BEHIND THE STORY OF LANCASTER HOUSE

What inspired me to write a paranormal romance? 

I write romance in all of its many sub-genres: paranormal, suspense, contemporary. The main theme is always ROMANCE. It’s what I love to write. My daughter called me one day and challenged me to write a paranormal story. It’s her favorite genre—and she doesn’t really enjoy romantic angst in other forms. Of course, I begged her to read all of my other books, so really she just wanted me to write something she would LOVE. (Although she did enjoy my other books, they just weren’t exactly her cup of tea—besides, who wants to read a romance novel written by their mother? Actually one of my other daughters is my BIGGEST fan, but I digress.) “Mom,” she said, “Let’s both write a paranormal story and see what comes of them.” I responded with, “My mind just doesn’t think that way.” Truth be told, I didn’t really want to write anything paranormal and I kinda dismissed the whole idea pretty quickly, even though I found myself promising her I’d think about a plot as we hung up.

Paranormal? Really? No way, I thought, I write about sweet ROMANCE, not things that go bump in the night. Not going to happen, I told myself. This was during the Twilight craze (has that ended?) and I figured the world had seen enough paranormal! Although I love Twilight, I admit it. Okay, back to the story. At about this same time, I was ridiculously addicted to American Idol. With the crazed excitement of a groupie, I watched every minute of the Season 8 finale.

And then it happened.

Who’d of thought that an American Idol performance could inspire a 90,000 word novel? Not me. But it did. Go figure.

COMING NEXT: Which American Idol performance inspired Lancaster House? (just click and follow!)

This was originally posted during a book tour at Unputdownable Books.