Freaky or funny?

Since we joined the Nine Naughty Novelists, PG and I have found a whole lot of connections in our writing and in our lives. Here are just a few:

Kelly: PG has a book (Iron) set in a fictional Irish town in Ireland named Kilbanning and I have a book (Irish Sex Fairy) set in a fictional Irish town in California named Kilkenny. Lots of Irish words and phrases in both stories! California is where PG actually lives and I’ve spent a lot of time there and set most of my books there, and she’s set a lot of her books there, too. I noticed in her dedication for Iron that her maternal grandparents are from Ireland - Counties Tipperary and Limerick - mine are from Enniskillen and Newton Butler Counties. Both our husbands are photographers. We’ve both written lots about food and wine and a winery (my winery story is still in progress). In the Dark includes a reference to my home city (Royal Winnipeg Ballet). The characters in Iron are named Gavin and Aislinn and I’ve written stories with the same names (only Ashlyn), we have other stories (Worth Waiting For and PG’s Scent of the Roses) where our characters have the last name, Patterson. And both are 'reunion' stories. I have a character who owns a coffee shop. PG has a character who owns a tea shop. We both hate vacuuming and love coffee, and I freaked out when PG mentioned Nastassja Kinski and the Snake photograph by Richard Avedon, because we actually had that photograph hanging in our living room for years!

PG: yes, and as I don't think I mentioned, I once borrowed the bracelet Nastassja wears in that photo from the designer to use in one of my husband's photo shoots. That was during my brief stint as a Photo Stylist.

So this week we were having a conversation on Yahoo and decided to share it with you for a laugh. Actual conversation:

Kelly: PG, did you see this? http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/were-loving-angels-instead-publishing-craze-goes-celestial-1850915.html

PG: Huh. Well, that's cool. Maybe there's hope yet for my sad little angel story. Being ahead of the trend--that' d be something new for me. lol! Thanks, Kelly!

Kelly: I was ahead of the trend too, but it didn’t work out so well LOL. The book that landed my agent was originally written about a girl who had a near death experience and came back with some super angelic powers, and a mission to fight an evil demon drug cartel. Her dead father was an angel in the book, too, he fought a demon for her soul and won, sending her back to earth with her mission. My agent said the paranormal aspects seemed extraneous to the story but if I wanted to rewrite it she would look again, so I did and she liked it. Still kinda bummed that the angel and demon thing didn’t work out, but truthfully it was so easy to take those things out of the story (I kept the NDE) she was probably right

PG: Okay, that's really freaky. In my original idea for Edge of Heaven, the 'angel' the main character falls in love with is a young woman, recently dead, whose mission takes her back to Earth to deal with the criminals who killed her and her father.

When I decided to turn it into a novella, I realized I had too much going on for under 30K, so I ditched the suspense angle.

Kelly: Sometimes I think you and I share a brain…

PG: Yeah, only I think you got the better parts.

Kelly: LOL! I so think this thread should be a blog post.

PG: we could do that.

Kelly: Whoever is up next…I’m Jan 6

PG: Jan 6...that's like the day after tomorrow. I think you're up first then. lol! I've got the following Wednesday.

Kelly: Oh holy crap, that is the day after tomorrow! And just to make it even freakier, I have to add that in my “angel and demon story”, the criminals the heroine comes back to fight were responsible for the death of her parents.

And I don’t think I got the better parts!

PG: Well some of the better parts, anyway. :)
I have a feeling we're just scratching the surface with all these similarities and coincidences. I'm betting we find a lot more as we go along.


So what do you think..freaky or funny?