Five Fun Facts

1)  I admire risk-takers: people who, despite all the odds, make a leap of faith and go for the gold. That's why I had such fun with both Wyatt McCord and Marilee Trainor. These two are perfectly suited.

2)  I was intrigued with the idea of a world-traveler coming back to his roots on a Montana ranch and contending with the small-town life he knew when he was a kid. In this series we see the pros and cons of life in a small town. Everyone knows everyone else's business. People can be labeled in their early years, positively or negatively, and can spend a lifetime trying to shake that label. Wyatt McCord, the eternal surfer, is seen as nothing more than a shallow heart-throb. A wanderer who will soon tire of life in a small town and move on to more exciting adventures, as did his parents. But Wyatt refuses to be labeled. A man comfortable in his own skin, Wyatt has already sampled what the world beyond this town has to offer, and knows that this place of his childhood will always own his heart.

3)  When I began this story, I had no hint of Marilee's past before she arrived in Gold Fever. Little by little, as she revealed herself to Wyatt, I discovered a multi-layered personality that I found fascinating. I realized that she needed closure in her war with her father, a war she didn’t even realize she was still fighting. Like so many people whose family members have passed on before old issues can be finalized, remnants of pain lingers and festers. Her relationship with her father colored all her decisions, and almost prevented her from opening herself up to all the possibilities of love.

4)  I love the name Wyatt. It speaks to me of the old West and straight-shooting Marshal Wyatt Earp in Tombstone Territory.

5)  Every time I wrote Marilee I thought: "we roll along, roll along, roll along..." Sorry. Couldn't resist. But her name IS musical, and that's such a familiar childhood song.