When I first started writing fiction, it was hard for me to visualize my characters without looking at them. I would spend hours on the internet, searching through photos that looked like whom I thought my “people” to be. Sometimes,…
I decided that the main character of the new book, Jeanne “Dark” D’Arc, owns a 1972 Renault Alpine. She is proudly, almost stubbornly French, and the year is special to her. Her personal symbol is the Ibis, which she had painted…
They whisper to me, you know. Like auditory hallucinations, I can hear their breathing, inside my ear, their breathy words, their admonitions. Although they speak mostly gibberish, as if I were dreaming, it is their emotional content I recognize. She…
I’ve said any number of times that I am a character-centric reader. That is, my interest in a book is largely determined by how well I can connect to the characters. So it’s not surprising that I write the same…
My next book, which I will start plotting this month, stars a female Security Analyst – a female Sherlock Holmes type – who is gifted with Synesthesia. Her partner is a burly, ex-Army Ranger with what he calls a “Crazy…
My characters are real to me. No, I’m not schizophrenic, to my knowledge. I can separate reality from fantasy, and do so, as it suits me. I mean, in my writing and editing, I go to great lengths to make…