Monday, February 3, 2014

Coincidences

It makes me laugh when reviewers reading my books comment "this is too big of a coincidence," or "this could never happen in real life." This really surprises me because a lot of the so called 'coincidences' in my novels are taken from real life situations - ok, not the fantasy ones, but the regualar fiction - yeah, coincidences happen more often than we know.

For example:

* After naming one of my characters and publishing my book, I found out there's an author who goes by that name -oops!
* Another characters - well it just turns out that his first name is the same as one  best selling author uses for her MC (which I didn't know), and his last name is the same as another best selling author uses for that MC. I guess I just choose them well ;)
* My characters happen to be in specific places at a specific time which changes the course of their story

OK, some real life scenarios now:

* We took a skiing vacation two years ago, just hubby, me and the kids. First time in our life at this ski resort, 8 hour drive away from our house. We go to our chalet/condo and guess what! My cousin is staying right next door! Nope, we didn't discuss the trip with him.

* On that same ski hill, we're standing in a line to go up on the gondola and someone calls my name I'm not sure how she recognized me because most of the time on a ski hill I look like this (hey, I like to stay warm):

I guess I must have taken my goggles and mask off for a moment, because a friend, who I've never been skiing with, called me.

* Now this one will blow your mind:

Spring 2001: Me and hubby go on a vacation to Cuba. We stay at a resort in Holguin and meet a very nice couple with whom we spend the rest of our vacation. We go snorkeling every day, play Foosball in the evenings, just a great time! We exchange addresses, emails, phone numbers and will definitely stay in touch (this is the key) as they live in the next province over.
Well, we lose their info and can't get in touch with them.

Fall 2005: We have a 2.5 year old and a 7 month old and go to Cuba with our parents but stay in Cayo Santa Maria. Two days later, we get a Hurricane warning and end up being evacuated (10 hour bus ride from hell) to a resort in Holguin. This resort is right beside the one we went to in 2001. Now being there, with two small kids, you can imagine we don't have quite a lot of time to ourselves and we don't want to burden our parents. But while at that resort, middle of the day, they do take our kids and we have a couple of hours to ourselves. We take our snorkeling equipment and go for a walk, turning right to go to the same beach we snorkeled at in 2001. As we walk we reminisce about the great time we had here last time.
As we walk, we see a couple on the beach who looks familiar, with a 3 year old boy. Guess who! Yup, it's the same couple we met in 2001!!!
I just couldn't believe it and neither could they. It turns out they lost our information the same way we had lost theirs. Of course we exchange our addresses and emails and phone numbers once again etc.... They come to our resort that evening for a drink. We have a great time and absolutely cannot believe our luck.
We go back home to Canada, I look for the address - AND IT'S LOST!  Please note that I'm not someone who loses things like that. Neither is my husband. Was it fate? Will we ever meet them again?
I hope so, because I truly believe in wild coincidences, and that's why I put them in my books.

Do you believe in wild coincidences?

5 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Hopefully they didn't lose your information a second time as well and they contact you!

shelly said...

Funny things can happen. Peeps can be too critical of what we write sometimes.

Annalisa Crawford said...

Great stories. Life is full of wild coincidences, just like it's full of beautiful sunsets that if someone painted them, they would look too wonderful to be true!

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

I love coincidental meetings like that.

stu said...

I quite like the rule that says coincidences to make things better for your characters are bad, but ones to make things more difficult for them are essential.