Well, I had high hopes that my writing was clever enough to disguise who I based my characters on. Lesson learned - any time you think you are being clever, everyone knows better! It's like walking around with your skirt tucked in your underwear.
A good friend just told me that she thought a lot of what my heroine in House of Lies felt and experieinced was autobiographical. I knew I'd based some of my heroine's angst on my real life father dying, but I actually knew my dad and he was nothing like the absentee dad in the book. But I definitely felt the hole my father's death left in my life. Maybe that truth is what resonated with my readers; if so, maybe it doesn't matter that I'm not as clever as I would like to be.
I like to think that with my tomboy sensibilities, most often times, my personality gets imbued into my male characters. I tend to think linearly and be very direct in my speech patterns. (By the way, men are better able to get away with being blunt than women. It's like they are forgiven for not cloaking something in kinder, gentler words, but a woman should know better.)
To round out my heroines, I've studied other, more girly, females including my daughters, mothers, aunts, sisters, friends, and co-workers.
And of course, I'd like to live all the adventures in my books. Who wouldn't want to be swept off their feet?
Keep on writing!
Maggie Toussaint
watch for my new story coming soon from Freya's Bower
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