MYSTERY AUTHOR KASSANDRA LAMB TALKS OPPOSITES ATTRACTING--IN FICTION AND LIFE

In her youth, author Kassandra Lamb had to decide between writing and paying the bills. Partial to electricity and food, she studied psychology. Now retired from a career as a psychotherapist and college professor, she spends most of her time in an alternate universe with her characters. She is the author of the Kate Huntington mystery series, the Marcia Banks and Buddy cozy mysteries, and the Co.P. on the Scene police procedural mysteries. She’s also written a guidebook for novice writers and writes romantic suspense as Jessica Dale. Learn more about her and her books at her website.

Opposites Attract...In Fiction and Real Life

 

I’m sure you’ve heard the two adages: “Birds of a feather flock together” and “Opposites attract.” Both can refer to romantic attraction. But which is true? 

 

As someone who has been an observer of human nature for many decades, I can say that ... it depends.

 

In some areas, it’s good to be similar. Values, goals, at least some interests, and even one’s sense of humor—it’s best to be on the same wavelength with those.

 

But with some personality traits, “opposites attract” applies. This is especially true for two traits: extroversion vs. introversion and intense vs. easygoing. With these two traits, if we are opposites, we tend to complement each other.

 

When I set out to write my newest series of police procedurals, I borrowed the protagonist, Judith Anderson, from another series (in which she was a secondary character.) I didn’t know a lot about her (see my post, How My Muse Revealed my Protagonist’s History with Flashbacks and Dreams.) I only knew that she was a good cop, a bit of a workaholic, and she had few friends.

 

So I wasn’t too surprised, as the series progressed, to discover she was a bit of an introvert. I also wasn’t surprised that she was a pretty intense person, passionate about her job and impatient with “nonsense” such as social niceties.

 

What did surprise me a little was her tendency to get anxious and restless when a case wasn’t going well. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, since I did thrust her into a new situation, way outside her comfort zone, by making her Chief of Police in a Florida city, hundreds of miles from her home state.

 

Enter stage right, her love interest, the sheriff of the adjoining county. Sheriff Sam Pierson has blue eyes, sandy hair, and an easy smile. And that was all I knew about him when my muse brought him on board.

 

Turns out he’s a bit more of an extrovert than Judith, and he’s very laid back. Which is a good thing. He tolerates her intensity, even taking it in stride most of the time.

 

But his easygoing nature is tested in Felony Murder, my latest book, when Judith informs him she has spotted him around town, when he was actually in his office in Clover County. He says he must have a doppelganger, and, at first, they both laugh it off.

 

But Judith keeps spotting this guy, who looks, and walks, and holds his head just like Sam. And he’s always talking to some woman (different women each time.) Plus, he’s wearing khaki, the color of Sam’s uniform.

 

Judith is not the most trusting person (because of her history,) so this is not a good scenario. Her old demons of distrust are stirred up, big time.

 

When I added this subplot to the story, I wasn’t exactly sure how it would get resolved in the end. Would they break up, at least temporarily?

 

Well, I should’ve trusted Sam. Here’s what this laid-back guy came up with...

 

“Are we good?” I went for a casual tone, but a lump had formed in my throat.

Sam looked at me for a long moment, his eyes soft. “I want us to be.”

I waited without saying anything, my eyes beginning to sting. I refuse to cry!

“Judith, I’m not going anywhere…but I’m disappointed that you don’t trust me more by now.” He paused, stared at the ceiling for a second, then met my gaze again. “I get it that you have trust issues, and I’ve tried to be patient with that. But…it hurts that you could think I’d play games like that, walk around town letting you spot me and then duck into the crowd.”

 

Mr. Easygoing hit just the right note with this speech, and without getting all that angry, as most people would. He is the perfect complement to Judith’s intense personality. 

 

I realized, after the fact, that I had modeled these characters a bit on my husband and me. We certainly prove the “opposites attract” adage when it comes to intensity. I’m the intense one, and he’s definitely quite laid back. That’s a very good thing, and probably the main reason why we’re still married after almost forty-eight years.

 

I once asked him, if he could summarize me in one word, what would it be? He said, “exciting.” How gracious of him!

 

My word for him was “comfortable.” I brought excitement into his introverted, laid-back world, and he has always been my comfortable safe harbor.

 

Do you and your mate have some “opposites attract” traits that complement each other?

 

Felony Murder

A C.o.P. on the Scene Mystery, Book 4

 

All is not as it seems in Starling, Florida…

 

A phone call from a desperate teen, awaiting trial for felony murder, spurs Chief of Police Judith Anderson to re-open the case of a drug deal gone wrong. But her investigation finds more questions than answers. How did the white gang members involved end up with sweet plea deals, while the Latino kid with no record is charged with felony murder? Meanwhile, attempts on the mayor’s life and glimpses around town of her lover with various women divide Judith’s attention and trigger her old demons of distrust.

 

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