Personally knowing the author of the novel you're reading can change things. That is if you're not a close friend of theirs. You can't help but wonder just how much of them is in the characters with whom you're spending a lot of time. Is that how they think about that subject or is it really the character? Ooohh, that dialogue reminds me a lot of what I heard them say when we were talking . . .
I don't pretend to exclude myself from my characters. Just how much of me is in each one hopefully shall remain a mystery to all but my most intimate friends and relatives. Those composites of people that make up our lives through the ages mesh and mingle and form into "real" people on the pages of stories along with ourselves. We can't really hide. We're there in some capacity. How much is up to us.
How much of yourself do you allow people to see and experience in the words of your novels?
Father, you create the stories. We're often just along for the ride. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Postscript: My computer is down. I'm borrowing my husband's laptop. It will be a strange long ten days or so.