How Did I Meet My Characters?

When it comes to my characters, I can’t really say I have one ‘source of inspiration.’ because that isn’t true. Most of my characters are an amalgam of many people I’ve known through the years. The black priests of the Cathedral religion are, in away, one of those amalgams. I remember the boys in high school who would stand at the bottom of the stairs so they could look up the skirts of girls. I remember the fellow in my High School junior English class who liked to kick people. He wore steel toed work shoes, and if you sat in front of him, you’d best not put your foot out beside your desk, because he’d kick you viciously when he’d walk past. He didn’t care at all if he kicked boys or girls. When you stood next to this fellow, you imagined his soul as dry ice…cold and fuming. His eyes didn’t look alive, and he carried a naked Barbie doll in the pocket of his jeans, folded in half. He’d take it out sometimes and just…stare at it. ‘The Bishop’ lives in my Steampunk/Fantasy novels, but he also lives in our world.