Dear Ms. Barnes, Is Sloane in The Naturals based (or supposed to resemble) Dr. Spencer Reid in Criminal Minds. I love Criminal Minds and The Naturals and have noticed that both Sloane and Reid are geniuses, have family in Las Vegas, were abandoned by the

Sloane isn’t based on or inspired by the Reid character per se, but she WAS inspired by a general character archetype: the socially awkward, better-with-fact-and-numbers-than-people genius. This is a character we see pretty frequently in fiction–and when I sat down to write Sloane, I was very conscious of the fact that it’s a lot rarer to see a female character who fits this archetype than a male character. And I do think Sloane’s experiences are different in key ways by virtue of her being f...