Melinda Curtis

Expectant Father: ideas & inspiration behind the story

   This was the third book in my Hot Shot wildland fire fighter stories.  I was kicking around ideas for this when Las Vegas started running the "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas" ad campaign.  I don't know about where you live, but in California this played endlessly.  And so I came up with the idea that my hero and heroine met one night at a fire fighting conference in Vegas.

   Add to this the rise of the term "cougar" in the early 2000s and I thought my cocky hero, Aiden, should fall for a beautiful slightly older woman, Becca.  Since he had been my comic relief in the first two Hot Shot books, this age difference only added to the conflict, since poor Aiden had yet to grow up!  Too bad Becca was following her own kind of back up plan - which didn't always sound so grown up to Aiden!

   By this time, I had read almost every book I could get on wildfire fighting.  The accounts were heroic, but also somewhat horrific.  This book has the biggest fire fighting scene of any in the series.  I still feel nervous when I pull it out and read it - and I wrote it!

   Cover buzz: When asked for cover inspiration, I went to some of my creative friends and asked them what they'd do.  They found me photographs of a couple that were charming.  The man was putting refrigerator magnets that spelled out "boy" on the pregnant woman's belly.  The cover came out great, but I admit to panicking when my editor sent it to me.  Why?  Because at the end of the book she has a girl!  We had to add a line into the book about Aiden being convinced they were having a boy. LOL!