I thought you might like to meet the characters from The Christmas Melody today!
For this story, I had the cover planned before I wrote a single word for the book. When I found the image I used on the cover, which was actually a wedding photo of a bride in a white gown, I knew it was perfect, even if she needed a different dress. (I loved the way the cover turned out, though!)
But I knew our hero was going to have longer hair. So I started looking for some inspiration and quickly decided on this guy:
Ben Barnes seemed like a perfect Grayson Carter.
He’s handsome, has that air of mystery, and the hair… he had the perfect hair for the story!
For Claire Baker, we knew from the The Christmas Confection that she had dark hair and blue eyes, but not much else.
Violett Beane made such a perfect Claire. She’s absolutely lovely.
She also has a sweet appeal, just like Claire.
And she has a goofy, playful side – just like Claire!
I also needed a little inspiration for Gray’s daughter, Maddie Mae.
JoJo Kushner was definitely how I envisioned the precocious little girl.
Just look at that smile. That hair! Oh, I think I want my own Maddie Mae!
The song I listened to while I wrote the book was Beautiful Crazy by Luke Combs. It just seemed appropriate for the book since Claire is her own kind of beautiful crazy and Gray loves her for it!
You can find more visuals that inspired the story on my Pinterest Board
If you haven’t read the book yet, download it today!
