All sorts of family – Kandy Shepherd

Like many romance writers, family is important in my stories. Family—or lack of family—features strongly in the backgrounds of my characters and shapes the people they become, and the way they react to others—particularly the hero or heroine.

I come from a small and somewhat dysfunctional family. Consequently, non-family people are very important in my life. Close, long-standing friends over many years—some dating right back to early childhood—are as much family to me as blood-tie family. That also includes much loved in-laws and step-family.

One of the most wonderful people in my life is my god-daughter—truly family of my heart. Her mother, too. Not only did her mother generously share her with me for the years before my own daughter was born, my god-daughter became a much-loved stand-in older sister to my daughter. That they actually have the same colouring and similar looks, they were often mistaken for “real” sisters. They continue to have an enduring friendship.

With my sweet grand-god-daughter !

Now there’s another member of that “family”—my darling, grand-god-daughter—daughter of my god-daughter.. She’s ten months old and utterly enchanting with the most charming and outgoing personality. (No, I'm not biased!) Recently, I went to her christening in Melbourne and spent a happy weekend with little Elise, her beautiful mother and wonderful father and a group of people who love this adorable baby. Some of the fun was looking back at the photos from my god-daughter’s christening way back when I was the god-mother. Not family of the blood, but “family” all the same.

Training the next generation of readers! This is a book about inspirational women.

 My recent book Second Chance with the Single Dad features a beautiful baby girl named Nina. Her character is inspired by both little Elise and memories of my own daughter. Different kinds of family! (And different definitions of family are explored in the book.)

What about you? Do you have friends and important people in your life who aren’t related but feel like family? I’d love to read your comments!

Now off to cook a meal for a young visitor who is the son of my daughter’s god-mother but seems like a cousin to her…

Its a beautiful, bouncing, baby boy!

Reading: My revision notes from my ed for the 100,000th time
Watching: Golden Globes highlights
Making me SMILE: Soraya’s news that I’m about to share...

Okay, so as you know there are a few of us newbie Cats on the block this year – Riva/Desire/Presents Extra author Robyn Grady, Cherish/Romance author Soraya Lane and me (Natalie Anderson, Riva/Presents Extra). Now it’s supposed to be Soraya’s first blog today but I’m so thrilled to report that just over 24 hours ago, Soraya gave birth to her first child – a lovely, healthy baby boy!!! So she’s in hospital (both she and babe are doing very well) and today you’re stuck with me.

Photo by Louisa Stokes, www.freedigitalphotos.net

So first up, can I say a huge congratulations to Soraya and her husband and welcome the world’s newest little hero :)


(That's not him in the photo btw - I'm still waiting on visuals - can't wait to meet him!!!)

Anyway, because of Soraya’s wonderful news, I got to thinking about babies. Funny that!
 
Babies and children often feature in romance novels and for a reason – they’re popular! Especially in the ‘home and hearth’ lines. But in the line I write for – now known as Riva in the UK, babies don’t tend to arrive during the book. They’re sometimes in an epilogue, more often in the far off future... Although it has to be said that the ‘unplanned pregnancy’ is definitely a popular ‘hook’. I’ve not written many pregnancy stories up to now (I think it’s because I have four kids of my own, and I like to escape to a child-free, ‘glam’ zone in my writing-  at least for a little while!). But then I came up with a hero and heroine and I just knew I had to put them in this position and let them work their own way out of it...

Unplanned pregnancies are common. Yes you can have supposedly safe sex and still get pregnant especially, as my hero and heroine discover, when there’s lots of salt water, sand and ferocious energy involved ;) But these two point blank refused to go straight down the ‘we’d better get married’ route which is often what happens on the pages – or at least  in the opinion of one of the two main characters. No, my two non-conformists stop and consider all the options (and flat out non-options – marriage is a no-go for them both). They eventually decide they can be very modern and come up with some kind of co-parenting scheme that will work just fine... Of course, things get complicated - (for the couple, not for the pregnancy fortunately!). Walk on the Wild Side is out in Feb in the UK and in April in the US. I found it a challenging one to write – in part I think because I always want the heroine to be sure she’s loved – for her to know that had she not gotten pregnant, she and this hero would have gotten together and found the happy ever after anyway...

Do you enjoy unplanned pregnancy plotlines? How about children in stories – do you like to have them chattering on the page? I do think there’s something wonderful about seeing a hero interact with a young child – especially when he may have always considered them some kind of alien species... Or do you prefer your romances to be nappy-free?!

By the way, Soraya has a FANTASTIC child character in her debut book – Soldier on her Doorstep (out in June in the UK). There’ll be tears from you – I promise! Stay tuned for more info to come on that one :)