These are the only pictures I could find. She's a writer named Fiona McIntosh. I read 4 pages of one of her books and I got a very strong type feeling. I looked at the pictures and it seems to have given me the same type feeling. Now I need to know if my first impression screwed with my VI skills in her case. It has happened before.
Fiona McIntosh website FAQ
HOW DID YOU LEARN TO WRITE?
I realise when I think about this question that I have always been writing. I was not one of those children who ever attempted a book but all my working life, my tasks have revolved around the written word. I'm sure that has been the silent but ideal training over 20 years. I think writers who succeed in fiction do have a knack for storytelling - that's the real key that unlocks the secret to why one book might be picked up by a publisher and another might be rejected. Both authors might write really well but one is a natural born storyteller. So although learning to write is something that can be acquired, I feel in my heart that storytelling is something that a writer is blessed with. I could be wrong of course...
HOW DO YOU BUILD YOUR CHARACTERS?
When I wrote my first series I found that I needed a face to begin with. And so I tended to pick an actor/actress . Once I had that face in mind then the personality, voice, etc was built from my own imagination. With Torkyn Gynt, for instance, all I could see was a young Mel Gibson and those incredibly blue eyes of his.
These days I don't need that prop anymore. I guess confidence builds over the years and now I can just build a character from the ground up so to speak. I know very little about my characters when I set out - I'm definitely not one of those people who puts together a life history for them before I begin their tale. I trust myself enough now to let the character emerge over the three books. If they're young then they'll usually make mistakes and hopefully become more canny as the story moves along. It's the decisions by the characters and how their personality develops that drives the story for me. Often characters arrive out of thin air - I've learned not to panic, this is not unusual and simply the creative process hitting its stride. I don't believe in working too hard on characters or knowing them too deeply. I do believe in them being well drawn, however, and I'd far rather put my efforts into defining my characters than world building for instance. And this is probably because years after a book is finished I feel characters remain with readers as a stronger memory than the world itself or the clever dialogue or the amazing magic...etc.