How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?

I’ve never thought to count my characters. I do know that most of my stories start off with a huge ensemble that I have to whittle down as I write. I like having a bunch of people to choose from. Then I either delete them or I combine characters. I guess a novel by me would have an average of about 10 characters. Main character, love interest, best friend, parents, a sibling of some sort, a teacher. I don’t know, I’ve never really thought about it, actually. I just write and edit people as I see fit until I feel that I have the right amount of characters to carry the book.

Do I prefer males or females? That’s a weird question. Hmmm. Well, I prefer to write from a female’s POV (usually a 17-year old), but I have a mix of males and females in my books.