Normally, when I’m working on a book, I have plenty of time before I begin writing it to mull over the characters, how they look, who they are, what makes them tick.
Since I had less than 24-hours from the time I decided to write Lucky Shot until I started writing it, I had to kick my character development into high gear.
Don’t ask me why, but I immediately envisioned the hero with blond hair.
Then as I was frantically searching for inspiration online, there he was. The perfect Levi Gibson.
Brett Tucker had the blue eyes, blond hair, and solemn expression I was looking for in Levi. Perfect.
But I still needed to find someone to represent Grace Marshall. She’d feisty. Plucky. Sassy. Determined. And kind.
The lovely Jessica De Gouw inspired me the moment I saw this image! She is just how I picture Grace.
You can see more of the visuals that inspired Lucky Shot on my Pinterest board.
And just for fun – today I’m doing a giveaway
of an autographed paperback of
Lucky Shot to one lucky winner.
To enter, just share a happy childhood memory in the comments below because this book is full of fun things I remember from my growing up years.
44 Responses
Loved reading this book and the 70’s was my great childhood era
So glad you enjoyed the book! Thank you for reading it. It was sure a fun one for me to write!
Happy childhood memory involves singing with my dad, dueting with my sister, and accompanying my mom as a soloist or a duet w my mom and dad. I loved music. Still do.
That is awesome, Kathy! So fun you were a musical family. Music is woven throughout my life too!
Some of my favorite childhood memories are going fishing with my dad, vacations we took as a family and playing with my friends from morning till night outside in the summer time.
Such sweet memories, Deb! So glad you had those fun experiences!
I remember spending the last two weeks of August at the homeplace of my Mom. My grandparents had passed away before I was born, but the house and land was purchased by the family. The family would gather with bon fires. There is a creek across the road from the house. We would go play in the water. There is a porch swing that I loved to be on. Thank you for allowing me to share some memories. God bless you.
That is so neat you’d have those times together with family that created such sweet and lasting memories, Debra. Blessings to you!
There were 5 of us and I remember piling up pillows and blankets in the back of station wagon napping on the way to pick dad up from work, or the few times we went on “vacation” which was just a couple nights in a hotel with an indoor pool. But I’ll never forget those rides!
My favorite memories was that my dad was the state photographer and did a lot of Ariel photos so I always got to fly in helicopters and small planes with the doors off. When he had to drive to the places I would get to fly there with the pilot. It was so exciting.
I loved spending my Saturdays at the city library. I’d walk into town and spend the day reading and exploring. As the oldest of six, it was the only time I had to myself.
As an Army brat, we were stationed at Fort Ord, CA where the weather was pretty much the same year round. Since I was only 5 when we moved there, I had no memories of winters and snow. I can remember one year we got a dusting of snow. The green grass was still peaking through. They said it was the first time in 75 years that it had snowed there. They immediately released school and sent us all home. They wanted us to experience snow to see and feel what it was before it disappears. Although there was definitely not enough to make a snowman or to throw a snowball, I can remember what fun it was to roll in it and to try to catch a few snowflakes. Any day out of school, even for an elementary student, was a good day. Getting to see and feel snow for the first time was fabulous!
My favorite childhood memory is when my family traveled to see other family members in the summer and got to visit my cousins. We were all scattered all over. Many of my cousins are gone now. Diabetes runs in the cousins on my dads side. Now I have it. But it was always a good time growing up seeing them and sharing things in our lives during our summer reunions. Miss my cousins.
I loved playing outside in the DEEP snow in Indiana after the blizzards of 78 & 79!
I loved reading as a kid growing up and that has never changed. Nancy Drew, The Boxcar Children and The Happy Hollisters were my favorites.
We lived in Georgia, and my mom, sister, and myself would go to Tennessee to visit our relatives in the summer. We got to spend a lot of time with our cousins, who we only saw once a year.
I was lucky enough to grow up with 3 of my grandparents around!
I remember the summer vacations at a fishing camp on a lake. The beauty of the lake where we would swim, fish, and take out the small rowboat and enjoy the islands located nearby and have a picnic. Simple, and very memorable for the family.
Life was different as a child in the early 80’s in southern California. We were outside all day during the summer -walked across town without worry, rode bikes, played in the sprinklers.
