Countdown day 20!!!!!
Twenty days until the release of my first book Miss Fortune! It’s thrilling, terrifying and kinda humbling. I’ve got a big book launch party planned, I’m going to be doing a signing at the Mall of America with 125 other authors, which is way cool, and I’m just starting work on the edits for Miss Match, book two in the Allie Fortune Mystery series.
On D-day minus 20, I thought I’d share a little about where the idea for Miss Fortune came from.
I’ve loved Humphrey Bogart movies since I was a young teenager. My two favourites, Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon are watched regularly at my house. My husband just sighs and walks away when he sees me reach for those cases, but there’s something about movies from the era before special effects and Arnold Schwarzenegger that speak to me. Without relying on explosions or martial arts, movies had to be smart, the characters had to be sharp, dialogue witty, and most of all, the stories had to be stellar.
 So one night I was watching The Maltese Falcon in the middle of the night (I occasionally suffer from insomnia) and I started to wonder how different the story would be if Sam Spade had been a woman. She’d never have fallen for Miss Wunderly’s charms and lies. She’d have been smart and tough and she would have solved the case in half the time it took Sam because she wouldn’t spend all of her time smoking cigarettes and calling her secretary Precious. I paused the movie and sat in my darkened living room thinking about how much fun a female Sam Spade could be. Intrigued but not yet ready to dash to my computer, I changed disks and put on Casablanca. The sweeping love story, a tale full of hard choices and sacrifice was what finally made the whole idea click in my mind. If I could just combine the P.I. detective story of the Maltese Falcon with the love story from Casablanca, and make Sam Spade more of a Samantha, I could have the best of all worlds.
 That night Allie Fortune was born, and right from the first, she took on a life of her own.
Join me tomorrow for D-day minus 19 when I reveal the big Miss Fortune Countdown contest!
