananas. Would she grumble about their banana-chopping-style the whole time? Yes.

Monty and Gomery Overbove: They don't have a big family, but they do have a motel, so if an old school friend needs a room, or some of Monty's movie pals want to crash for the night, it isn't a problem. Gomery is the guest's morning host and Monty is around to hang later at night.

Prior Yates: The movie star loans out his various mansions to relatives and chums for a week at a time. But it always hurts his feelings if he doesn't get a thank you card. It's real Rude City, in his book.

Thurs Mathers: He can put up anybody at any of his 100 hotels. But he always invites people to stay with him and his aunts inside the Mathers Family manor, which is a former crystal factory. No one ever says yes, since they'd rather stay in a swanky hotel. Thurs shakes this off and doesn't take it to heart. Much.

Breakfast

Hotels and  motels, like hospitals, airports, and police stations, are 24-hour places.

Meaning the people who live and work there are probably up early, whether they want to be or not. So how do the characters of "Wilfair" fuel up for the day?

Fair Finley: Fair eats frosting for breakfast as mentioned in "Wilfair." She often samples the wedding cakes in her hotel's kitchen, just to make sure they are perfect for her bride clients. She's not against toast, either; she and Gomery Overbove of the Motel Fairwil eat toast together in the motel's diner (cherry jam for Fair, which Gomery opts for, too). She wants to be healthier, though, since sometimes her vintage gowns feel a bit snug around the backside. There may be more oatmeal and hot grains in Fair's immediate future.

Sutton Von Hunt: Sutton doesn't only work in fruit crafts; she loves her work, literally. She's the biggest fruit eater in the books, but she doesn't eat fruit like the rest of us; she'd probably guffaw at seeing someone consuming an apple in the traditional way. She'll stack weird fruits on top of each other or bake blueberries or stuff banana slices inside strawberries or make a meal solely out of fruit grown on trees. Her mind is easily bored and craves challenges. Sutton also works at a famous public market -- Farmers Market -- so the occasional waffle or crepe tempts her.

Monty Overbove: Monty has a lot of movie meetings with his friends. They want to make films so they meet at places like the Mmm Mmm Café late at night to discuss logistics and how to raise the money. He'll eat half of a chef's salad or turkey sandwich at midnight, take the other half home, and finish it when he wakes up. Monty is more of a night person than morning, so his cousin sometimes has to bang on the door to Room 126 to wake him. Monty usually opens the door wearing an apologetic smile and not much else; I picture him already holding the other half to his turkey sandwich, too. He also, as mentioned, likes the crepes of Farmers Market, but not for breakfast. Those are an afternoon snack. Monty is built like a popcorn box and has the best metabolism in the books. Sandwiches at midnight? Crepes in the day? No problem.

Gomery Overbove: After turning the lights on in the diner, making the motel's complimentary lobby coffee, scooping a few bugs out of the pool, and turning off the Motel Fairwil's neon sign, Gomery pours a bowl of generic brand shredded wheat. He'll eat it at the front desk, leaning on his elbows, tie folded on itself on the flat surface. If a guest walks into the lobby he puts the bowl to one side; when he returns to it the wheat is soggy, but he finishes it. His bowl of cereal is probably one of the only non-busy parts of his day; let's call it Montgomery #1's daydreaming time. He's thinking about fanciful scientific concepts while watching pajama-wearing guests open their curtains and stretch over at The Wilfair. He's seen Fair open her curtains a thousand times.

Prior Yates: Craft Services, the people who make all the meals on a film set, cook all of the movie star's breakfasts. There are egg whites on his plate and there is wheat germ and there is skim milk in his espresso and there are all the ingredients needed to keep one of the most famous men in the world looking fit and buff. But Prior misses a big traditional English breakfast. He loves butter and all the extras. His mum always makes him one when he goes home. Don't tell his trainer or his nutritionist.

Thurs Mathers: The mega hotel heir tries out a different breakfast restaurant most mornings of the week, since he owns a bunch of hotels. He always wants to see what's new on the menus and make suggestions if something isn't quite working. Sometimes the World's Sexiest Aunts are in his company, but he eats alone a lot. He'd say this is good, the better to spread out all of this papers and work across the table, but I think he might be fibbing.

© Gjs | Dreamstime.com

PS Post inspiration: Erika's recent cars question. Thanks again, Erika! More questions like this to come (Bess has a few, too).

Cars

Erika -- hi Erika! -- recently asked about characters and their cars. It's a fun question, so...

