I woke up to these Birthday Flowers on my kitchen table. Thanks, honey! 🙂

As a birthday present, galley proofs for The Right Chord have landed in my inbox. I need to turn them around in a hurry to my editor. Before tackling that oh-so-fun job, I wanted to introduce a new character to the Audubon Springs Family. Kit Maggio grew up with the Iuliano Brothers, but she hasn’t stepped foot in Audubon Springs for 15 years in part because of the heartache Vince handed her on a silver platter.

So…why am I thinking about Kit today of all days? Readers like to ask me if I know the characters in my books, as in…are any of the characters based on someone I know. The answer is yes and no. Pieces of me and the people I know make their way into a character, but my characters are pretty much 100% fictionalize. (Note: I do like to joke that Annie is based on my Beta Reader, Lori, and she is…but really she’s just a hint of her).

While I am a mom and I dream of success as an author like Emma, and while I’d love to own a bookstore like Annie, I most closely identify with Kit. She is my birthday sister.  I don’t want to give away too much of the story but here are few interesting facts about Kit:

1)      She is a super talented singer and songwriter. In my dreams! Ha!

2)      After a long stint in LA trying to build a career in the music industry, filled with highs and lows, she’s back in NJ working as a Theatre Arts Professor. I would LOVE to be a Theatre Arts professor, and any one of my Ithaca College pals will recognize the campus and Theatre Arts building in the book! (And here’s to Ithaca, my Ithaca…you really have to imagine those words in song to fully understand this reference)

3)      Her man (Vince) is a Single Dad with a six year old. Honestly, when I started Return to Audubon Springs I only intended to write one book, and then I was only going to write two books, but hints of trouble in Vince’s marriage kept popping up. They are subtle, but by the time I finished Secondhand Romance, I knew Vince hadn’t found true love like his brothers. I wanted it for him. As it just so happens, my hubs was a Single Dad with a six year old when I met him.

4)      The house brings Emma and Rafe together, the letters bring Annie and Tony together, MUSIC brings Kit and Vince together. Anyone who knows me well knows that music lives and breathes inside me.

That is all I’m going to share of Kit at this point. I could go on about her traits that I don’t have in common with her like her desire to belong (okay, maybe I do share that one), the fact that Kit isn’t even her real name, her feelings of being pushed aside as a child, and her efforts to mend nearly irreparable relationships with her family, but I think that is enough for now. You get the idea. A new girl is coming to Audubon Springs soon, and she just happens to be my book sister! 🙂