When I was doing the planning for this book, my critique partner and I would always meet for coffee and cookies at a little local coffee shop. The shop was small, it only had about four tables, most of the business was drive-thru, and we were often the only customers there in the middle of the weekday afternoons. We were supposed to be talking about our writing but mostly we just talked, building friendship over steaming cups of whipped cream topped café mochas. I had so much fun just talking of life, stories and possibilities that I decided to make my heroine an owner of a coffee shop, one with a small-town feel.

I chose Manhattan, Montana because it reminded me of the little Washington state town where I went to high school (Snoqualmie) with a train track running along one side of the main street through town and shops on the other. I think unconsciously I bring warm, nostalgic memories to the McKaslin stories because it reminds me of home.

I hadn’t planned a series when I started this book. Although I came to care about Karen’s sisters and wondered about their stories. Would they find love? Would they be happy? I loved the idea of writing intertwined stories that felt like family, so when I wrote proposals for the sister’s stories, the then senior editor of Love Inspired liked the idea and named the series The McKaslin Clan. I haven’t stop writing since!