I got an email the other day from Valencia Valentine*. A friend of hers had sent her a copy of Valencia and Valentine and she was writing to ask if we'd ever met (there were a few other things in the book, apart from the name, that were eerily close to her reality and she was understandably a little freaked out).
It was weird, seeing that name in my inbox. Even weirder to write an email that began, "Dear Valencia..."
I asked her if she'd ever seen the movie Stranger Than Fiction, because the whole thing reminded me of the scene where Will Farrell's character calls Emma Thompson's character on the phone and is like, "You're writing my life! If you kill me in the book you're going to actually kill me!" (Valencia had, in fact, seen Stranger Than Fiction and agreed that it felt the same.) The funny thing about that is that Stranger Than Fiction was one of the movies I drew a little inspiration from for Valencia and Valentine. So. I don't know. It's all happening.
I don't know if there's anything I like quite so much as when something comes full circle.
The Real Valencia lives in the States and I assured her that we've never met, that I got the name from a baby naming website and chose it because I liked how it sounded with 'Valentine.' (Also, for all that it matters, I'd originally named the main character Violet.) As for the other coincidences...I don't know. Magic? Or logic. There are a lot of people in this world, so I suppose it stands to reason that at least a few of them would be named Valencia Valentine and that, of those, one might have some peculiar similarities to my fictitious protagonist.
Magic or logic. As with everything.
*She's married now, and her married last name is something else. BUT STILL.
It was weird, seeing that name in my inbox. Even weirder to write an email that began, "Dear Valencia..."
I asked her if she'd ever seen the movie Stranger Than Fiction, because the whole thing reminded me of the scene where Will Farrell's character calls Emma Thompson's character on the phone and is like, "You're writing my life! If you kill me in the book you're going to actually kill me!" (Valencia had, in fact, seen Stranger Than Fiction and agreed that it felt the same.) The funny thing about that is that Stranger Than Fiction was one of the movies I drew a little inspiration from for Valencia and Valentine. So. I don't know. It's all happening.
I don't know if there's anything I like quite so much as when something comes full circle.
The Real Valencia lives in the States and I assured her that we've never met, that I got the name from a baby naming website and chose it because I liked how it sounded with 'Valentine.' (Also, for all that it matters, I'd originally named the main character Violet.) As for the other coincidences...I don't know. Magic? Or logic. There are a lot of people in this world, so I suppose it stands to reason that at least a few of them would be named Valencia Valentine and that, of those, one might have some peculiar similarities to my fictitious protagonist.
Magic or logic. As with everything.
*She's married now, and her married last name is something else. BUT STILL.