It’s always fun (and sometimes a relief) when the characters in the book you’re writing talk to you. I’ve had secondary characters blurt out their name, and main characters take me in directions I never imagined, but never has a character talked to me as much as Racine Weston. Racine is the heroine in No Luck At All. Originally, I had written the story more toward her hero’s POV. (That would be Creel Weston.) But the 2nd go-around, Racine took over the story and wouldn’t let go. Right from the beginning, she had so much heartache built up inside her and needed for me to not only help her find the strength to confide in Creel, but to help her find a path to peace.
Here, Racine sits
down with me on a pretty spring afternoon to answer some of my questions.
Thank you for meeting with me, Racine. What can you tell me about Creel? What did you think the 1st time you saw him?
Papa is a
well-known doctor in Boston. He’s also a teacher. Every year he hosts a dinner
party for his interns, and every year I beg off attending, but Papa insists I
join the festivities. I don’t know why. Mama says my scars are hideous and
scare off every man I meet. I can’t argue that, because she’s right, so I arrive
at the party more than fashionably late and find a chair in the corner where I
can keep to myself. It’s much easier this way. Papa’s interns don’t have to
feign an interest in me, and I don’t have to pretend they overlook my appearance.
But this year, Papa is guiding a man toward me. And not just any man. He’s
tall, heavily muscled, and just about the handsomest man in all of Boston,
maybe the entire world. He smiles at me when Papa makes introductions, and asks
for a dance. Suddenly, my throat is dry… and my stomach is somersaulting in a
most peculiar way.
What was your 2nd thought?
That Papa should
examine me, because I must have caught an illness. Never have I felt this way.
Then again, never have I seen eyes that pretty on a man. Or thrilled to the
sound of a deep voice. But as Creel waltzed us around Mama’s ballroom, his heated
gaze bore into me, and I changed my mind about Papa examining me. Papa should
examine Creel, for surely he was the one with poor eye sight and feeling
ill.
How did Creel convince you he wasn’t ill?
He wrangled for
the seat beside me at supper and engaged me in conversation on a variety of
subjects. When someone thought to interrupt, he glowered at them, and then
returned his attention to me. At the end of the evening, he asked Papa’s
permission to call upon me tomorrow morning. Papa approved, and the next day,
Creel whisked me away in a carriage for a picnic in the park. After that, when
he wasn’t in class or studying or working his job at the docks, he was with me…
Hideous me! We went everywhere together; the theater, restaurants, the park
again. Always he held my hand and treated me like a lady. And then, he
proposed. I felt as though I was walking on air, but our wedding night, he
changed. And not for the better. Deep down I feared I had made a grave mistake,
that I shouldn’t accompany him to his home in Colorado. But, with Mama loathing
me and shooing me out the door faster than one can blink an eye, I wasn’t sure
if I should trust my heart or trust what I know.
What did you do?
I followed my
heart and boarded the train with Creel, hoping he would forget his disdain with
me and love me again. Some days he was sweet and kind. Other days he barely
tolerated me. His was definitely a Jekyll-Hyde personality, but at the Denver
hotel, he accused me of blackmailing him into marrying me and scheming my way
back to Boston. Of course, he was wrong, but something inside hinted didn’t
believe me, that was better for him and I to part ways in Denver than later
when we were both beyond miserable.
Did you tell him you loved him?
Or course. That’s
why I offered to set him free, so he’d have a life of happiness. Not a life of
misery.
How did he react?
In a manner I
never would’ve likened to him.
To find out exactly what Creel did, and if Racine finds the peace she longs for, grab a copy of their story and start reading today. Available only at Amazon.
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