Some of my best childhood memories are going camping as a family. My 2 married sisters and their families and my parents and one other sister and I would all go together some years.
We lived across the street from our elementary school in Michigan. One year, it snowed so much that we were able to climb up the snow drifts and onto the school roof! You can imagine how thrilling that was for a little kid.
That would have been amazing – and made such a lasting memory!
My favorite memories are going to my grandmother’s house with my dad and mom every Sunday and holidays. Grandma was a terrific cook and would make every holiday so special despite having little money.
Joan
When I was a kid, every four years my parents, my brother, and I would travel to Europe (Germany and Spain) to visit relatives since my father is from Germany and my mother is from Spain. During that time, my maternal grandparents were still living.
I cherish the memories playing with my twin sister and our best friends (sisters) with our Ginny dolls in the front gate enclosure or on the front stoop playing school oe coloring.
Marilyn
Dad,mom and our older sister always made the holidays so special for my twin and I . We always had a tree that was full and reached to the ceiling despite living in small railroad rooms. Every holiday was made to be the best celebration.
Marion
Hi, happy childhood memories are of Christmas , Birthdays and all other Holidays, my parents always made them all extra Special, lots of Beautiful memories (we were 6 kids).
A favorite childhood memory is taking a drive as a family after Mass on Sundays. My Dad would drive on PCH, through an old part of town, or wherever we felt like going.
One of my childhood memory is when I was around six or seven, I would walk past this corral with some horses were in it, next to the fairgrounds at the edge of town, on the way to were my grandparents house. One of the horses came up to the finish and hung its head over the top rail were I could pat it. I also pulled up some grass along the road to feeded it to him. Then I got a brilliant idea about maybe I could ride it. So I climbed up the railing and got the house to come up along side of the fence so I can git on him. I swung my leg over the fence and on to the horse. It stood still and I touched him with my heel to get him to go. I thought he would walk around the correl but he didn’t do that. He bucked and off I came. I hit the ground and knocked the breath out of me while the house went to the other side of the correl to be away from me. I climbed out of there crying and started walking to Grandma’s place crying. When my sister got close to the house, my sister said that I better stop crying or she was going to tell on me. So I did stop crying. I was not hurt but just scaced .
Love your books.
Oh, my goodness! Glad you didn’t get hurt, Nancy! And thank you for reading my books!
biking with family
There were lots of us cousins and in the summer we would get to swap with one of us going to one of the aunt and uncle’s houses while one of their kids came to our house. It was a great way to get to know aunts, uncles and cousins and lots of fun. We all lived on farms within 10 miles of one another so it was fairly easy to exchange kids. One summer I got to spend five days in town with a second cousin and we rode the city bus to the pool. What an experience that was for a ten year old farm girl.
It sounds like a wonderful childhood and summer!
I loved the water – lakes, rivers, sea – so swimming was my favorite!
My dad would put on the record player and his girls would take turns dancing with him while standing on his feet.
My best memory of childhood was growing up in the house my grandfather built. He had a pond dug right behind the house stocked with bass and brim. I was fishing one day with pieces of hot dog for lack of worms 😆. I actually caught a nice sized fish with that hot dog!
Happiness was getting some change for when the ice cream man came around.
My happiest childhood memories all revolve around camping trips….campfires & s’mores, hikes & bike rides, swimming & stargazing 🥰
I spent many hours riding bike.
We used to go to the gas station on the corner in the summer and get ice cream bars out of a slide cooler they had. I used to pick a Snoopy shaped vanilla and chocolate ice cream bar. It was so good!
My childhood memories of going to the park with my Mom and Dad having snow cones !
When I was little, Dad going for a swim to untangle my 17″ rainbow trout that wrapped itself around a log so I wouldn’t loose it. Thanks for the chance!
One of my favorite childhood memories was getting to go horseback riding with my grandpa. I was up on a horse before I could walk, and learned to ride by sitting in front of my grandpa in the saddle.
Favorite childhood memories were the summer vacations as a family. Started out with a rental car going to parks in Indiana for a week. Progressed to vacation in our car around Lake Michigan, onto 2-week trip to Miami(before Disney), trip to Virginia area, then onto South Dakota. Mom did not get her new furniture but we had awesome memories.