You wrote: 

How intimately do you know your characters, Ryan?  Have you
ever come close to crying for them?  [...]  That is my 
counter-challenge: to know your characters _that_ intimately. 

I've always prided myself on knowing my characters and sympathizing 
with them, even with the villains.  By the time I'd finished REUNIONS, 
I felt as if Kei, Yuri, Lord Robin, et al, were a part of me.  In fact, 
they were too much a part of me, which is why I had to make the 
decision to quit writing them.  I began feeling as if Adam Warren was 
raping two of my best friends, and it wasn't a healthy feeling.

------RM