My favorite creation (Brian Katcher)

So which character of mine is my favorite? Well, that's like asking which of your children is your favorite. Easy for me to answer, I only have one daughter. But my books...my characters...how to choose?

Well, they always say your first child is your favorite (at least that's what I tell my younger sister), so one contender would be Leon Sanders, from my first book Playing With Matches.

Leon is very obviously an author avatar. He's 100% based on myself in high school: smart, funny, and terrified of girls. He could make a claim as to my favorite character.

Then, of course, there's Ana, from The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak.

I have real trouble writing female POV characters. In fact, to date, she's the only female point of view character in any of my published books. So she'll definitely always have a place in my heart.

But there is only one favorite:

This is my most popular book, but also my most controversial. Some readers said that I absolutely captured the transgender experience. A few even told me the book gave them the courage to start living as their authentic self.

But others hated it, saying I completely blew it, the book got major facts wrong, that the ending was unnecessarily depressing, and that my author photo was pompous. One guy wrote me from Luxembourg to tell me my book sucked.

But no one ever disliked Sage, the transgender girl and love interest of Almost Perfect. Some people loathed Logan, the narrator, but no one ever said anything negative about Sage. People would rage on her behalf, asking how I could be so cruel to someone so special, and how she didn't deserve a jerk like Logan.

And when readers bond with your character, even when they hated the book, you know you've done your job.

Hats off to you, Sage Hendricks. I'll never write another like you. You're my favorite.

Though that mental patient guy in Everyone Dies in the End is a close second.