Fair Finley: The hotel heiress doesn't own a car. She probably uses her parents' car when they're away checking on their other hotels. That car is a late-model luxury sedan, probably not the nicest thing on the market but posh. The Wilfair Hotel also owns a few fancy limos and town cars for ferrying guests to and from the airport. If she needs a lift she could ask a bellman to drive her, although she'd probably be embarrassed to do so, unless it was an emergency. She does state in "Wilfair" she rarely leaves the hotel. When she does she can go on foot, since The Wilfair is in a very walkable area. Fair likes to stroll over to visit Sutton at Farmers Market. She also doesn't hate swinging by the Motel Fairwil to complain about something the motel is doing, especially if she gets to complain to Monty or Gomery.

Monty and Gomery Overbove: They share the Motel Fairwil van, a vehicle that's also used for ferrying guests to and from the airport. Sometimes this creates conflict if they need it at the same time, but they work it out; the cousins rarely argue. They save their disagreements for important matters, not trivial. The van is pretty old and banged-up but Monty is attached to it.

Sutton Von Hunt: Sutton drives a boxy, old-school Volvo, no A/C. She doesn't have to drive far; the duplex apartment she shares with Grandma, and her mom (when her mom is in town), is walking distance to The Wilfair, Sutton's high school, and Farmers Market, where she works. Sutton sparkles cupcakes puppies loves her car.

Prior Yates: Whatever kind of car Prior wants, Prior buys. Probably in multiple colors.

Thurs Mathers: Thurs, that kid with 100 hotels, makes his "Wilfair" debut in his family's two-toned stretch car. I see all the Mathers riding around in swank, two-toned cars from like an old-fashioned Agatha Christie-type movie. He and the World's Sexiest Aunts are driven everywhere.

Wil and Bo Finley: They use bellcarts to get around, much to their older sister's consternation.

© Li Fang | Dreamstime.com

How Monty and Gomery Look

Fair Finley's description of her neighbors Monty and Gomery Overbove, direct from WILFAIR.

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           The Overboves looked out the window and spoke low, making a point not to include me. I stepped over to pretend-look at a stack of bumper stickers on the front desk, but turned to admire the cousins because my up-close, slack-jawed-staring chances were so few.

Gomery’s nose was a classic integral, long and swooped at the end, and his chin an acute angle, though not sharp. His cheeks were two narrow rectangular planes with a wave at each cheekbone. A freckle just above and below the middle of his mouth gave the appearance of a division sign. A handsome equal sign made up his lips, thick lines, not thin. The loose curls that bunched at his back collar whenever he leaned on the front desk were a tangle of sixes and eights.

            And his rather elegant face? Total polygon. A polygon that sometimes appeared in my dreams, or in waking places I wouldn’t expect, like my oval soap dish.

            Monty’s appearance was pure movie theater. He was built like a vintage popcorn box, tapered at the hips and wide at the shoulders, though not white-and-red-striped with “Popcorn” large across his chest. Still, he was often salty, prone to buttering-up, and hot. His profile had a delicate gorgeousness, like he was shot in soft focus and projected on some screen. He stood as straight as a theater lobby standee made of heavy-duty cardboard, unlike his cousin, who sometimes bent over the motel’s front desk in the shape of an "is lesser than" symbol.

            Or an “is greater than” symbol, depending on the angle.

            Monty’s open stance forever blinked on-off-on-off-on, like the clear bulbs over a multiplex marquee. Gomery sometimes seemed to move through a cloud of chalkboard dust, as though he was thinking about symbols, and what they symbolized.

            They both had brown hair and both were tall, and there was no comparison to make to a movie theater or physics lab in their particular hair color or height categories. Rather, their tallness and hair color were similar to a lot of young men who were beginning their twenties in the typical way young men have begun their twenties for the last several millennia.

            So. Very well, in other words.

            I had checked in on the Montgomery Overboves #1 and #2 from my bedroom window for the last nineteen years, so I liked to think of myself as something of a local expert on these matters.

            “Expert” sounds extreme, but we had to be some of the only people to have grown up at our respective workplaces. I’d had a lot of time to “somehow” the cousins half ridickity, in my own mind.

            Somehow, we’ll be friends. Somehow, they’ll get to know me. Somehow.

            And I thought if I ever got to know the cousins better, beyond talking about hotel and motel business, I might begin to associate how they look with who they really are, rather than the two subjects I knew they were studying.

