The Birth of A Book
I’m always asked what inspires my novels. There isn’t any one thing—often it’s a small detail that I’ll ruminate on until it grows into something worthy of a story. I never know from where inspiration will come, but when I know it, I know it.
Three years ago, a friend hosted a release party for Providence Book 3 in my Apple Hill Series. This is where I met Annie Hinojos and her husband Peter. Little did I know this new friendship would be the inspiration for Book 3 in my Bedford County Series—Mayhem and Moonlight. I had just submitted Night Songs, so Book 3 wasn’t even on my radar yet.
Annie had just released a book of her own—a nonfiction memoir-type story of her mother titled I Caught A Glimpse of Jesus: The Power of A Life Lived for Christ. She had an upcoming release party of her own and, of course, I attended to show my support. The first glimmer of an idea was sparked as she sat on her fireplace hearth sharing her story. When she later revealed that she’d been left at the altar when she was twenty-five—starting her quest for Mr. Perfect—that glimmer became a 100-watt glow.
Annie and I both grew up in large families, but while I had to learn to cook at an early age because my mom worked full-time, Annie was rather…spoiled. She had a traditional, stay-at-home mother who handled all the domestic chores in their home. After deciding the quest for Mr. Perfect was pointless, Annie focused on her career as a teacher then school psychologist. And then she met Peter. As someone who’d always wanted children, she will be the first to tell you she fell in love with Peter’s three boys before she did Peter.
Another little tidbit to use in creating conflict in Mayhem and Moonlight.
Annie and Peter shared some of the most hilarious kitchen fiascos, and Peter swears she nearly burned the kitchen down on more than one occasion. There was the time she caused the gas barbecue to explode, and blithely came inside to serve the meal sans eyebrows. In fact, to this day, Peter does the majority of the cooking for safety-sake—and they’ve been married over twenty years. She took delight in telling me about the day she tried to make potato soup for important guests. One of the ingredients was dill. The only dill she knew about was dill pickles—so that must’ve been what the recipe called for. Fortunately, she had a jar of them in the fridge. It only took one small taste for her to realize she’d made a colossal mistake.
I wanted Lillian Murphy to be just as…uninformed…as Annie, but as a librarian with the knowledge and ability to Google most anything, it wouldn’t have been realistic. Lillian has her own set of challenges, however, which is enough to make Luca (and his propensity for perfection) crazy.
There is more to Annie’s story—and how it pertains to Mayhem and Moonlight—which I’ll cover in tomorrow’s fun fact. Come on back to find out what it is!
You can still get the ebook version of Mayhem and Moonlight for the preorder price of $2.99. Be sure to claim your preorder gift by filling out the form from my publisher’s website. Just have your Amazon order number handy. If you prefer the paperback version, it will be available on April 16th and already includes the preorder gift.
