Derek asked Elliott Kay:

Recently read Good Intentions and Natural Consequences for probably the ninth time now, and I think your biggest strength is your characters. Each done is very different but easily believable, if not outright relatable. My question would be what you do to create them? Are they based on people or characters you know? Do you flesh them out from a archetype and flesh them out further? Or do you make them from scratch?

Elliott Kay Thanks!

This varies from one character to the next. A few are woven from whole cloth (Alex, Lorelei), though I may borrow details from wherever.

Others are absolutely based on real people. Rachel is heavily inspired by a dear friend I've known for years (though obviously without the divinity or the, erm, intimate stuff). Wade is written closely enough to a friend of mine that most of our mutual friends who've read the book easily recognized him.

I've done a LOT of "Tuckerizing," too, which is when you outright name and/or write someone you know into the books. Many characters in my sci-fi series are Tuckers, along with a few incidental characters in the GI line. A few others are basically people I've decided are played by this or that actor, like how they played this or that part.

Regardless, I definitely "cast" everyone in my books and then write their dialogue the way I think that person would deliver it.

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