Tasha asked Josh Lanyon:

You have created so many amazing characters and I wanted to ask how you keep track of them. If you write a sequel for example, do you read the books again, or do you keep notes on your characters? If yes, do you have a special system? Their personalities always seem so distinct and in character, even if you've written other novels in between parts of a series.

Josh Lanyon Thank you, Natasha! That's a great question.

I keep general notes on series characters, yes. The first book will usually be fairly light in details because (as in real life) we don't want to know everything about someone we've just met in the first five minutes. As the series goes on, I drop more and more information and details, and I try to make sure to add all that to the existing notes. I don't always remember, but it makes life so much easier when I do.

I also skim the original books, and now that I have so many books in audio, I'll often listen to the audio (which has turned out to be unexpectedly helpful and a real time saver).

The challenge is always to be true to the characters (even if years have passed since I've written them) and yet to show continual growth and change -- whether for good or bad, there has to be movement. They can't change too much or too quickly though or readers get upset that they're "not the same people."

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