It's a question I've been asked many times by friends. It always puzzles me that people assume that writers must draw on real life - and real people - for their stories. I mean, surely having an imagination is one of the fundamental qualifications of a writer! You would hardly doubt that an accountant is numerate, or that a doctor did well in science. But for some reason, some people see glimpses of themselves in my books. I often think it's because I write about deep, nuanced characters; I subconsciously draw upon the sixteen personality types (or five, depending on which source you read) to craft the kind of characters who feel thoroughly real and believable. I don't put real people in my books. Nor do I put myself in my books. That would just be too ICK and too personal. But I can put composites of all of us in my books. I suppose my characters have bits and pieces of the sum of my life experience - the imagination has to be born from somewhere, doesn't it?
Perhaps in Moira (from SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE, out this July) you can see yourself - a woman who is confronted with an unwelcome reality about her marriage, only to question whether she saw this coming over the years, whether her marriage was ever what she thought it was, or what she wanted it to be. Let me bet one of my friends will read this book and then say, 'Is Moira me?!' Perhaps a guy might relate to Frank, in how he let his pride and his principles shape his life in a way that he regrets now - an incident that happened years ago that he should have compartmentalized (because guys are supposed to do that, and not dwell too long on their 'feelings') yet he nursed it and let it damage him in ways he never recovered from. If you see a shade of yourself in my novels, then I believe I've done my job in crafting characters we can all care about!
But there is sometimes an exception to the "I would never put a real person in my novel" rule!
Sometimes, in building a world in my novel, I do draw very closely on a real one. For instance, setting. SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE is set in Santa Monica, California, Malibu, and Santorini, Greece. In my opening chapter, Moira and her daughter are having lunch in Venice Beach, and I describe the scene. For those of you who have never been, it's a pretty vibrant place, full of interesting characters (to say the least). And guess what? This little kid made it into the first chapter of my novel! He was just part of the very cool Venice vibe, that I wanted to capture. Oddly, when I wrote the scene, I'd just been to Venice and, in soaking up the atmosphere, I obviously soaked up him! Then I went back this weekend and... there he was again. Perhaps when I get my author copies, I will pack one in my bag and if he's there again, I will gift it to his mother! He's good, isn't he? I wish I'd had half of his confidence when I was his age, and a dose of his talent! Whatever his name is, he brightened my day.
SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE is out July 22.
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