Characters …They must be unforgettable. When the reader connects with them – whether it’s by loving them, or hating them – they invest in the novel. When the characters breathe and live and jump off the pages they become a part of your reader’s life. The characters we create must   be faced with a challenge and a journey – it’s up to us, as writers, to decide what that will be, and how they will discover their strengths to overcome all that holds them back from getting whatever it is that will make them complete.

There have been characters I feel so deeply for, I dream of them. Some stay with me even if I have to put the book down, and, when I’m invested in my character, putting the book down is very hard for me to do. They are part of my circle of friends, my family…