Dear Diary,

After several days of thinking and tinkering through Tonya Meiers and who I want her to be, I’ve finally created her first portrait. There’s something about drawing a physical image of a character that really helps solidify who they are.

Tonya is a mature woman, a professional nurse, mother to a young adult daughter and recently divorced.

This is the first blonde haired, blue eyed protagonist I’ve ever written. Looking at her now, I realize she’s sort of a physical combination of several women I’ve known in the past several years, with a heavy influence from one in particular who I rather admire. It’s interesting to see that and take note.

Tonya is a character I admire and respect, but she’s far from perfect – I’m making sure of that. I think her flaws make her more interesting. It’ll be fun to play with that, to find ways of revealing who she is inside moments of action, moments of mystery.

I’m getting excited about it!

See you tomorrow,

KC