Picturing Your MC

When you write, you've got a picture in your mind for your characters. It's fun to find something on the Internet to match, give your people a face. I've found that hunting down look-alikes isn't easy when your MC is not a gorgeous person. She's so-so in looks. Attractive, but not signing up for Top Model. For my latest book, I found lots of good stuff for my other characters. I have a folder full of physical scenes and bad-ass other characters.

My MC? Not so easy to find a 30-something, shoulder-length brown haired woman with hazel eyes who thinks she looks like a tall lawn gnome.

Why do the MCs have to be knock-out gorgeous. No, I don't subscribe to the theory that putting your hair in a bun and wearing glasses can make the heroine homely until she lets down that hair and takes off the horn-rims.

As I shopped Google images for somebody who looks like the person I had in mind, it struck me (whap!) that she looked like Glenda Jackson as a young woman. If you don't know Glenda, then hie thee to Google and educate yourself. She exudes strength and confidence. She played Elizabeth R with a semi-bald head and it worked.

Meet Kameron McBride, my not-so-gorgeous, but seriously intelligent and wonderful MC. Okay, so I look just a teensy bit like Glenda Jackson.

She's got that inner Right Stuff that makes her beautiful. So, my MC officially looks like Glenda Jackson. So there.