A brief about inspiration...

I get most of my inspiration from major emotional events in my life. "What would my character have to experience to feel (blank)?" To a lesser degree people I know influence character creation, but not usually. I think this is why many of my stories have a similar theme, and in the end someone usually dies. Loss is a major component to my writing. Trial is a big part as well. A "hero" figure who isn't a good person, someone you want to hate but you have to have faith in. I like to say none of my characters are based on me (none of them are, though I do have many female leads), but all of them - good and bad - reflect a part of me. Like, in one of my personal favorite pieces, the lead pair is absolutely despicable: they do horrible things to each other, they have zero regard for others, and they are just generally violent, vengeful people. But they work, because they're ultimately not the biggest evil. I have genuinely good characters sometimes too, but being good generally leads to destruction. Good people sacrifice, they get torn apart by the bad. Or they get ignored. Hey, nice guys finish last, right?