I'm a practicing sociologist and a former sociology and criminal justice professor. As a writer, I often feel more like a reporter, following and reporting on the adventures of my characters. Sometimes they throw me totally off track, but I've learned that if i trust them, the stories write themselves. When I fuss about my characters doing crazy stuff, my thirteen-year-old son says "mom, you're in control of your characters." My son is wrong. It recently occurred to me that while my characters exist for me, I don't exist for them. So it sort of begs the question of who's real! The adventure continues.