Got another great question today from a fan on Goodreads

Do the characters ever just talk to you in your head? Like say no thats not what I am going to do I want it to go this way?

Not exactly.

They do talk to me, in a way, during the outlining process. To start with, I only have a vague notion of the characters. I develop the rough outline of the story and the characters in it. As I go through the refining process, I learn about the characters--including lots of background and personality things (much of which never makes it directly into the story).

And, as I learn about the characters, that knowledge impacts the story. Something that sounded reasonable before, doesn't seem to work anymore because the character "wouldn't do that," or "would react differently." That causes me to change the story, which may further refine my understanding of the characters.

A great example from book one is Emma. She was originally intended to be a bit part, just a little touch of color, and I never spent any effort learning about her as a character. And, as a result, she fell very flat in most of her scenes. My editor hated her, and actually suggested I should reduce her page time or consider cutting her entirely. So, I went back, after the fact, and spent the time to fill her out as a character and learn her backstory, find out where she's from.

As I did that, she became far more interesting. Instead of minimizing her role, it actually grew and she became a much bigger impact on Michael throughout the book. In the end, my editor loved Emma. Those changes came from me taking the time to know her--in essence, to let her speak to me.

I do play scenes out in my mind as I plan, and as I write, and if a scene is working well I will hear the characters talking to each other in my mind.

But no, I don't hold conversations with them directly, and I've never been woken up in the middle of the night because Michael had a burning desire to chat.