I think I sometimes write about stuff to work it out in my head. Like the dating life of a friend (
"Enamored" and
"Roxy Overload"; these aren't ebooks, BTW, just short stories on my blog). Like the history a daughter of a widow who remarried multiple times (
"Nostalgia"; that one is an ebook). Or the chapter in The Summoning Fire that was based on the story of an Iraq war vet coming home to find everything he thought he had was gone, taken away in an incredibly spiteful way. I hear these stories and they're in my head. So I draw on them.
I don't write straight from life, of course. I can't write anything "straight". But everything around me, everyone around me, influences me in some way. And I usually recognize it.
My wife says that anyone who knows an author should be prepared to see themselves in print. ;-)
It's not that obvvious, though. Most of the time...
-David