Gram was tiny and feisty. She claimed to have once been 5'1", but never approached 5' in all the years I knew her. She was born in a small town in Wisconsin in 1900 to German immigrants, lost her first true love to influenza during World War I, went off to teacher's college in Kentucky, and married my grandfather in her mid-twenties. Their wedding photo is priceless with him in a Clark Gable-style pencil-thin mustache and her wearing a flapper dress and beaded headband.
My new book Unwritten Rules is a salute to the importance of grandmothers with both the hero's and the heroine's grandmothers playing significant roles. I based the character of Grandma Li (Madelyn's grandmother) on my own Gram. She's tiny, bossy, opinionated, and irrepressible. I just loved writing her dialogue! Carter's Gran is much the same. She might have a few problems with her memory, but nothing can dampen her vibrant personality or her fierce devotion to her family. The overall tone of the book is lighthearted--it's a humorous, contemporary romantic suspense (how's that for a mash-up genre?). Watching Carter and Madelyn interact with their grandmothers humanizes them and allows readers to see a facet of their characters that might not be as apparent in a more traditional romantic suspense. I hope everyone enjoys reading about these two ladies as much as I enjoyed writing about them.
Alison
www.alisonhenderson.com
http://alisonhenderson.blogspot.com
