Way back in high school, I learned that one of the risks an author runs when writing fiction in the first person is that people will equate her or him with the character relating the story.

In other words, when the character says something like, "I sure do hate people who stand still on busy sidewalks," a fair percentage of readers will assume that the character is voicing the author's own opinions.

(But, yeah, I dislike people who stand still on busy sidewalks. Don't you?)

I've already had more than a few of my readers tell me that they picture me as Artanis or that they wonder if certain episodes in the novel are drawn from my life. It'd be dishonest of me to claim that my own trials and tribulations have nothing to do with the events in my main character's journey, but I took great pains to avoid doing one of two nearly unpardonable things:

1) Make my main character an Author Avatar as explained in the link above.
2) Make my main character my opposite as a way to either exorcise my demons or indulge in things I wouldn't dare to do or say in real life.

It takes a highly skilled author to make Thing #1 come out sounding something other than preachy or like wish fulfillment, and while Thing #2 can be a great deal of fun in some cases, it can also be deeply disturbing -- for both writer and reader. Artanis is not a bad person, but I would be aghast if I looked within myself and saw that I had a secret desire to do some of the questionable things he's done.

Even though I consciously tried to avoid falling into either pit, I nursed a worry that maybe I'd unconsciously conflated myself with my main dude. Around the 3rd draft or so, I took this test to see if I was inserting myself into the story. I'm happy to report Artanis and I passed with flying colors: he's a wholly different person than the man who created him. (Or to whom he communicated, if you buy that theory of authorship.)

I would like to meet him someday though, and I'm certainly eager for more people to get to know us both.

As always, thanks for reading.