"So where’d that come from?"
I get asked this a lot. My stories tend to be a bit...unusual...and people often ask me where all that stuff comes from. Most of it I don’t know, but sometimes life hands you the perfect invitation to have a little fun in fiction.
My San Francisco books are just this, and for the most darling of reasons: my nieces.
The original draft of MASKED BY MOONLIGHT was written years ago. Matthew and Georgia showed up in my brain way back when, and I was delighted to get to give them their story when the manuscript went to contract. Then my brother announced the birth of his baby girl, and that her name was Georgia. He had no idea I was working on a book about a woman named Georgia. I, of course, was tickled. Georgia (the real one) is too small to predict if she lives up to her literary counterpart. Still, she’s already charmed me to pieces over the literary connection; when she finally got a hold of a copy, she thumbed through the pages and circled her name. Everywhere. Even if she’s too young to understand what it is crazy Aunt Allie does for a living, the picture of her going at my book with a crayon makes me grin from ear to ear. I hope her mom and dad save that copy for decades.
So, naturally, when talk turned to MISSION OF HOPE as a sequel, I knew our hero Quinn (who is only a boy in MOONLIGHT) just had to fall for a woman named Nora. Nora, of course, being my other niece and Georgia’s older sister. This time I got to craft the fictional woman with the real-life girl in my head, and that was tremendous fun. Nora is still too young to read her heroine’s adventures, but hopefully old enough to enjoy the gift I’m all-too-delighted to give her. How many people in the world get the privilege of turning their nieces into historical romance heroines? And Nora is such a wonderful, strong, resourceful, compassionate character--how gratifying to craft her the perfect dashing hero in Quinn Freeman! If I end up with a nephew-in-law named Quinn, I may have to go into the matchmaking business...
Quinn and Nora are some of my favorite characters to date--their charming namesakes notwithstanding. I had a ball writing this book. Despite the earthquake scenario, I had more fun than anyone ought to getting this story down on the page. And I hope it shows as you read it as well.
I believe everyone has a heroine or hero in them...you just have to look hard enough.
Or have a crazy Aunt Allie.
BOOK INFO:MISSION OF HOPE
by Allie Pleiter
Steeple Hill Love Inspired Historical
August 2010
ISBN#: 978-0-373-82842-5
BACK COVER COPY:
No one knows who he is or where he’s from. But witnesses throughout San Francisco report a masked man in black is bringing supplies--and badly needed hope--to homeless earthquake survivors. Some believe that the city’s gallant rescuer is a gentleman of wealth. But others whisper that he is a working class man with courage as great as his faith. And rumor has it that one of the city’s most spirited society belles is helping him against her family’s wishes. What can be confirmed is that the masked messenger will need more than a miracle to escape those on his trail--and win the woman risking everything to save him...
ONE SENTENCE BOOK DESCRIPTION:
The gallant sequel to Pleiter's San Francisco historical, "Masked by Moonlight," MISSION OF HOPE follows an unlikely hero and his surprising young love as the pair help the city heal from it's massive 1906 earthquake.
EXCERPT:
She looked right into his eyes, and Quinn felt his stomach drop out through what was left of the soles of his shoes. “You’ll probably think it’s silly, but you’ve been such an encouragement to me. Here I was thinking God had left me alone, and you do all those things—those little but very big things—that let me know He’s still minding my path. You’re an answer to my prayers, Quinn Freeman. How does that make you feel?”
He knew the exact moment his heart left his body. The exact instant it disobeyed all the good and solid reasons he had for not pining over Nora Longstreet and left to follow her of its own accord. He stared at her, knowing his affections had just overstepped all kinds of bounds and not caring. He no longer had any choice in the matter. “I’m thinking it might not be wise to answer that, Miss Longstreet.”
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AUTHOR BIO:
An avid knitter, coffee junkie, and devoted chocoholic, Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction. The enthusiastic but slightly untidy mother of two, Allie spends her days writing books, buying yarn, and finding new ways to avoid housework. Allie hails from Connecticut, moved to the midwest to attend Northwestern University, and currently lives outside Chicago, Illinois. The “dare from a friend” to begin writing has produced two parenting books, twelve novels, and various national speaking engagements on faith, women’s issues, and writing. Visit her website at www.alliepleiter.com or her knitting blog at www.DestiKNITions.blogspot.com
3 comments:
Mission of Hope sounds like great reading. It's not easy for me to imagine an earthquake in California so long ago. This book is going to sell like crazy.
Thanks, Kathy. Lots of people, knowing I put a lot of humor into my writing, were looking at me sideways when I said I was writing about the San Francisco 1906 earthquake. The people on the plane, for example, sitting next to me and my 24 disaster books :) But I'm really writing about the months after the quake, as the world rebuilt itself and people rebuilt their homes and lives. Lots of room for dashing heroism and romantic bravery!
And YES, I do hope it sells like crazy!
Gotta love those chocoholics. They can crank out a story!
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