Inspiring New Arrival

Greetings from Texas. I just arrived home after spending the night in my daughter's hospital room, helping her with their new daughter. Yes, my second granddaughter was born on Saturday, a few days before her scheduled delivery date. She and her mother are fine, getting to know each other and napping whenever they can.

In times like these (and really, how many "times like these" do we have our lives?) I do think of the values and premises of Harlequin American Romances. Heart, home and family. The themes of destiny, surprise pregnancies, humorous and near disastrous weddings, opposites attracting, families pulling together, and making a home together are all evident in our family, and that's just the past two years!

My two granddaughters are named after a grandmother (Lillian) and two great-grandmothers (Roxie and Grace) on my husband's side of the family. That continues the family traditions and gives them a link to the past, even though they will never know these women. Roxie lived to be 101 years old and kept her own home until she was 100. Grace was the oldest daughter and moved with her family from their comfortable farm in the Brazos River valley to a "soddy" in Oklahoma in the late nineteenth century. What stories she could tell! I wish she'd been a writer.

I thought about those family links a lot when I wrote my June release, An Honorable Texan. At the beginning of the book, the hero is an unhappy veteran who returns home to find everything changed. For someone who tries hard to maintain the past, this is a difficult pill to swallow. I hope he redeems himself with his love for his surprise son and his respect for the baby's mother, but he was a difficult hero to write. I like to write the happy-go-lucky heroes a lot, but like our relatives, we don't always get to decide. Sometimes, a character just walks through the door and says, "write about me!"

Thanks for reading about my good news. Roxie Grace will be coming home on Wednesday, and now I'm going to take a nap to get ready for that happy event. Best wishes!

Victoria