Real People?
A reader asks, "Do you ever use real people in your books, people you know rather than historical figures?"

I suppose it's inevitable that sometimes things creep in, but I don't do so intentionally. When my sister read Black Ships she commented that Pythia, old Pythia who raised Gull, looked and sounded like my favorite teacher in high school right down to the red hair. I really had not realized that, that Gull's surrogate mother was so much like the teacher I credit with encouraging my writing. But of course my sister, who also knew her, recogized her immediately. I can only think that Janet Frederick Rhodes, big fan of historical novels that she was and history teacher, would be immensely pleased to show up as Pythia! Sadly, she passed away a few years ago, and I suppose this was my unintentional tribute.

More often it's that people look like people I know but aren't them in any meaningful way. For example, I realized that in my next book, Stealing Fire, the little girl Chloe looks a lot like my own seven year old daughter. But Chloe is very much not my daughter in personality.

Sometimes I do consciously think of someone while writing, with sometimes interesting results. For example, in one of my books that I wrote several years ago but haven't sold yet I could not help but think of the French Revolutionary figure Paul Barras as reminding me of John Edwards. This was before any scandal about Edwards broke, and I thought it was an unfair comparison, as Barras does not at all appear in a flattering light in my book. But then the scandal broke, and the comparison suddenly seemed apt after all!