6. I Really Like These Characters
Sometimes you get so attached to characters that you just can’t confine them to one book. Two of the three protagonists in “Someone They Can Trust”, my latest novel manuscript, first showed up in short stories in my collection, “Christmas on Pleasant Hill”.
Matt was a funny, talented, self- deprecating music minister who pulled off a bizarre but successful Christmas concert in, “The Best Christmas Concert Ever”. Janice was an attractive woman recovering from a wrenching divorce, the departure of her grown children, and a difficult mother needing care in “The Painting”. I just had to see what was going to happen next for these people I liked so much! The third lead character in the novel, Maya, has not appeared in any other book, but has lived in my head for a few decades. I have no idea where she came from!
All three of them are my favorites. That’s why I wrote this book.
I was so glad when some of the characters from your Christmas stories also appeared in your new novel, Someone You Can Trust. You have a gift for making readers care about the “people” in your stories!
I so appreciate that Nancy. So much energy goes into figuring out backstory – it seems a shame to only use them once!