Am I in my books?

I think some things are, of course -- most of my heroines work in high-tech jobs and I've been in high tech since before there was a high tech. Most are near my age and most express some of the common things I think (about weight gain, or loss of youth, etc.) And, believe it or not, most of the seeds of the plots of my books are real. I witnessed a brutal attack in a bar, someone got ill once eating food at a potluck, I knew a guy who was a bit ... off from his experiences in Viet Nam, I've been involved in an all-town scavenger hunt. None of these ended in murder, of course (although the bar attack was attempted murder). How the women react to these events is probably a good indicator of how I reacted.

On the other hand, I make up the male characters just about completely from scratch. All of them are distinctly different (except for their ages), all have different personality traits (Harry is laid back and relaxed, Jude is brooding, Max is a bit arrogant, etc.) I really enjoy creating the personalities and imagining how they'll react in different situations. I guess for the heroines, I know how she'll react (it's how I would). But the guys ... they always take my book in a whole different direction than I planned.

Now that's what fun about writing ...