People Watching- My Favorite Pastime.

    One day when someone reads one of my books, that person may find a description or characteristic, or phrase that reminds them of themselves. Well if you ever lived in the Midwest or Northeast or Florida, it just may be you. You see, I like to use the characteristics, mannerisms, and speech patterns of people that I see in everyday life and incorporated them into my stories.

    Let me back up a minute. My name is GD Copeland and I am a people watcher. I have been a people watcher for as long as I can remember. I watch not in the creepy kind of way,  but in a world of wonderment and fascination. People interest me. How they interact with each other. How they behave in public when they are by themselves and think no one is watching. How they behave in public when they are by themselves and know someone is watching.

    I often piggyback on my people-watching by creating backstories for the people that I find fascinating enough to watch.  That old man who was in the navy, but now doesn't like the water at all. That young woman went to college on a track scholarship but dropped out to pursue a music career.

The best of all of this is when I'm able to come up with a good character that turns into a storyline for a book, or that it becomes the storyline for one of my supporting characters. Then I have hit imagination gold.

So if you read one of my books and the mannerisms of one of my characters seems to act a lot like Uncle Ray, just know that I may have spotted your uncle at the Seaport dancing without his cane while he's collecting disability.