What makes your hero real?

I was wondering what to blog about and thought I might share a weird thing that happened.
I have character named Peter Delaware, or Del as he’s known to most of his friends, in a book (that is yet to see the mess of an editors desk), but he’s been a main character in a series I’ve written and popping up in my head a lot lately.
I was in the car, when a Nickleback song came on the radio, and I’m not sure why, but it suddenly occurred to me that this was what Del sounded like- no, he’s not a singer, but something about the gravely tone of Nickelback- reminds me of Del…okay so this may not be a mind blowing piece of information for anyone else - since very few people have even heard of Peter Delaware, but it was a very big moment for me, to have a little piece of reality, blur with my characters.
I had an image of my hero in Fallout- Jake Holden, singing Karaoke with his mates to Cold Chisel – good old beer songs like Khe Sanh, and Cheap wine- but he doesn’t have a Scottish/Aussie accent like Jimmy Barnes! He just likes the music- I don’t have a voice that’s hit me as purely, Jake yet, but I’ll let you know if I ever hear it!
So all this got me thinking- as it does…
Do you have anything that reminds you of your characters?
I’d love to hear about it. Maybe like Del- there’s a song or a voice that sparks that little bit of a reaction. Maybe it’s the look of a certain Actor, I’m sure there are lots of different ways we relate to our characters, and I’d love to know.
For all my reader friends, I’d love to know if you get any images or similarities for characters you’ve read in your favourite books as well.

oh the dilemma

Arrrr... what to do , what to do?
So I have a new MSS out at the publishers...feeling confident about it, love the story, had a long hard look at it and with wonderful input from my editor, managed to shape and build it into the story it was supposed to be! success!... except, it has a sequel...which now, try as I may, I can not make work!
It was written quite a while ago, so I had to go through and completely redesign stuff like, technology (these people didn't even have a mobile in the first draft! and they stole evidence from a computer on a floppy disk!!!!)
NOW, I've just decided, just about NOTHING in the entire plot, makes sense or works! nothing except the characters and the chemistry, and the location... everything else NADA!
Having a small melt down over it and really not sure what I should do at this stage. I know no one ever said this gig was supposed to be easy but really, re-writing entire MSS is the pits!
Oh well back to the drawing board...

FALLOUT

The release date for my first book, FALLOUT has been announced- 17th February, 2010!

Fallout Release date

My first novel FALLOUT has a release date....19th February 2010!