Only two official weeks of summer left! While I won’t miss the warmer weather, I will miss the variety of stories available at The Summer ReadBlogshop (courtesy of Clare London!) and I thought it would be fun to do a little behind-the-scenes for my stories with a summertime bent. You can visit me here on the blog every Thursday to follow along.
Today’s behind the scenes takes from Michigan to Las Vegas in the novel, DriveMe Home. Las Vegas isn’t just a glamorous, glitzy playground for high rollers, Elvis impersonators, and blushing newlyweds. It’s also a seedy, worn-out dumping ground for the lonely, the broken, and the lost. Eric Moss is one of those drifters, just marking time, until he meets two very different men, both of whom could change his life.
I lived in Nevada for a time and felt its dry, desert locale was the perfect place to illustrate the theme of Eric (the main character) coming back to life much as the desert itself blooms after a long drought. He has to learn how to make friends. trust others, and find somewhere in the barren landscape his life has become that bit of treasure we all search for in our lives – love for himself once again.
Eric is an interesting character in that many readers seem to project meaning and emotion on to him. One thing I strive to do is to place real people in my stories, people with thinning hair or expanding waistlines – not just romantic standards, and Eric’s struggle, his drive if you will, to find himself seems to resonate with a lot of my readers.
DriveMe Home is the only story other than anthologies to so far be published in paperback. I still remember the thrill of holding my first copy in my hands. Dark Diva Reviews gave the story 5 Divas, and it was both a December 2009 Top Pick and a recommended read. You can read the Dark Diva review HERE.
In the meantime you can stop by The Summer Read Blogshop and scroll through wave after wave of authors and titles featuring sun, fun, and plenty of hot men. Dive in and find your new favorite.