The Complete Firebirds

Introduction

Introduction

Oddly enough, after that entire explanation I just gave about women driving the heart of my stories, this first story was totally driven by the guy.

Curt Williams is just that—a guy. He’s not a hero. He’s not some warm-hearted, deep thinker with the inner soul of an angel. He’s just a good guy.

I don’t know if I’ve ever written someone who was “just a good guy.” However, after thinking up that as the challenge to this story (I like to challenge myself), it seemed like the right path to follow. Could I write someone who’s just a good guy and make him worthy of one of my heroines…without changing him.

He’s neither brilliant nor noble. Curt definitely makes his share of mistakes. Even with his best friend Jasper trying to bail him out, he still finds ways to mess it up.

That’s okay. While Stacy is an exceptional pilot, she’s a bit of a mess in other ways. With reason, but still a mess.

When I start a story, I go looking for interesting connections. The one for Stacy is a bit obscure, but it gave me a very strong handle on her motivations, if not on her full past.

Her big brother, Bill Richardson, came home in a box after Take Over at Midnight (The Night Stalkers #4). The man never spoke. Not naturally silent like Colonel Michael Gibson of Delta Force, he simply never spoke and I didn’t know why. Perhaps some part of me knew he was going to die…he didn’t get to speak a single word in three-and-three-quarters novels despite being Mark Henderson’s copilot for that entire time.

There had to be a reason that a pilot of his caliber never spoke. And it took Stacy to explain it to me six years later. (Yes, a writer’s mind—at least this writer’s mind—actually works like that.)

Here’s the birth of the Oregon Firebirds and the love story between Jana’s just-a-guy brother and ever-so-silent Bill Richardson’s little sister.