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Dear Reader,

Writing a novel is a daunting venture. After numerous false starts, and dozens of dozens of renditions and revisions, and with enormous support and encouragement from other writers, friends, and family members, criticism and suggestions from agents, Editor, and Beta readers, and with a few other novels written in between, I finally molded my first fledgling attempts into a novel originally titled Diana, then Querida, and at one point, Everything That Matters, until I finally settled on, My Dear One.

As all novels are, My Dear One (which is the English translation of Querida, an endearment offered by Diana Gabaldon in response to my question regarding what Spanish endearment my hero Jake, might have for the heroine, Dianna), is a work of fiction. The events, characters, setting … everything is from my imagination, save the Titanic and its sinking, and Maywood Home. Those were real. As are the women, and the man who inspired the story: my mom, step-grandmother, and stepdad.

My mother’s real-life heartbreak, as an unwed and pregnant 17 yo in the early 1960s, was the impetus for Dianna’s fictional tragedy. My decision to set the story in 1912 and partially on the Titanic was borne from my step-grandmother’s journey to Canada from England as an infant. The hero of the story is a rancher, because some of my fondest childhood memories revolve around time spent with my stepdad on the ranch his parents carved from British Columbia’s Caribou-Chilcotin wilderness. The fact the hero is a Texas rancher rather than a Canadian one is because at the time I conceived of the novel, I was also trying to learn everything I could about novel writing. One of the things I learned is that a basic tenet of good fiction is to test the hero/heroine by making them as uncomfortable and out of their element as possible to see what they’re made of, so I wondered…

“Where could Dianna end up that would be as far from what she knows, and the comforts she’s used to, as logistically possible without writing Sci-Fi or Fantasy?”

Well, England is green. It’s wet. It’s a cool climate. London is posh. Expansive. Densely populated. It’s where Dianna wants to be. She’s the daughter of an earl, raised in a large manor with servants and luxury at her fingertips; she’s set to debut into all the glittering elegance upper-crust British Society has to offer…

Alrighty then. A remote, hot, dry climate, with low population density it is. Texas? Perfect. Bonus, it has venomous creatures, and canyons vulnerable to flash-flooding (the Texas Government State Park’s web page shares some beautiful scenery). And, because Dianna’s used to pampered living, lets bring her down a notch – or two – and see how she copes when she’s reduced to rags, and to living hand-to-mouth even for a few days or weeks. And that, Dear Reader, is how my fictional heroine, Dianna, ends up in the fictional town of Douglas in the fictional county of Douglas, TX, instead of in beautiful province of British Columbia or the rugged state of Montana, climates and topography too similar to England and Scotland for my evil, er, authorial purposes.

If you’d like to learn more about my writing journey, and receive bonus material related to my Dear One series, along with exclusive newsletter subscriber goodies, please fill out the form below and join my Essential Romance newsletter. Again, thank you so much for popping in. I truly appreciate the company.

Deborah