Elizabeth Banks
Lauren from Jia's Charms
First saw Elizabeth Banks in Slither, which is still one of my favorite movies. When I started work on Jia's Charms, I thought she'd be perfect for Lauren.
Lauren looks exactly like the quintessential blond-perfect-princess type. Vance thinks she's way out of his league and so doesn't even try; Wil thinks she's out of his league but tries anyway. What should've been a real-life version of "Uptown Girl" ends badly: her parents do not react well to her pregnancy, and she panics and runs, leaving Wil to raise their daughter. Over a decade later, Vance, who's still friends with both of them, engineers a meeting.
While a lot of the characters I write are completely from my imagination, several have traits that I nab from myself (some call it writing what you know, I call it cheap therapy. ;-)). Lauren and I have depression/PPD in common.