Character Development – Where the Hell Did Angela Come From?

If you haven’t read “One Last Lie” (ahem… yet), Angela is the primary character. In no uncertain terms, she is “demonic” and adds to the story’s mystery and suspense at every turn.

I’ve received emails, tweets and reviews from readers who are angry with me for creating such an evil character. Although many of these readers eventually confess their love of hating her, some hold on to their fury. Perhaps Angela hits a little too close to home?

I shudder at the thought…

So where did Angela come from? How was her character formed and developed? Like many of my plots and characters, she was conceived during an insignificant event that was made significant by my unrelenting and twisted thought process…

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It was a few years ago when a good friend of mine – let’s call her Lisa – asked me for my sperm. I’d known Lisa for many years and she’d never asked me for anything more than a sip of my Caramel Machiatto. So after she asked me “the question”, I cocked my head and didn’t say a word. She continued to talk about her motherly instincts and the ticking of her “biological clock”. It appeared she had given it a lot of thought, talked with many people and was now ready to proceed. Apparently, I was the last to know.

I was stunned, speechless and, I must admit, quite flattered. I stuttered, grabbed her hand and asked for a few days to think about it.
It just so happened that the next day I was having lunch with my good friend Tina, who, by the way, is also a lawyer. I decided to bring up Lisa’s question… or more exact, her “request”.

Tina dropped the fork onto her plate. “Absolutely not!” She snapped.
“Why not?” I snapped back.
“The laws surrounding surrogacy, sperm donation, parenthood, all of it, is too unclear. Even if she says now that she doesn’t want money or support, she might change her mind down the line. What if she’s really a nut and her pregnancy hormones put her over the edge? Seriously, what if she’s unstable?”
“She’s not,” I said adamantly.
“But what if she is?” Tina insisted.
“She’s not,” I insisted back.
“But what if…?”
“She’s not.”
“But…”
“She’s… well… hmmm… what if she is?” I said, staring into space.

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And that’s when Angela was conceived, along with most of the plot for “One Last Lie”.
The entire story came to me that day while sitting across the table from Tina. By the time we finished lunch and I had envisioned what was going to happen to Philip and Jonathan, I realized I could never give Lisa my sperm. If she was as crazy as the woman I just conjured up in my mind, I knew I had to run for the hills.

Do you know someone like Angela? Do you know someone who could be the main character of a book? We’d love to hear about them…