From Christina:

Today, I'm excited to have Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy as my guest in the "Author Spotlight". Her latest release, Devlin's Grace is now available. In her post, she shares with us a few thoughts about the inspiration behind the story.

From Lee Ann

Inspiration for me can slow simmer on a back burner until the idea develops or hit me square between the eyes with powerful force.  The idea for my new release, Devlin’s Grace, released today from Rebel Ink Press, falls into the second category.  First, I’ll share the blurb and then just how I came up with the idea behind the story.

Blurb: When Devlin rides out of the fog on his motorcycle, Gracie Alloway almost mistook him for a demon rising from the smoke and steam of hell. Except she's attracted to him from the first moment. Devlin's everything she's not - wild and a little wicked. But opposites attract because good girl, college student Gracie wants more of this bad boy.

Devlin dreamed up a fantasy woman back in Iraq a lot like Gracie, and she evokes a side he hasn't shown anyone in years. She also dares to enter his personal space and take liberties no other woman's dared. Although he struggles with PTSD and other issues, Gracie won’t run and she refuses to abandon Devlin.
If she can just tame him and help him battle his demons. If he can teach her how to live a little bit more, they might just have a chance at a future together.

Now here’s how I was inspired – last spring I headed over to Springfield, Missouri, about an hour’s drive, to visit with a local chapter of romance authors at their monthly meeting.  Since I now live in a small town, I enjoy getting out and about when I have time to spend in a larger one so I spent some time driving around.  At a traffic light on Kearney, a motorcycle roared up beside me in the next lane as we stopped.  I glanced over and noticed the rider’s helmet sported a pair of red devil-type horns.  Intrigued, I couldn’t help but look a little closer and I noticed the back of his jacket had Iraq combat patches.  The light turned green, he turned, I went on straight, but an idea had been firmly planted in my mind.

I’m an Army sergeant’s daughter and a large number of my relatives have served in the military including my husband.  My romances have featured military heroes before, but this time I wanted to do something with a very real issue, PTSD.  Although they didn’t call it by that name back in his day, my grandfather, a WWII veteran, suffered from it.  So did one of my cousins, my oldest first cousin in fact, who served in Vietnam.

By the time I returned home, I had a story building in my mind, about an Iraq veteran, a former Marine, Devlin, and the sweet young woman he met.  I did a lot of research to make sure I got details correct and during edits, I was so delighted when my editor, a Marine wife, praised me for my accuracy. She even thanked me for taking time to get it right.

Devlin’s Grace is available beginning November 17 at All Romance Ebooks, Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Bookstrand.com.


MY LINKS
leeannwriter@gmail.com

Twitter: leeannwriter

Facebook: my personal page is Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy plus I just kicked off an author page – From Sweet to Heat: The Romance of Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy
https://www.facebook.com/pages/From-Sweet-To-Heat-The-Romance-of-Lee-Ann-Sontheimer-Murphy/287540748010934?ref=hl

Website/blog: http://leeannsontheimermurphywriterauthor.blogpspot.com

Blog: Rebel Writer: Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy
http://leeannsontheimermurphy.blogspot.com

Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Lee-Ann-Sontheimer-Murphy/e/B004JPBM6I

Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/list/4543214.Lee_Ann_Sontheimer_Murphy
TRR/Manic: http://www.goodreads.com/author/list/4543214.Lee_Ann_Sontheimer_Murphy