Authors often get asked: “Who is your favorite character from your books” and “Who was your easiest character to write?” My answer to both of those questions is the same.

Mind you, I LOVE ALL of my characters. Most of them, in one way or another, have bits of me thrown in. How could I not love them?? But in fact, it’s the character that has nothing thrown in from me that is my favorite. Scott Harper, Jon Harper’s brother in WISDOM SPRING.

Why? Because the character was fully-formed even before I wrote the book. Scott is based on my late brother (also named Scott, not coincidentally). In the book, Scott Harper is a paramedic, a bush pilot, a good cook, a mechanic, and a self-assured, loyal brother. He also has an ex-police dog named Max. The real Scott was all of these things and once had a ex-police dog, also named Max. Although Scott wasn’t a bush pilot himself (to the extent that the fictional Scott is), he was a pilot, and he owned an air taxi service called Smokey Bay Air, in Homer, Alaska. Fictional Scott is a bachelor, but the real Scott was a wonderful husband and the awesome father of two boys. He was also a superb storyteller and he possessed a great sense of humor. By far, he made Scott Harper the easiest character I’ve ever written.

In two weeks, it will have been 13 years since Scott left us in a freak accident. Writing about him was my way of honoring him. But he was such a great character, he needs more of a stage. So look for Scott to appear in a stand-alone novel of his own after I finish FATAL LIES.