by Catherine Spencer, author of Sicilian Millionaire, Bought Bride (Harlequin Presents Extra, December 2008)

A few years ago, a friend and fellow Harlequin author and I were interviewed on radio and asked, as all writers are sooner or later, “Where do you get the ideas for your stories?”

My friend jumped in right away with an answer. “Story ideas are thick on the ground,” she announced confidently. “It’s a question of picking up the one you want to run with.”

Good thing we weren’t on TV, because I just about dropped my teeth – and in case you’re wondering, I do have the full set nature gave me. Thick on the ground? She had to be kidding! Coming up with new twists on old themes is like mining for gold. There’s a lot of dross that has to be thrown out before a real nugget shows up. But very occasionally, a seemingly inconsequential comment or question can turn up a chunk of the good stuff. Which brings me to my December Presents Extra, Sicilian Millionaire, Bought Bride, and how the plot came into being.

Getting back to teeth, because there is a connection here, I should begin by admitting I’m pathetically dentophobic. Imprisoning me in a chair tilted so that my head’s closer to the floor than my feet is not the way to get me to be your friend. So it was something of a miracle that Sicilian Millionaire, Bought Bride was inspired by one of the technicians at my local dentist’s office.

I had just finished a book, had another one due soon after, and hadn’t a clue what it was going to be about. The technician had on display a photograph of her four grown-up children, two sons and two daughters. Nothing particularly unusual in that, except that she must have given birth with no breaks in between pregnancies, because all four appeared to be about the same age.

Not so, she said, when I asked her. She had two daughters about a year apart. Their father died when they were very young. The boys, born within the same time frame, were her stepsons, the biological children of her best friend who died when they, too, were young. Because both families had been close, the surviving spouses decided to marry and try to create a home situation as close to normal as possible for their respective children. They stayed married for several years, seeing all four through adolescence, and although they’re now divorced, remain very good friends.

That day, I walked out of the clinic with a clean bill of dental health and a story waiting to be told, changed to suit Presents’ readers’ expectations, of course, but the essential elements were all in place. Never would have believed I’d find a nugget of pure gold in that chair!

Enjoy Sicilian Millionaire, Bought Bride, along with my best wishes for a very merry Christmas. May it be full of sugar plums and other yummy things, with not a cavity to show for them!

Catherine

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