Recently my publisher Penmore Press offered a series of posts by its authors to write about developing characters in their novels. I contributed a short reflection on the task of rendering real heroes into fictional characters. Here's a snippet from the post -- which was illustrated with some terrific vintage photos of the time:
While writing The Laundry Room, a historical novel, I began fashioning my main character, Laila, around an eighty-seven-year-old woman I had interviewed over the Internet. For two years I attempted to capture the young person inside of her; however, I found, after a year, that she was withholding that youngster, either because she really didn't remember or because she was having trouble letting go of who she was. With that in mind, I did what I do best—made up my characters. I imagined what it would take to create characters who had been torn from their parents during the Holocaust, either by death or after being sent to Palestine for their safety. I decided to let them participate in their own creation.... Read more >>>
