Dallas Dunlap asked Badger Therese:

In your answer to the last question, you said something interesting: " But if it does, I will make sure to stay close by her and record everything in detail." Do you visualize your characters as though they are real people whom you watch and can interact with? Do you feel that you are eavesdropping on them?

Badger Therese My usual process. Create the rules of the house, create the people to whom those rules will apply, create the house, break the rules, observe.

Creating the people is, for me, the most important part. One of the best things I ever read about fiction writing: You should be able to recognize your character if you bumped into them on the street. I'm not trying to create interesting people, I'm trying to create real people, and then focus on what they do in the house I find interesting. Real people are messy and unpredictable. They often surprise me. Athena from the Female, Recreational series, was a frequent surprise.

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