<p>Like all writers I get asked all the time: do I use people I know in my books? No, well not knowingly anyway. I'd find that too distracting. I'd be continually asking myself what the real person would do in the circumstances.</p>
<p>But that doesn't mean you can't steal strangers.</p>
<!--more--><p><a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/man1.jpg"><img src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/man1-tm.jpg" width="200" height="150" alt="man1.jpg" style="float:right;padding-left:4px;" /></a>I'm walking along the Zattere promenade this morning thinking about the coming book. I know that one of the characters in it will be a somewhat eccentric middle-aged man, a solitary individual but likeable too. I'm almost at the Punta della Dogana -- the point where Dorsoduro comes to an end and overlooks the waterfront around the Doge's Palace across the Grand Canal -- when I come across this chap.</p>
<p>He's burly, about fifty and has silver hair with an incredibly long ponytail down his back. He looks as happy as Larry, as if he does this every morning and then spends the evening in the company of his mates. With him is a very large dog that runs around the whole promenade, on and off the jetties, sniffing, equally at home.</p>
<p><a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/dog.jpg"><img src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/dog-tm.jpg" width="200" height="150" alt="dog.jpg" style="float:right;padding-left:4px;" /></a>Of course I've no idea who this chap is. He may be the underbishop of Venice for all I know. But that isn't the point really. He's got the look I need. When I come round to writing that character I've got something to build on.</p>
<p>Here he is with his dog. They're not great pictures -- they rarely are. But they're just prods for the imagination, so this is fine by me.</p>
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