            I couldn’t wait for that day, if that day ever came, though I’d probably always look at the freckles just above and below the center of Gomery’s mouth in a particular way. And my soap dish would forever be face-shaped.

*****

The Swears

There's chitchat over on Forever Young Adult this morning about swearing in Young Adult books.

The WILFAIR books have what I've called "light" swearing -- a few craps and hells and damns. But nothing harder. I made this choice for a few reasons.

1. The story is set in the "now" but it is a vaguely old-fashioned, heightened reality now. Our main character Fair Finley is a professional and a representative of her family business. So are her two guy neighbors. So. Unleashing strings of colorful expletives wouldn't work, both for the world and the main character's job.

2. The main character's friend, Sutton Von Hunt, does swear, but because she also works in a public capacity, she has been asked by her grandmother to watch her language. She finds a few ways to do so. The swears are no longer there but you can feel Sutton's hot-tempered meaning when she says she "sparkles rainbows unicorns doesn't like something." Or at least I hope you can.

3. I'm not anti-swearing and I do speak freely at home; an "ouchie!' isn't going to cut it with a stubbed toe or a surprise bill. But does my stomach squidge a tiny bit when I see people getting incredibly sweary in front of strangers in public? Yes. I guess that's pretty much my main beef with swearing. Just be aware of others.

Actually, "be aware of others" is one of my main beefs with many things. :)

4. Monty Overbove makes the point in REDWOODIAN that we've all become inured to a lot of the sweariest swears. I agree with him; what can be intended to shock often leaves the listener stifling a yawn. Maybe we all need some really juicy new bad words. Word inventors of the world, please come up with some. Make 'em zingy. Thank you.

5. None of this applies to innuendo, which I like to think of as the craftier third cousin to swearing. How I do enjoy when a character says something a bit filthy or a bit wrong but veils it in such a way that it skims the heads of those it wasn't intended for but still delivers an exciting pow to those characters who get it. Innuendo is my writing boyfriend.

Lovely readers, what do you think? Are you comfortable with the lack of swearing and/or the swear substitutes you've read in the books? Do you find them realistic to the WILFAIR world or do they seem a bit fusty and old-fashioned? I'd love to hear.

Ages

Oh, the pains and gifts of turning 20.

I think it trumps most other ages in the significant ages department (including turning 21). I'll write more on why I believe that in the days to come.

But, for now, here are the main characters' ages:

Fair Finley: 19 (She'll be 20 in a week.)
Sutton Von Hunt: 18 1/2 (She has a springtime birthday.)
Monty Overbove: 20 (He'll be 21 in about two months' time.)
Gomery Overbove: 20 (He'll be 21 in about two months' time.)
Prior Yates: 24 (I think he has a fall birthday, so he's very recently 24.)

Not revealing quuuite yet whether Monty or Gomery is the older cousin, but their birthdays are close together. I wouldn't be surprised if they shared birthday parties as kids. Their wintertime birthdays meant pool parties were likely out, although I believe Monty usually made it into the pool at some point between cake-eating and present-opening.

© Denise Kappa | Dreamstime.com

Movies

I'm in crazy in love with all kinds of movies, much like WILFAIR's Monty Overbove. (Well, Monty might be slightly more movie-mad than I am.) Like, I'm that annoying person who will pick apart theme and subtext over drinks later. Any film, any time, I want to talk it into the ground.


Here's a favorite on-screen couple. Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in "An American in Paris." Gene Kelly was a Man, capital M. And he could do a mean pirouette. Gotta love a guy who can dance with abandon.

Monty's Movie Theaters

Movie lover Monty Overbove is lucky enough to live in a city where films are made, meaning there are many fine theaters.

But these two offbeat screens are walking distance from his motel home on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue:

New Beverly Cinema 

(Revivals, double features, and owned by Quentin Tarantino to boot)

The Cinefamily

(Funky films in the old Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax)

photo: New Beverly Cinema

Talking About People in Front of People

Personally? I love this. With a qualifier: It needs to be kind and not cruel.

I try to include this element in the Wilfair books. It's fun when two friends retreat to a bedroom to discuss a guy; it is far more interesting to me when the guy himself is included in the conversation.

I should say I love it when it isn't especially mean-spirited. I don't mind gossip having an edge, because I think it authentically does, but I'm not fond of friends tearing each other down. At all. Because life is hard and stuff.

Two last thoughts.

One? This isn't to say there aren't mean people in the books. The stories do lean sunny, definitely, but there are clouds around.

