For some reason I have a knack for inventing fiction that later turns out to be true. First of all, I just love it when this happens, and secondly, I will keep sharing these odd coincidences with you as they occur.
In 2017 Falling for Hope debuted with this cute team of Annie and Bob Romeo, a pair of celebrity reporters, who ran a gossip show much like Entertainment Tonight or Access Hollywood, called The Romeo Report. 
I based these two on a couple of friends actually named Ann-Marie Zammit and Bob Romeo. Ann-Marie is my brilliant editor as well as an extraordinary singer and actress out of Canada, and her husband, Bob is a Director of Marketing for Goodwill, who also dabbles in reporting from time to time. His news stories and Ann-Marie’s on-stage charisma were what drew me to create their alter egos. I chose The Romeo Report name not only because it was Bob’s last name but because Romeo and Juliet is an extremely well-known play and several famous people have acted it out, thus being perfect for a celebrity based news team. The Romeo Report just flowed.
Fast forward to Sunday and my lovely editor texted, saying that Bob was given a new local cable show that they are going to call The Romeo Report! I immediately asked if she gave them the idea since she knows my books practically by heart. Ann-Marie said the local cable people came up with it. I was so excited for Bob and overjoyed that The Romeo Report was becoming a show all its own.
From Falling for Hope:
Once they were out of her sight, she pulled up Hollywood’s Celebrity News Network to find this Romeo ReportAaren had watched. Sure enough, right on the front page in bold lettering was “Oliver Hannel’s Daughter Makes London Debut.”
Lucy clicked on the video link with the husband and wife reporting team of Annie and Bobby Romeo interviewing Oliver and Layla in Hyde Park.
“Congratulations, on the new baby. How does she like London so far?” the wife of the team asked.
Oliver shielded Rose from the camera, holding her tight to his chest, so only a bit of black curl peeked out from the pink blanket. “She hasn’t told us otherwise, but we think she likes it.”
“Will she be raised here or stateside?”
“Probably both. My wife is more comfortable in her native country.” Oliver answered. Doting Layla was on his arm. He’d glanced at her and smiled. They were a sickeningly perfect Hollywood couple. Lucy almost wanted to gag, but knew it was all a façade for the cameras. In real life, they were a normal married pair who sometimes argued, and lounged in sweats while binge-watching political dramas. They weren’t perfect all the time.
“How excellent for you two.” Annie, the reporter, tossed long, pin-straight mahogany hair over her shoulder like Cher in the seventies. “And it looks like no nannies or assistants are following after you. Does that mean you change the nappies, Oliver?”
Both Oliver and Layla laughed politely, but Lucy could see their awkwardness with the private nature of the question. “I’m fairly handy with a wipe these days. No need for extra help.”
“If only more Hollywood families were like you two,” Bobby, the husband anchor said with laughter in his voice. “Thank you very much, you guys. Have a great stay.”
My second amazement came at my local grocery market, where I work part time. I’ve always taken noticed of this one guy in the produce section whose name is Isaac. He’s has an athletic build, chiseled square jaw line, brown eyes, and longish wavy red hair, just like Sam Heughan,
the actor I based my Rowan Delgado on in Falling for Strength, minus the brown eyes. Sam has blue but since Rowan is half-Spanish, I gave him brown. Score one for Isaac, looking even more like Rowan than the intended, Sam. I didn’t know Isaac well at the time, and therefore never told him of his connection to Rowan fearing he’d think I was crazy. One day, I figured out that a few others in Isaac’s family worked at the store too and had the names Reyna and Marquez as surnames. What a surprise to learn that my new acquaintance was part Spanish. There’s no way I would’ve known that, so I decided to talk to Isaac and bare my crazy imagination to him about being almost a perfect replica of the image of Rowan Delgado.
Now here’s the freaky part… while speaking to him, I learned he has a little girl and her name is Hadleigh. I dropped whatever it was that was holding and stared at the man like he had three heads. Hadleigh is the name of a nurse in Falling for Strength. Life imitating art almost to a tee!
Like I said above, I love when these things happen and I truly can’t wait to find out which strange coincidence comes to fruition next!
From Falling for Strength coming out April 27th!
DREAMING OF A BED, full stomach, and no shift for 72 hours, Rowan’s Nikes hit the floor in a sudden drop. “Delgado, we’ve got a 10-50 en route. Prep trauma one and two stat. Page OB.”
Eyes flying open wide, Rowan jerked upright, grabbing the phone from the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital desk. 10-50, vehicle accident, damn ice. It had been freezing rain for a few hours, from what he could tell out of the commissary window. Fingers full of adrenaline trembled while he dialed the appropriate numbers. He was grateful for it though, as it was all he had left driving him through yet another trauma at the tail end of his twenty-hour shift. Doctors were at least allowed to use the on-call room for naps when their shifts were longer than twelve hours, but not the nurses. Nope, there was no rest for the enslaved, not even on Christmas Eve.
“No way, I’m stealing the ginger for trauma one,” one of the female doctors, Helen Vaughn, called out to the others behind the desk. Next thing Rowan knew, she’d hooked a finger inside his collar. “EMTs say we’ve got a flailer. I need all the muscle I can get. You ready for a work out, Red?”
Rowan flexed a playful bicep for the gorgeous brunette doctor he’d had his eye on for the last month, since getting the position in A&E. “Yes, ma’am. Just had these inflated yesterday.”
Second Excerpt from Strength:
“Short haired, Brunette? Oh, that’s Hadleigh, she was sent over this morning from Wanderly Traveling Services, since we’re at occupancy.” Gayle seemed calm despite Rowan’s erratic heartrate at the thought of Kiera and this nurse strolling around the hospital. And from the pinch of Brannagh’s nails biting into the skin of his forearm, she was anxious as well.
“Isn’t she too new to be gone this long?” she asked.
“This is baby Delgado we’re talkin’ about, yeah?” Gayle was clicking around on the computer.
“Yes,” both Rowan and Brannagh barked at the same time.
“She is wee one, but she’s been doin’ quite well. Don’t fret. Hadleigh probably took the long way through the atrium. Give her a moment. Take a seat and relax a bit.”
Author . Historian . Artist . Musical Artist 