iUniverse author Patricia A. Gray creating great characters

In her first guest blog for iUniverse, Patricia A. Gray described how she has developed as a self-published author and now in this second post, she takes us through how she identifies and develops her characters within the storylines of her novels.


Special Characters

“To create flawed characters in everyday situations that we often don’t notice is one of my specialties. For example, my latest novel, “Ash Man,”takes place in an old crematorium in downtown Riverside, California. I pass this cemetery every day during the week. And when I see the smoke coming out of the little, old

Latest novel from iUniverse author Patricia A. Gray

building I wonder. What a strange and fascinating job; so where can we take that? Perhaps the cremator has been there for years and years…maybe he started as a teenager and it’s the only job he’s ever known. When I go to and from work I see some of the homeless community and I wonder what has put them there and what has living on the streets done to their view of life? When they have no walls to live between and they constantly check their backs, how do they trust? What if my cremator was a former homeless kid who ran away from an abusive foster care situation and has grown up trusting no other living soul? And just to make it interesting, maybe all that time around the ovens has allowed him his share of interactions with the souls of people he’s cremated. That part scares him yet doesn’t keep him from doing what he can to help those that have been wronged in their previous lives. How about if the cremator has a record of murder that no one else knows about? A very nice man, he is. But driven to do wrong, he will. That is Raymond Faustanetti: protagonist of “Ash Man”, and an unlikely hero to the dead.”

Continue Reading: iUniverse very professional author Patricia A. Gray talks about how she goes about creating characters for her storylines in her books