Eight months after my youngest child was born, I was exhausted. They only slept when held, so I hadn't had a full night's sleep for almost a year.
One rainy afternoon, my husband took the baby and ordered me to find a corner and take a nap.
At the time, we had a spare guest bedroom upstairs that no one ever used, so I hid myself away. (Every mom knows if you try to sleep in your own bed, someone will jump on you within the first five minutes.)
During this precious nap, I had a dream about a couple trapped by a torrential thunderstorm in a golf cart barn.
Clothes soaked, they scrounged an old desk for food.
Shared pretzels turned into a tentative first kiss.
When I woke from this dream, I couldn't stop thinking about this fictional couple.
Who were they?
How did they find themselves in a cart barn?
Why was the kiss so tentative?
These were the crumbs of the first story I ever wrote. As all first novels are, it was awful. I didn't know anything about how to create a character or how to tell a story, despite having been a reader my entire life.
But I loved trying to find the perfect word to make the heroine's heart flutter.
Knitting together two lives into one perfect relationship became an obsession.
As an exhausted mother of three, it was a blessed escape from diapers and potty training and laundry.
Over a dozen novels later, my story telling ability has improved. Each series starts with a detailed dive into my heroes' and heroines' lives; what makes them unique, the characteristics of the person who will help them become the best version of themselves, and what happily ever after really means for these two people.
My kids joined the fun and consistently name my side characters and the businesses in my towns.
What hasn't changed is that drive to find the perfect word, perfect sentence, perfect moment that brings a tear to an eye or a giggle to a smile.
I hope every time you crack open one of my books, your experience is one of finding a place that feels like home, the characters feel like friends, and you see a little bit of yourself between the pages.
Happy reading,
Daphne
P.S. If you ever want to talk travel, workout programs, or debate chocolate chip cookie recipes, send me an email at Daphne@DaphneDyer.com