It's All in the Details

Do you ever meet someone, or do something, and smile to yourself because you just KNOW you are going to use that detail in a book?

I recently met a gentleman in a restaurant and was introduced. He was confident, tall, and he shook my friggin' hand like he was going to break it while looking at me intensely in the eyes. I hate "fish"-limp handshakes, but THIS, this was bone-crushing. And I thought, what gives? He cannot be oblivious that his grip is like a vise. So I decided, for character's sake, that he had something to prove. He may not. It's immaterial . . . I am going to USE that particular character trait and decide that it's a "something to prove" ego thing.

I love details.

Take Neccos.

If you read my books, no matter what the genre, at some point, my most beloved characters are going to eat Neccos. In Diary of a Blues Goddess, the characters play POKER using Neccos.

When my significant other went to CVS with my eldest daughter (almost 17) and bought me Neccos, she rifled through ALL the packs looking for the rolls with the most WHITE ones. They taste the absolute best. Through some bizarre genetic fluke, she likes the same Necco flavors as I do. We both hate the chocolate ones. Don't like the licorice ones. We hunt for the white ones--sort of cinammon-flavored. Significant Other stood there, dumbfounded. "They have different FLAVORS depending on color?" Of course, they do, idiot. And any true Necco-loving fanatic knows it. And that detail? Goes in the book.

Martinis for my characters have three olives. They like flannel sheets. They hate Jay Leno and love David Letterman. They're often Buddhists. They light candles in Catholic churches, even though they're not Catholic.

You get the idea. I use little details, and sometimes, like I said, I meet someone and think, "You don't know it, buddy, but I'm using that."

How about you? What sort of details do you put in your books or stories?