Amanda Scott: Sometimes I do, but rarely. I'm trying to think of an example where I did, and nothing leaps to mind, but after 40 books, it's not unusual for me to forget characters, let alone how I created them. I can occasionally see characteristics in new characters that remind me of characters I've met recently in books I've read. I notice that from time to time when I read a first draft. It isn't that my characters are based on the other characters, or that I've done it purposely, but just as I have a facility for regional accents and music, I also seem unconsciously to pick up "cadences" of strong characters created by other authors. This has its amusing side, since I read mysteries and legal thrillers for pleasure, rather than historical romance. I once read a bunch of mysteries by New Yorkers Frances and Richard Lockridge all in one fell swoop, probably 10 of them. And when I read the first draft of the Regency I was writing at the time, all my very English characters seemed to be speaking in the clipped phrases that the Lockridges' New Yorkers used. Actually, now that I think about it, I tend to think in characteristics first, rather than whole characters. My characters develop according to the needs of the storyline, so they begin as sketches, with the details filled in as I go. If I began by thinking in terms of Sean Penn or Meg Ryan, I'd likely feel more constrained to make my characters behave like characters they've represented. It's a matter of thought process, I think. Some very good writers begin by deciding how their characters look, and that works well for them. I begin by deciding how my characters think.
Jacquie D'Alessandro: I have a very definite picture in my mind of what my characters look like. If I see a picture of someone in a magazine that strikes a chord, I cut out the pic and keep it in my "faces" file. None of my characters, in my mind, have had celebrity faces - maybe just a single feature. Antonio Banderas eyes, or Ben Affleck lips, although I wouldn't describe them in the writing as such - just in case the reader thought Antonio or Ben were gross. (say it isn't so!!) I have loosely based several secondary characters on friends and relatives - but I always make sure those characters are nice people - no murderers or anything like that! I have to face these people every day!
Elizabeth Thornton: Occasionally I choose a celebrity when I visualize a character, e.g an aging Katherine Hepburn as Lady Sophy Devere in the work in progress, but I'm more likely to use a descriptive phrase e.g. The Schemer; The Mouse; Heart of Gold. But that's only for secondary characters, to help me keep them fixed in my mind. I describe my main characters in broad strokes. What matters here is character, and no celebrity or one descriptive phrase can be a model for that. They're too complex.
Kat Martin: Normally, characters for me are strictly in my head. However, in my first book, Magnificent Passage, I saw Kurt Russell and Tim Mathison in the character roles, which made the book really fun to write.
Glenna McReynolds: Yes! One day back in 1994 I was paying for my gas in this little store, and when I turned around, my medieval sorcerer from The Chalice and the Blade was staring at me from the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. I was stunned. There he was, Dain Lavrans, on the cover, and I mean he was exactly what I had dreamed up - and his name was Anthony Kiedis, tattooed, sultry, sexual, beautiful. A couple of years ago, Anthony cut off his hair, bleached the top, and once again hit the cover of Rolling Stone, and I was truly inspired. Having made a career out of being a brilliant, at least half naked - if not more - rock and roll star, it was very easy for me to imagine him as my brilliant, more than half naked, bad-boy scientist of the Amazon, William Sanchez Travers of River of Eden. I would be remiss if I did not also mention that Michael Praed has been a constant source of inspiration since the first time I saw "Robin of Sherwood." He's Morgan in Prince of Time. He's Shay in the whole medieval trilogy. There's some of him in Will Travers. He's both Quinn and Hawkins in the book I'm working on now. Look him up on the web! Better yet, find "Robin of Sherwood" and fall in love with the whole darn series. It was a huge inspiration for my medieval books.
Nora Roberts: No. I never visualize or base my people on anyone else. For me, I have to see them as who they are, not a reflection of a celebrity or someone else I know.
Susan Wiggs: Never, unless it's an actual historical figure like Sam Houston. I always want my characters to take on a life of their own, and fashioning them after an existing icon seems to put artificial limits on them. So, no offense to George, Brad or Kevin, but my favorite characters are totally fictional.
Sharon Robinson: Initially, my heroes have the look and feel of someone I know, but gradually they become themselves.
Brenda Joyce: Rarely. Although Kate Gallagher in THe Third Heiress came off as Kate Winslet, and Jack Ford in Lovers and Liars was definitely "Miami Vice's" Don Johnson. But other than that, my characters are all pure figments of my imagination. (However, after seeing Kate and Leopold, Hugh Jackman might make it into my next historical!)
Donna Kauffman: That is something I've never done, although certain elements might influence the physical make up of a character. Something along the lines of eyes as blue as Paul Newman's, or the knowing smile of Russell Crowe...the amused expression of George Clooney. That sort of thing might be in my mind, though I rarely make the connection to the reader in the story itself. I do the same thing with heroines, although I tend to think in terms of attitude rather than physical attributes. Saucy like Kim Cattrelll on "Sex in the City," in-your-face like Janeane Garofalo...that sort of thing. It helps me visualize the persona I'm trying to create. But I never use, wholesale, the attributes or characteristics of one particular character or person to create my fictional character. I also find these kinds of comparisons can help when trying to convey a character to an editor when verbally pitching a story.
Madeline Hunter: I know that a lot of authors do this, but I don't. I have a mental image, but it isn't of anyone I've seen before.
Betina Krahn: After my first book, in which I gave the hero my husband's copper hair, strong jaw, broad shoulders, and generous hands, I decided to let fantasy rein. That doesn't mean that I don't occasionally catch a glimpse of someone in a public place and go back for discreet seconds. Studying faces and making up backstories about them is a writer's secret little pleasure.
Lauren Bach: My characters never look like anyone I've ever met, or seen, in real life. It used to bug me because I couldn't find a picture to use as a visual cue like some writers do. Fortunately, I have a very vivid imagination and can merely close my eyes and conjure up any character by name. The problem is that these images are usually quite pleasant, so remembering to reopen my eyes is a chore.
Sue-Ellen Welfonder: No, never. For one thing, I am too busy writing and studying medieval research books to watch TV or go the movies, so I am not at all up on celebrities. I do visualize my characters, though. Of course! And quite vividly, too, but they come to me full-blown ... as themselves. If anything, they are a compilation of my own life experiences and bits and pieces of people I've known. My heroines, especially, have a lot of my own values. But, no, I never imagine them as a particular person. They are just who they are. I'd like to add, though, that Warner's choice of John DeSalvo on the cover of my first book, Devil in a Kilt, was an excellent one. On that book's cover, he epitomizes how I envisioned the book's hero, Duncan.
Shana Abe: My characters are usually reflections of me, even the villains. I studied acting for many years, and getting into another person's head is like second nature to me now. I love that aspect of writing. I love creating people from shards of me, putting myself in their time and place, imagining what I would do in their situation.
For instance, in The Secret Swan, I modeled the heroine after the girl I was for a time in high school: plain, shy, with an overwhelming crush on a handsome, popular young man (in high school he was the captain of the football team; in the book he's a famous knight). Echoing true life, the hero never notices the girl at all; but hey--it's my book, and my world, so in the story all that changes. The hero emerges from his narcissistic youth to become a truly good man, one who realizes how special the heroine is, and woos her to his side.
Okay, all that being said, sometimes I see a stranger on TV or the street and I think, "Man, that guy just looks so evil! I've got to add him to the story!"
Sherri Browning: My characters usually come to me first, with their own unique traits, and then after I write the books, I sometimes imagine who would best suit the character in movie adaptations. Brendan Fraser is a big romance hero favorite of mine.
