The topic for this month? What characters in other author's books have not left your mind? Have you written a character who wouldn't leave you? Why do you think this happens?
Once again, great topic! One of the characters I think about still, is Lestat, from Anne Rice's books. He was kind of a jerk in Interview With a Vampire, but I really got to know him, and like him, in Lestat. This is when he opens up about what it's like to be eternal, and why on earth, if you are immortal, would you care to interact with ephemeral beings? Humans are important to vampires for one thing: blood. Other than that, we don't live long enough for them to bother to get to know. The flip side of that is that if they grow to love an ephemeral mortal, they will experience heartache when that person grows old and dies. Talk about a buzz-kill for your immortality!
Why does Lestat live in my mind still, over 20 years later? I think because we all want to be immortal, but none of us bother to think about what that would mean. The resources of our tiny planet are already strained to support the living. How would we find room for all if people started not dying? And the question I've mentioned before as one of my favorites, can be paraphrased as, if you could live forever, would you improve and become a better person? Or would you become an even bigger jerk, now that you don't fear someone might kill you?
As for my own characters, I fall in love with each of my heroes...that's part of why I like to write romance. I love to experience that new thrill of falling in love...all the while, remaining true to my husband, of course! :-D
Some of my characters continue to "talk" to me after I finish the book they're in, but usually it's because they want me to write them into a sequel, where someone else's romance will be the focus, but they will be allowed to continue to show me their lives. And these days, since I'm working so much, and have NO time to write, some of the characters in books I have almost finished, are taking turns either sulking, and not talking to me at all...or yelling at me loudly, trying to force me to listen to them and finish their stories. They want to live in the minds of readers, and they can't do that until I finish their books!
Head on over to the next author on the list, to see what characters are still living in her mind:
http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea