1) In Double Forté, my first book, I didn’t have a love interest for poor Gus LeGarde, who has been mourning the loss of his soul mate for four long years. My wife convinced me that he NEEDED someone, so I came up with Camille, Gus’s secretary’s daughter who splits her time between counseling teens and coaching the drama club.

2) I rewrote Upstaged a few years ago, and changed the name of the darling Down Syndrome character, Ethel, to Cindi. I also changed the plot and let her live. In the end, I couldn’t bear to have her fall victim to that horror show of a psycho.

3) Mazurka was written based on my experiences when I lived in Germany. It features all my sensory memories from Paris, Germany, and Austria.

4) Tremolo features a script that my maternal grandfather used when showing his slides of the life of his Magnolia tree. He chronicled all of the stages of his beloved tree, and had lovely words to go with the photos. I still haven’t found the slides, but I have his notes. Oscar Stone is the reincarnation of my grandfather in all LeGarde Mysteries, and he’s the one who delivers this slide show to the guests at Loon Harbor.

5) For the Birds was my first book written from a woman’s POV. Most of my fans say I did a pretty good job getting into a woman’s head – LOL. But I had lots of experience because I lived with my wife, mother in law, and three daughters! I wrote this book because I had a vivid dream about Ruby (a ring necked parrot) where I was taking her to a bird show in the Adirondacks. I couldn’t get it out of my head!

6) I found a real green marble in my garden one day which prompted me to imagine Healey’s Cave, the first of the “green marble” mysteries. My wife urged me to write segments from “the killer’s POV” and thus I had to get into the head of a very nasty villain. ;o)

7) I fell in love with Young Living Essential Oils when I was writing the sequel to For the Birds, Essentially Yours. It was just natural that my characters also discovered and learned about the oils and their amazing properties!

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