User blog comment:Blacknumber1/Personal Pastas/@comment-25383866-20150117130013

I always base characters and settings on places, things and people I've known. Even if it's purely fantastical, the visual is always the result of an image that I've seen or experienced. For instance, the character of Harry Trencher in my story Household Menageries is partly based on a guy I worked with for a couple of years. The story Patient Zero stemmed from the way my leg felt when I developed MRSA on it two summers ago.

I think it's impossible to write anything without putting a part of yourself into it. There's no such thing as objectivity when it comes to fiction.