Last year I wrote a postonhow writing about characters who reinvent themselves can spark a change in your own life. Back then writing about Pippa’s transformation in my book, Instructions For Falling In Love Again, had sparked enormous change in my own life. My post questioned whether writing about change had this magic ability to set off a chain reaction of change deep inside of me.

At the end of last year I became obsessed with creating new characters who were life survivors in my eyes. They were a bit rough around the edges but had a hidden diamond quality to them. Life hadn’t been fair to them but against the odds they’d somehow managed to survive whatever had come their way. No matter what I threw at them they always seemed to bounce back. These characters felt more realistic to me and a lot like some of…