And two? Having friends tease, rankle, and befuddle each other by talking about one another in front of one another is perfectly acceptable, of course. Sometimes a person wants to further a friend's agenda by revealing something about them in the presence of others.

An example of this would be Monty discussing Gomery's interesting policy near the beginning of Redwoodian. Gomery is a bit embarrassed but Monty knows sharing the information will ultimately benefit his cousin.

We all need that bold person who can say what we can't or won't.

And we eventually must learn how to say what we can't or won't.

Wilfair Secret #1

Monty and Gomery were Tommy and Thom, respectively, for the first third of Wilfair.

The names worked -- and I'm wild about the name Thomas -- but they weren't exactly what I needed. I kept my thoughts soft and went looking for something a bit more old-school Hollywood.

"Monty" rhymes with jaunty. I liked that. And I liked that the first two letters in Gomery's name form the word go. "Go" has a lot to do with the travel setting of the books.

Also, I wanted a natural nickname to be inside the name. Monty seemed like a nickname-giver to me; Gomery does not. Hence Monty calling Gomery "Mer" on occasion. The cousins have a lot of affection for each other.

Also, "F" and "G" are alphabet neighbors. Fair and Gomery are building neighbors.

There are two more secrets to do with the cousins' names; I'll share them soon. But, for now, here are a few more reasons I chose Montgomery.

Yep, it's true; I do obsess over names. I also obsess over light, colors, and where characters are standing or sitting in relation to each other in any given moment.

Wilfair secrets #2, #3, and #4, I suppose. More on those later.

Gomery and Monty: Real?

I love this tweet asking if Gomery and Monty Overbove are real (actually, it reads "Please tell me Montgomery 1 and/or 2 are real!")

Sarah, smiles. Seriously.

Various incarnations of Monty frequent The Grove. The outdoor shopping center has 1) dancing waters 2) celebrity sightings and 3) the biggest Christmas tree in Los Angeles. The Grove is also a few blocks north of Wilshire and Fairfax. Coincidence?

Monty-type guys walk fast and sport dark hair and untucked shirttails. I suspect a lot of The Grove-based Montys are actors, because they're all dreamboaty and have a delightfully driven air.

I've never seen Gomery. There are a couple of musicians I listen to who could be in Gomery's family tree, appearance-wise, but the man himself? Not yet. Eyes peeled.

I saw Sutton's doppelganger working in the San Francisco's Ferry Building last summer. She sang along to Radiohead's "High and Dry" and flirted with customers. Wilfair had been out a few weeks and I wanted to give her a copy, but, like. That would have been weird. Right? Yeah.

And Fair? The moment I spy a snood and evening gloves out of the corner of my eye I'll report back here.

Anyway. Sarah. You asked after Montgomery #1 and Montgomery #2. Monty is at The Grove, smiling at the ladies. And let's say for now that Gomery's walking down Wilshire, toward the museum, hands in corduroy pockets, thinking about theorems and if he'll possibly get a glance of Fair through the citrus topiaries today.

What's in a Name: Montgomery

There are two characters in the Wilfair series with the name Montgomery. (They also share the same last name, too: Overbove.)

Montgomery is quite a name. And after languishing for years, it is set to make a 2012 baby name comeback. Hooray! Send that one back up the charts, new parents.

When I chose Montgomery for my two male leads, I weighed a few things.

One, I wanted a name that was warm, masculine, and boasted lots of old-time Hollywood glamour (think Montgomery Clift).

Two, I wanted to pay homage to one of my favorite writers, Lucy Maud Montgomery.


Three. I'm sweet on San Francisco and wanted some Bay Area love in the books. Helloooo, Montgomery Street. The major throughfare will make a cameo in The Oppositery. That book is a few years away but I'm already daydreaming about the happy high jinks Fair and her next-door enemies can get up to around the Bay Area.


And four? I needed a name that could produce two good nicknames (I'm not a huge fan of cutesy pet names, but a sweet and sophisticated nickname is another story). Monty and Gomery both held a certain allure. Both shorter names kept the manly and noble qualities of the longer name, which is rare for a nickname.

Sold.

I also liked that Montgomery has "mountain" within its meaning. Not to go too deep. But Redwoodian is set in the mountains. And I'm a mountain gal at heart.

In short, hooray Montgomery! New parents, I highly recommend this name. I've been living with it for a few years now and it still has oodles of swoon, dignity, and class for me. It's a keeper.