Author's Corner...

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March 30, 2023

As "Full Circle" opens, it's mid-April...Gabriel has been home from the hospital for only a few weeks, and is struggling in the early stages of his heart attack recovery.  Prescribed medications, although necessary and well-intended, have played havoc with his body in ways he was unprepared for.  Since passion and sex is such an important part of their relationship, Gabriel's biggest fear is not being able to be intimate with, and please his husband...but, he finds a way.    I believe very fervently that you must have passion in a relationship for it to last...they say that over time, it dies, so it's important to make sure you are best friends, too, but I don't believe  any part of a relationship should die, or never be there to begin with.  Every aspect of a relationship is integral to the other.  Gabriel understands this, and his love for James prompts him to crawl just far enough out of his current comfort zone to prove his love.  It needed to be sexy, yet empathetic to his condition, while having a spin of humor to the situation that has become one of my signatures when writing the characters, especially during some serious moments.  Humor is a wonderful anecdote for anything. 

Read about this sexy but tender moment by following the Facebook link, below.

In the creation of the Moreau family, my first priority was to make them tangible and familiar to the reader.  One of the oldest, most established Old Money families in Philadelphia, I didn't want them to be a cliché, white, privileged group of pompous individuals.  I wanted them to be very real, almost comically ordinary, in contrast to their station.  Despite the large house, fleet of cars, prep schools, office building with their name on it, and permanent box at the Philadelphia Academy of Music, the Moreaus live very simply, from day to day.  They only employ two servants, who dress in regular clothes and are more like family members themselves.  Bryce and Gabriel grew up mowing the lawn and washing the cars on weekends.  The family orders in pizza from Zesto in Bryn Mawr, and have casual dinner pizza parties.  In "New Beginnings," Gabriel mentions to James that he has only been to Paris twice before their honeymoon.  Claire Moreau spends much of her time organizing and heading up various charities; when they were boys, she would take Bryce and Gabriel to soup kitchens to help out.  Edward Moreau introduced the boys to the office very young, and refused to give them official job titles until they were well into adulthood, so they didn't take advantage of them at too young an age.  When they need to polish up, they certainly do, and tuxedos, gowns, jewelry, and romantic glitz is displayed when they host their annual holiday party, or go as a family to the ballet.  The family is also full of warmth and humor.  They are very affectionate and tactile.  Those traits evolve as the books progress, and characters became more established.  When James first meets Gabriel's family at their home, Andover, he is surprised, and makes mention a few times, of how normal and down-to-earth the family is.  In the first chapter of "Full Circle," Gabriel is rearranging his own closet...the clothes may be Brooks Brothers, but he's putting everything on hangers himself.  It's just the little things like this that, I feel, make the family so much more interesting and endearing to me, and hopefully, the reader, too.  They do have one helluva sailing yacht, though...

February 10, 2023

From the beginning, characters have a way of creating themselves...as characters interact with one another, personalities form.  I knew I wanted Gabriel and Bryce to be extremely close...much closer than most siblings; what I didn't count on was their relationship to become so special and close, a bit of romantic intimacy was formed, but that was simply how their dynamic played out.  The two of them share some very intense, emotional journeys together, that bond them intimately...Gabriel's heart attack, their car accident, Bryce actually dying for a moment in the ER until Gabriel begins speaking to him, and he comes back...shared experiences, especially traumatic ones, unquestionably bring two people much closer than normal.  Running with this, I wanted to address a social taboo, and give people a new perspective on it.  Is their romantic attraction purely sexual?  Absolutely not.  While they do acknowledge there is a physical attraction between them, it's MUCH more about the deep, emotional bond they have, and the need to express their feelings in a more intimate way...thus, a hug is no longer enough sometimes; perhaps a kiss, or holding each other while spooning, is needed.  There's a fine line between innocent and beautiful, and inappropriate.  The question is, where IS that line?  My objective is not to water down the passionate, true love between Gabriel and James, but to show that soulmates come in different forms, and so do romantic feelings between people, even siblings as close as Gabriel and Bryce.  Both brothers know they are bound by love and loyalty to James and Helena, and never do either cross a line; they establish that early on, when they finally confront and discuss their mutual feelings in "Full Circle"...but nevertheless, they are still bound to each other, too.  I want the reader to understand and feel sympathetic to their unique situation.  So, putting it on paper can be a challenge; however, I believe the characters and their wonderful, personal dynamic is so endearing, the reader will understand, and even welcome the little platonic romance between the soulmate brothers.