The Wedding Thief Author’s Note

The Wedding Thief

Author’s Note

I was at an event once where everyone got a little box and inside were slips of paper with questions printed on them – conversation starters. The first one I took out asked, “Would you rather be the smartest person in the room or the best looking?” That may have been one of the things that gave me the idea for The Wedding Thief. That, plus having friends with difficult sibling relationships.

The smartest vs. the prettiest was a springboard for the story about Sara, the older sister “with the brains” and Mariel the younger sister “with the looks.” Of course, it’s not that simple, but siblings are often pigeonholed into categories by parents and others. Sometimes they do the pigeonholing themselves.

Being an only child, I never had siblings. Maybe that’s one reason why they fascinate me and why their problems fascinate me. And what bigger problem could you have than two sisters in love with the same man? It seemed like something worth exploring.

People often ask me what I’m working on, in terms of my writing. Explaining the premise of The Wedding Thief brought a lot of interesting feedback. A friend told me a story about two sisters, cousins of hers. The younger sister ended up marrying the older sister’s ex-boyfriend. This was after the older sister had gone on to marry another man. “There was always some tension in the air whenever my cousins and their spouses were together,” my friend explained. “Like there were unresolved issues.”

Well, there you go.