Besides Natalie’s gymnastics being inspired by my daughter, there are a handful of other true-life inspirations in 18 Hours to Us.
– Colton’s yellow Camaro was inspired by my sister-in-law Brenda’s car – only, hers is a convertible. So fun! Natalie’s grey Honda Accord was inspired by my hubby’s car at the time I wrote the book.
– Some of the character names were inspired by my kids’ friends and classmates. Grant, Olivia, the two Hannahs, Trinity. Only their names were used. The personalities of the characters are all fiction. 
– Natalie’s dad served in the Army on a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, just like my hubby did. 
– In reality, there’s no way Natalie could have climbed up on the railing by Brandywine Falls to do balance beam skills because the board railings there are installed at an angle, probably to keep people from doing that very thing.
– The stop at Italiano Grill was inspired by a conversation my mom, Aunt Deb, and I had when we were out at Pizza Hut. Our menu had a sticker on it, and we joked about it looking like those old scratch-n-sniff stickers. I thought it would be funny if it smelled like pizza (we get silly sometimes!), which made its way into the book. Then somehow we got to talking about ventriloquist dummies, and I told her I was going to write that into one of my books, which became Deb and her good friend Davey. LOL!
– I often get name inspiration from signs I see along the road on my travels, and on that same visit to my aunt, my mom and I saw a sign for a little town called Wilmot and we later saw a car repair place called Beezleys. And just like that, Wilmot Beezley was born.
– I’ve enjoyed a couple of trips to Virginia Beach over the years and included some of the places I visited. We took the kids to the Jamestown Settlement while there, which was fun to add as a day trip in the story.
Now available wherever eBooks are sold!
AMAZON | APPLE | GOOGLE | BARNES & NOBLE | KOBO