I’m frequently asked where I get my wacky ideas from for my stories. Well, I collect them from everywhere: from news articles, from TV shows, from books, and even from real life, too. And although I write romantic comedy, I often want to include something that is happening in real life. Not to push my opinions down the reader’s throat, but just enough to make us think about the world around us, and how fortunate we are in our lives. Here’s a little bit from behind the scenes with Call Waiting.

Q. Where did you get the idea for Betty the Beauty, Jack’s three-legged dog? Do you have a three-legged dog?

A. I don’t have a three-legged dog, but at the time I wrote 32AA and Call Waiting, I did have an aging, diabetic calico kitty. When we adopted Dolly five years ago we knew that she was old and could possibly develop medical problems. She also had an odd, disfigured ear. We couldn’t bear the idea that she might get put to sleep simply because she wasn’t a kitten. I wanted to emphasize the plight of disfigured, injured or unrequited animals (but not in a preachy kind of way). Also, it underpinned the theme about physical imperfection in Call Waiting and 32AA.

Shortly after I finished Call Waiting I did, in fact, see a three-legged dog with his owner. And Dolly, aged eighteen, sadly passed away (sniff).

Q. Where did you get the idea for the little red yeki fish? Are they real?

A. I got the idea from an online news site and it’s absolutely true. Elmina, in Ghana, is a fishing village. Depleted yeki stocks mean that a lot of fishermen have to fish harder, longer, and children as young as seven are being pulled out of school to help. Here’s the link:

Q.Where did you get the idea to use the Suffrage movement?

A. Purely from my admiration for British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.

I originally named Emma after her because I thought it would be ironic to choose such an inappropriate name—my Emmeline is not a bit like Emmeline Pankhurst.

Through 32AA I didn’t really use the suffragette connection, except to help characterize Emma and her mother. But when I got the chance to write a sequel, I really thought it would be interesting to explore the theme more fully.

After long negotiations for women’s rights broke down, and the British Government in office at the beginning of the twentieth century refused to even consider the issue, a communication breakdown occurred between it and the suffragettes. Communication breakdown is exactly the theme I needed for Emma and Jack.

This prompted the suffragettes to take matters a step further. Amongst other things they chained themselves to railings, set fire to mailboxes, burned messages into grass with acid, sacrificed their freedom and sometimes their lives.

Although I didn’t want Emma to resort to violence, I added the building site protest scene with the blue paint because it showed that her and Jack’s communication breakdown has reached a higher plane. Emma doesn’t know that this is Jack’s building site. Jack doesn’t know that this is the venue for Emma’s protest with HUSSI. It is the catalyst that splits them up.

At the advent of World War I the suffragettes stopped their violence against the British Government and threw themselves wholeheartedly into the war effort. They worked together as a team. The result: the equality laws for women improved—ground was broken. Women didn’t get full equal rights there and then, but it was a start.

Q. Is HUSSI a real organization? Can I join up?

A.  No. Not unless you move to Hoboken and form the group yourself.

Q. In Call Waiting we learn that Emma spent Memorial weekend dialing a radio show to try and win tickets to attend the cinema premier of the Led Zeppelin DVD. Did you do that?

A.  Yes. Sublime, totally sublime (I was so close I could almost have reached out to touch Robert Plant’s lovely, blond hair…).

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