I'm currently polishing a speech for a workshop I'll be presenting at a writers' retreat in Maine next weekend. It's all about how to create characters who have depth, who are more than a collection of character traits. I've written a gazillion romances, a few women's fiction novels, a New Adult novel, and a couple of mysteries, the first of which is now available, and I've discovered that when it comes to characterization, the genre doesn't matter. Characters need to be more than the sum of their eye color, favorite food, greatest hope and greatest fear. They need souls.

So...next weekend, I'll climb onto my soapbox and (I hope!) convince the other writers in the room that they need to give their characters souls.