Pinpointing the inspiration behind any of my books is difficult, and I'll tell you why. Have you ever heard a song that caused goosebumps on your skin? Or a scene in a movie that had you in awe? That is me with a combination of both. I have heard so many songs and seen so many movie scenes that have morphed into my dreams.
I'm not talking about copying a movie scene into a scene in my books. That's illegal. Almost every single spark of an idea I have had for a story has been a scene in my head that I watched from a third person's view in my dreams. I'm standing there watching a part of a story unfold, except it's just one tiny piece and I have to figure out the rest of it. One idea transforms into several more and so on until I have somewhat of a story. But a story is more than just a string of scenes. There has to be a plot. There has to be a theme. Characters, who are deep and flawed, like they are real people.
My inspiration behind The Gangster's Daughter stemmed from a single idea of a modern-day betrothal. I love history and history is what I have always written. There were several ways I tried to bend this story into a historical piece, but no matter how hard I tried, it wouldn't fit that way. And I couldn't be happier that it turned out how it did. This book didn't belong to the historical romance genre. It's romantic suspense through and through.
I needed Regan to be a strong, independent woman and she could do that best in the modern day world. It's true that many women have fought decade after decade for equal rights, and rightly so! But I felt that she would have been her best person today rather than say…1910's or 1920's.
The wonderful thing about story-weaving is that you can make up anything you want to, as long as the plot and characters are strong. Without those, you've got nothing.
I don't want to give away too much until people have a chance to actually read the book! For those of you who have signed up for my email list, in my July newsletter I've shared some of my playlist. My playlists are the inspiration behind everything I write. I thrive on music. I urge you to look up some of those songs and give them a listen, and after you read the book – try to picture a scene to one of those songs! And that is my inspiration behind every word I write.