This week's questions from Kate Robbins really made me think.
1. How much of yourself do you write into your characters? Or do you write characters completely opposite to you? I paint my characters with a brush loaded with couple of the things I wish I was. Patient and smart come to mind immediately. But many of their characteristics are completely me, traits like loyalty and friendliness. I also give them personalities that come straight out of being a middle child - everyone has to be comfortable, have a tasty beverage and be accepting of everyone. I like to make my characters pleasers.
2. Has your writing helped you see events in your own life clearer? Not necessarily, although I've borrowed things that have happened in my life to salt into my stories. It makes me relive the event and try to find a way to deal with it differently in my story. There is a scene in my upcoming release, Exposed To Passion, that comes directly from a trip my family took recently. Some poor girl ate a brownie laced with marijuana that her seat mate on her previous flight had given her. A man she didn't know. She was young, and maybe didn't know any better. I didn't know her, but I could see across the terminal that she was agitated and frightened. I had to help. I wouldn't be a very good human if I didn't. The entire experience and the retelling of it was surreal.
3. Have you written a character with more of your personal characteristics than any other? What are they? I'd say Jemima George, the heroine in Cooking Up Love, is most like me. She's a chef and I've given her my favorite recipes and my love of domesticity. I also built in a little insecurity and anxiety into her psyche, which I know come directly from me. But I didn't like doing that. The things I don't like about myself, I don't really like in Jem, either. So I gave her a backbone to guarantee no one would walk all over her. And I gave her a bit of sass and a sense of wonder
That's it for me now. Thanks for stopping by. Be sure you hop over to the lovely Dani Jace's page to continue reading.