Well, one day I was feeling brave and took my camera into town to get the shot and waltzed into Specsavers, peered around and asked at the desk.
Cue vacant gazes.
But then I described the woman in question and a girl came over and told me she had left.
My shoulders fell.
But apparently, she was still in town and now working at a newsagents on the other side.
Happy face again.
So I followed the directions across to the far side of town and found ... no one. Until … the final newsagent on the road quizzed me about the girl and pointed around the corner. It was my last shot.
I took my courage in hand and walked into the shop around the corner and there she was. What were the chances?
There was nobody else in the shop, so I had to speak. Now how do you say, ‘you look like the character I’ve put in my novel and I’ve tracked you down across the city’ without sounding like a murderous freak!? Tricky, eh?
But she was lovely, nervous, at the start, bless her, but she allowed me the picture and I went home with my objective complete. Big tick.
Although this girl wasn’t the actual person I put in my story, I reckon she deserves a mention for being brave enough to have come face to face with that, but in the next book I’m going to tell you about, I will reveal the first character I based on an actual person. All will be revealed in the recovery room… The Summer We Loved.