9/7/14 — EVERYONE WANTS TO MEET MARY LOUISE

I should have seen it coming. There were hints, but I made light of them, and took just a few tentative steps to deflect them. It wasn’t enough, and my problem persists: Readers of my just-published novel want to know a lot more about Mary Louise. Or more specifically, they want to know how I know so much about Mary Louise. The men even want her phone number, as though I have it on speed dial.

Mary Louise is a part-time, high-priced call girl who plays a key role in my novel, Hawke’s Point. In the first draft she was a minor character, with just a meant-to-be-funny cameo appearance early in the book.