Breathe...

Have you ever read a book where it seems as though the characters are someone you've met before? Do you feel like you know there life history, or should? Some writers have a talent for making their characters breathe, but how do they do it? Is it the deep point of view we hear so much about? Their emotional and physical encounters with each other? Their past? Their growth through the novel? Or is it simply an innate ability on the author's part, a talent that can't be taught? Maybe its a little bit of all of those things.

Nothing ruins a book more for me than flat characters. If I can't see, hear, and feel them and their emotions, how will they imprint the story in my mind?

I give my hero/heroine pasts and so much conflict it scares even me. Inner thoughts (innerds as one of my editors calls it) are a great way to see inside the character's mind.
On another note, I got the cover for Earth Enchanted in yesterday. It's a smidge racy so I won't post it up, but if you'd like to see it. http://www.lyricalpress.com/brynna_curry
Beth (who is going back to refinishing the dining room hardwood and laying down tile. yip. eee.)