My favorite place for finding character development is while traveling and at airports. One thing I have noted in this globe is that people are very hesitant to abandon their culture. It makes them feel naked. They feel comfortable with their own kind, as in, "birds of a feather flock together."

I am the exact opposite. I dislike being stereotyped and pigeonholed, and the minute somebody tries to put me in their own comfort zone, I move on. Boredom is a word which does not exist in any of my dictionaries. A very good friend once said, "you can be on top of a mountain all by yourself and find something interesting to do. You don't seem to need anybody - you live in a world of your own." I guess the first thing I would do is to see whether there was an echo after I started singing, 'The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Music,' (Rogers and Hammerstein.) After that I would probably be singing 'Edelweiss' and looking for the flowers.

Admittedly, it is very difficult to refrain from talking about politics because they so much influence the outcome of our lives, and I have very definite opinions on that subject, but like religion, I find nobody can agree. When traveling around I try not to speak English, I immerse myself in whatever local customs prevail, even doing what the Romans do when I am in Rome, which keeps me out of a lot of trouble. And yet, I did an about-face and wrote a book on the subject of religion: FORBIDDEN PASSION.

When we get older we tend to become very set in our ways, or our parents' ways, and become stubborn. We stunt our own growth by not flying free. Truth to one person is another's poison.

Finding personalities is easy, and intermixing their hidden agendas develops the drama and makes the story viable. The ending - well - that's another problem. You never can satisfy your audience. Some people want the protagonists to marry, others want their own brand of justice, still others want them to be free of their emotional entanglements, and so on.

Personality is a very complicated thing because people are multi-faceted and who wants to read about a one-dimensional character and guess the ending? Just when you think you know someone, he/she does something totally out of character and aims to break free of moral and social restraints, which he/she placed on themselves to begin with.

He/she may act in a lawful manner but be suffering inwardly. The protagonist may accidentally break the law, yet not be a bad person. He/she may even commit a sin and be ridiculed. But whose sin? And then again, perfection may come at a very high price. The price of that individual's happiness.

I know publishers prefer a happy ending but I like the idea of scandal. Nowadays a broken heart perpetrated by the wrong person will run to many editions. We can't seem to get away from the Romeo et Juliet tragedy.

Every man of ambition has to fight with his own weapons. What America worships is wealth, and Europe idolizes history. South America is still stuck in the Vatican mold. To succeed one must have selfishness and be neither concerned with greed nor conscience. But how many of us can set aside family control for independence of spirit?

All novels have to come to an end, and this is where I can play God with my characters. I can eliminate them, marry them to each other, or write a surprise twist.

I write for myself, and not for the publishing industry, lawyers, Hollywood, or other entities who would want to influence my art with commercialization. But realistically speaking, and knowing that a certain amount of commercialization must take place, I listen to the experts. With a compromise, the end result is a book one can lose oneself in for a few hours, regardless of the reader's desired ending.

Alinka Zyrmont

"He thought he saw an Argument That proved he was the Pope: He looked again, and found it was A Bar of Mottled Soap. 'A fact so dread', he faintly said, 'Extinguishes all hope!"

Lewis Carroll

The Son's Ages:

Problem: At first, two of the ages are together equal to the third. A few years afterwards, two of them are together double of the third. When the number of years since the first occasion is two-thirds of the sum of the ages on that occasion, one age is 21. What are the other two?

Lewis Carroll, a/k/a Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Mathematical Lecturer, Oxford

Answer - to be given in my next Tropical Tale, but I would like readers to send me their answers. I will be honest. I did not get the correct answer because I hate algebra, but I was close. The first person to send me the correct answers will receive a free copy of FORBIDDEN PASSION, when it is released in January. The earliest email date and time wins.