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27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.

Appearances do not normally play a big role unless the plot requires or implies it.  For example, Dori from My Fair Vampire is…drumroll…fair.  She also has gold and red tones to her hair for a very specific reason that I can’t really give away here.

Gayle from The PURE, I made tiny and blonde because I wanted her to be stereotyped as helpless and dumb when in fact she was neither of those.  She had a wayward tongue that was misconstrued as ditzy but that made her triumph over the bad guys all the more fun because they didn’t see her coming until it was too late.

Shelby from All’s Fair just needed to be pretty, someone who leaned on her good looks when advantageous, bristled when dismissed in the brains department.

Neely from Sins, I have not yet visualized other than she’s someone who wouldn’t attract much attention.  She’s someone who could fly under the radar for twenty five years, giving no indication of who or what she was capable of.  I suspect when I do sketch her out, she’ll be average–average height, average weight, brown hair, brown eyes, medium length hair.

For my male MC’s, I am unapologetically shallow–they are all tall and good looking specimens of manhood with big…hands and feet.  (Shame on you for thinking I was going to write something else.)