"Linda Goodman's Sun Signs"

I had not heard of the book, "Linda Goodman's Sun Signs," until I attended a writers' conference in Raleigh, N.C. The speaker, Cherry Adair, praised it and encouraged the 70 people in the auditorium to consider using it as a guide to develop characters in novels. She emphasized that novelists should choose a birthday for their main characters and NEVER change it. I took her advice, chose birthdays and bought Goodman's book.

I read about my own sign first and disagree with much of what is written in the book. Then I read my husband's sign and knew he didn't fit the mold in the least. In a novel, though, we set real life aside and create our own worlds and people, so this book is a start to helping choose traits for our characters.

My heroine in my work-in-progress, "Red Diamonds,"s is a libra.  What a coincidence! Many of Tessa's characteristics fit her sign! I will not change what doesn't fit because no one fits a mold in its entirety, even fictional characters.

If nothing else, the book is a start to helping develop believable characters.