As
I’ve said many times, one of the aspects of being a writer that I particularly
enjoy is all the people that I meet and get to interact with. Part of that is
that I get to hear the stories about what particular moment or event that inspired
a novel. How did the story develop from that moment – The Back Story. I was
corresponding with British novelist Kerry Kennedy not long ago, and she related
this story about her novel, Dakota.
“I
was out with close friends many years ago, and one of the friends told me how
she had met someone at a bar. They hit it off instantly and discovered how many
times their paths had crossed. The relationship was purely a friendship. Later
it transpired that they were half-brother and sister. Their father was the link
and he had left my friend’s mother when she was still pregnant, and no contact
had ever been made. That then evolved into a whole book, about deception and
how something that's kept a secret can destroy lives with fatal consequences.”
I
read and reviewed Dakota and, when I got that chapter in the book, it was all
the more enjoyable and familiar. I was able to imagine myself sitting at the
next table watching it all unfold because I knew the Back Story.
