Who do you think you are ..?

It's a fantastic moment when your characters take on a life of their own. Someone once said that the writer's original perception of a character may be as erroneous as the reader's. It is like some kind of alchemy or magic seeing the characters evolve and change as the story takes on a momentum of its own.

In life, we are all the heroes of our own story. A friend asked me the other day whether my characters are based on real people. Well ... yes and no. Real people provided the spark for each of them, the magic lightbulb moment - as did real places and real events. I do admit I often give characters names I had pencilled in for my children (the ones the pilot vetoed like Gabriel, or ones we loved that didn't seem quite right once we saw the faces of our own babies - Isabella and Benedict for example). There is no richer seam for you to tap into than your own experience, your loves, and indeed your own family. On our Welsh side we have boxers, Druids (as in the Welsh Eistedfod poets not the Stonehenge variety), wool mill owners, Ministers and a Prime Minister (Lloyd George). On the Scottish Ormerod Lord side there are boxers (again interestingly), publicans, and Resistance fighters. Add to this the pilot's side - fighter pilots, boxers (a theme appearing here), diplomats and a Romany prince who taught King George to shoot, and it is an interesting gene pool that the kids are inheriting (wouldn't pick a fight with them in the playground)! Get nostalgic, tap into the unique story of your family and see where it leads you ... you are the hero/ine of your own story.