[MichaelS]

This could become a most awesome thread

One of my favorite characters has been Steven, the dead guy from It's Not About The Cookies. While I don't sit around carrying on conversations with dead people, Steven is based on someone who most certainly was real, and writing for the character forced me to take a long hard look at myself and how I was using things in my past as an excuse for things I should be doing in there here and now. Like Sam, the main character in the book, I hadn't been home to see family in nearly 15 years; if not for listening to Steven's voice, trying to understand him a little better, I might not have gone back when I did (my mother had a heart attack and a stroke at the same time...yet still, without that literary kick in the butt, I might not have gone.)

I agree. But where are the rest of you authors? Getting to know all these guys/characters makes me want to read more! Maybe I could call in sick tomorrow. No that would not work I am the BOSS

 

[MichaelS]

My reader's favorite character, hands down, is Simone DeFleurry, the unflappable drag-queen from The Jade Owl. Now we all know about drag queens, or do we? When I decided that one of the China sleuths would be a drag queen, I didn't want him to be just another stereotype, so I sat down with several drag queens of my acquaintance. I soon learned that being a drag queen had less to do with transvestism and more with "style." So Simone (Simon Geldfarb) is "just as much a man as any other, only packaged a little differently." Of course, he's coupled to the protagonist, Nick Battle and also provides most of the practical solutions to the mysteries encountered. However, Simone's character arcs, never remaining static. He learns, reacts and punctuates the novel with life lessons and a crystal clear view of a world that exists because it needs to exist. From the first time we meet Simone singing his keynote song at The Painted Lips to her trudge up the hills of San Francisco at night after a show (some 1,500 pages later in The Dragon's Pool), Simone anchors the series and gives it a unique flare. Now my favorite character is in Turning Idolater, but more of that later. The clock on the wall has just struck midnight and this gal need to go to work in the morning.

Edward C. Patterson

Just wondering... do you guys/gals "identify" with any of your characters as maybe being like an alter-ego type thing?

I worked with a guy who "performed" at night... well, that is what he called it back then, and he was this really awesome guy that no one really knew, except the Regional Director and myself, he was very discreet and he did not want anyone else to really know him. I actually felt like he may have been depriving the rest of the crew, because he really was just a really unique guy to be around. I think he probably would have "wrote" himself as the guy he was at night... strange how some people just stick in your brain... I heard years later that he passed away in the 90's. I think of him from time to time and this post brought him back to mind.