As a wrap up to launch week for The Captive Heart, here are a few random behind-the-scenes factoids about the inspiration for the story.

The Inspiration Behind the Plot

Currently our freedoms are being chipped away, piece by piece, to the point that makes me wonder where will it all end. I imagined what it might be like to have my freedom taken away completely . . . and so was born The Captive Heart. I crafted the heroine to experience the loss of everything then took her on a journey to learn to cope with that loss.

The Inspiration Behind the Setting

Backcountry South Carolina is no more. Oh, don’t get me wrong. There are still rolling hills with drop-jaw gorgeous scenery, but the wildness, the unpredictability is buried in history. Did you know buffalo used to roam in that southern region? Neither did I until I did some digging. I tried to give the reader a snapshot of the area as it was in the eighteenth century, because it’s completely different than what it is today.

Research That Inspired

Before and during the writing of Captive Heart, I did lots of reading. My preferred haunt is the fiction realm but to write this story and stay true to the area, I had to read lots of sometimes dry historical non-fiction. Let’s just say I drank lots of coffee. On the flip side, though, I had a blast touring the area and hiking the same trails that my hero and heroine would’ve roamed.

I also couldn’t have done this without the aid of my rural writing buddies. As a city girl, I don’t know which end is up on a horse. Okay, so I suppose I could’ve figured that out, but sheesh! There’s a lot to the handling and care of a horse that I didn’t know about.

What's Next?

Currently I'm working on so many projects that that I’m kind of schizophrenic. It's tough trying to separate myself from all the characters clamoring in my head. My biggest project, though, is a holiday project that will release one book for the next 3 years.

Once Upon a Dicken’s Christmas is a Victorian collection of heart-warming yet suspenseful Christmas stories. And actually the first story, 12 Days at Bleakly Manor, carries the same theme of freedom but as experienced by the hero’s point of view (as opposed to the heroine's point-of-view in The Captive Heart). Here’s a blurb:

Imprisoned unjustly, Benjamin Lane wants nothing more than freedom and a second chance to claim the woman he loves—but how can Clara Chapman possibly believe in the man who stole her family’s fortune and abandoned her at the altar?

And here's your chance to win a signed copy of The Captive Heart…a Rafflecopter giveaway.