I'm often asked how I develop the characters in my stories. The quick answer is I don't! I'm what's known as a pantser. In other words, I write by the seat of my pants. If I let the story evolve and listen to the characters, they develop and tell their story for me. I get to know them as they reveal traits to me. My characters never cease to amaze me. They've led me down paths I did not contemplate when I began the story. I did not envision Caedmon FitzRam joining the First Crusade in Redemption, yet he did and subsequently became a hero who saved countless lives.
Writing historical romance does, of course, provide an author with a precise framework and the characters must develop within that framework while respecting historical realities. For example, Adrien de Montbryce (The Montbryce Dynasty Book 3) can spy on King John and work to undermine his tyrannical rule. However, he cannot change what actually happened during King John's reign, except insofar as how he reacts to historical events.
Writing series about families provides an opportunity for the creation of more characters. Conquest featured the three Montbryce brothers. Naturally, when they married their heroines, they sired children and provided a plethora of more heroes and heroines. This allowed me to follow the family though successive generations, all the way from 1066 to 1152 in the first Montbryce Legacy series. The sequel series, The Montbryce Dynasty tells the stories of the first generation of Montbryces to rule their earldom in the Calvados as Frenchmen and not Normans. The one drawback to this is that I eventually have to kill off characters I love. Nobody lives forever, not even my favorite characters. Can you guess the name of my favorite hero?
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