One small dog…

Sometimes a character comes out of nowhere

It was like that with Dora.

I had recently been widowed, was living on my own for the first time in nearly fifty years and I had this completely out of character yearning for a dog.

I’m not a dog person. I’ve always had cats as pets, but after my last feline crossed the rainbow bridge I decided that  he would be the last. And yet, when I moved to my new flat – it’s on the ground floor and has a little garden – I had this weird yearning for a dachshund.

I even created a Pinterest board.

But, honestly, I’d been tied to the house for a long time by my husband’s ill health and at that moment I wanted to be able to close my front door and take off without looking back. That may change, but for now I did what any writer would do –

I created a fictional dog

Her name is Dora, she is a dachshund and she was there from the first moment I put pen to paper and started writing The Billionaire’s Convenient Bride.

I bought dachshund socks, a dachshund mug, notebooks and even a dachshund Christmas jumper – Dachshund Through the Snow!

I became a bit obsessive to be honest. And then, because I wanted her with me all the time, I commissioned an artist to provide me with a portrait of Dora, playing in the woods around Priddy Castle, that I can hang on the wall in my office.

I am so happy!