I was remarking the same thing to myself the other day that I am so very, very much unlike Lucretia (main character of Bystander)
You know, I enjoy writing characters that are really not very much like me. But the funny thing is occasionally they're so different from me that it really takes ME a while to get around to understanding them.
Nothing I've written is published, but in my latest fiction, I had a great story, and a great character, but the two didn't fit quite right, I didn't understand her. I had to muddle through a lot of brainstorming and back story creation before I finally had that moment of "Aha! That's who you are! I GET it!"
The down side being that now that I have made her REAL I'm stuck with yet another character voice in my head.
Landing... It's a little bit of both. I agree that you can find nuances of a writer in their work. I personally love it when I read a character like Harry who is so very detailed and REAL, and then I get to know that the author shares some of the same interests/quirks.
But I think in the field of writing, especially in creating fiction, its very important that the reader not let their emotions get carried away. Would Jim write about his character killing someone as a point of action and intensity in the story? Yes. Would Jim himself use violence, or condone that sort of violence just because he writes about it? Hardly.
But, after all, I might be biased because I'm a pretty brutal writer. In the epic series I have outlined with a co-writer, we kill off a LOT of the important characters. And we do so quite heartlessly. Because the characters no matter how beloved, needed to DIE to further the story. They're martyrs to the cause. I promise.
*She says in her calmest 'I promise I'm not crazy' voice*