Since His Heart’s Desire is my first published novel, the story behind this story is basically my journey to becoming a writer. I’ve always been an avid reader, and as a child, I used to make up stories to entertain myself, but I never really envisioned myself as a writer. I’d always had excellent reading comprehension and grammar skills, but the mechanics of writing are a far different beast than actual storytelling. I just didn’t know if I had a good grasp of the nuts and bolts that were involved in creating an entire novel. Then in 2008, I started my book review website, The Hope Chest Reviews, something I’d been wanting to do for a while. Writing reviews is something I’d tinkered around with before, but then I really got serious about it.

Warning: Language

As writers, I think we often borrow inspiration from various creative sources, such as other books, television shows, movies, photographs, works of art, etc. In the case of Butterfly Serenade, the thing that created the initial spark for the story was my reading of Debra Anastasia’s Poughkeepsie. In her book, there is a scene in which one of the female leads strips naked and dances seductively and with abandon for her hero. However, he doesn’t make love to her in that particular moment, and instead, helps her get dressed afterward. It was a sweet scene that stuck with me and gradually began to take on a different, and somewhat darker, form in my mind’s eye.