It’s Sunday, January 17th. Today would have been my Mom and Dad’s 88th birthday. That’s right; both of them. They were born on the same day and the same year. My Dad was 15 minutes older than my mother. They loved having their birthday together, unique as it was. Every year they celebrated their love together like it was an anniversary or Valentines Day. They were cute and us three girls loved telling people about their shared birthday.
When I wrote Raven Coulter, I kept this thought in the back of my mind, not the shared birthday, but the fact my parents met when they were 14 years old at a baseball park. Their marriage lasted 60 years and my Dad celebrated my mother’s birthday with his even when she had passed for six years, because their love and their bond was strong.
My dad always loved Baseball. As a matter of fact, he said my baseball book, “Justin Edge” was the best book because he learned a lot! He loved learning about the baseball facts I had written about and even called the Baseball Hall of Fame.
In Raven Coulter, book one, the setting is put into place for Raven and her brother, Boomer. They have crushes, but no time for real love themselves…maybe they didn’t have anyone special because they compared people to their parents they had built into larger than life images. Their untimely deaths impacted the brother and sister. Boomer was the one who had to change the most. You can find out how….in book one.
Raven and Boomer’s parents were deeply in love, and I compared that to my own parents. It was a good role model to use. Both siblings fondly remembered their parents as loving and caring for each other as much as they cared for their children. Their kind hearts were centered around the love of Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit. This would forever be a lasting impression with their children as it would be with Raven’s best friend since childhood, Tamara Kadie.
Tamara had a big crush on Boomer, one that lasted from her teen years through college. It was so much of a longshot crush that she made jokes about their love life whenever she thought of Boomer in hers and Raven’s conversations. Tamara made eyes over just about every good looking man the two girls talked about or met together. She kept Raven laughing but in truth, she was afraid of men. You can learn all about that by reading the first book of the series, “Raven Coulter – Changed Lives.”
Raven had a crush on her boss, after years of working with him and nearing her university graduation. Tough situation though, he had a girlfriend already. A woman who was not good to people, yet Dante, Raven’s photographer boss, was involved with this on and off relationship as if it were an addiction. Still, Raven enjoyed her fantasy as it was nonthreatening…well, at least not in a relationship way. Read about that in the first book too.
No spoiler alerts for those of you who don’t like them. For those of you who want to know more, well….you’ll have to read the book. It’s in paperback and Kindle version from Goodreads or Amazon.
Hit the link on the book and it will take you right to either source. If you would be so kind, please write a review. I would love to hear from you after you’ve read the book. It’s so much a part of my life, because it’s a series. Tell me what you think, what you liked, disliked and what you would like to see in future books. But you’ll have to hurry…I’m already writing Book three of the series!
To All That Is Good!
Barbee