What B-B-Qued Beef, Moroccan Nomads and a shopping experience reveals about my character

Now that the manuscript for the second in the Mega Byte Mystery series Dead Bird through the Cat Door is with my publisher, I can spend a few weekends doing normal things with my friends like having lunch and shopping for new furniture for my bedroom and hey, I might even go see Avatar.

This is a conversation between my friend Amber and I as we were enjoying Barbequed Beef and Chai Tea at Tiffin Curry and Roti House my favourite East African/Indian restaurant. Keep in mind the whole – characters reveal themselves through dialogue - thing. What can you learn about me from this exchange of dialogue?

Amber: So what colour is the rug in the room?

Me: It’s kinda taupey-camely colour.

Amber: What about the fabric and the pattern?

Me: (moving my arms around like the multi-armed Hindu God Vishnua signalling the control tower to land a plane) Well, there’s kinda colour here, and then there’s the other colour there. And it’s really big and I spent a lot of time shopping for it – it’s hard to find a really big rug, you know, then stuffed it into my car and brought it home (clearly, the Chai Tea had kicked in).

Amber: (holding beef in her hand on the way to her mouth and with an astounded look on her face) Can you be more specific?

Me: You know when you’re in the Morroccan desert with a nomad family and you’ve been invited to have tea with the family in their tent. Then a sand storm kicks up and they have to pack up all their belongings and put them on the back of a camel. The giant rug they would use to do that – that’s kinda what my rug looks like and feels like.

Amber: You don’t have a frickin' idea what that rug looks like do you?

Me: Not a clue.

Conclusion: I’m a complex character who is simultaneously a writer with blinders on who can focus on her writing to the exclusion of all else and precisely observant. Or, I’m just a spaz.

We went on to shop and I discovered that there is a colour called Wenge (or espresso) derived from the colour of the wood from the Wenge tree. I also discovered jewelry armoires – entire pieces of furniture to house jewelry- seriously people! (Can't wait until mine arrives).