Award-winning and bestselling author Lauraine Snelling has over 80 books published. She writes inspirational adult novels about real issues centered on themes like forgiveness, loss, domestic violence, and cancer in both contemporary and historical genres. Today, she's talking to us about creating amazing characters, one of her favorite topics.

Two of her favorite books as she got started writing were by Robert Newton Peck - Fiction Is Folks and The Secrets of Successful Fiction. She shows us an example of how she teaches writing classes using one of Peck's ideas.

Lauraine believes all stories are character-driven, even "plot-driven" stories need a character we can root for to keep us engaged. Listen in as she shares years of experience in how to create characters readers will adore.

You can follow her on Facebook at Lauraine Snelling Author, and check out her website to see where she's going to be speaking and to see a list of all of her books. A Breath of Hope, book 2 of the new Under Northern Skies series, will be out on April 4, 2018. You can find it at ChristianBook.com, Amazon, and wherever books are sold.