Besides the music, there are a couple of other things that sparked my interest when writing Embracing Calla.
Giving credit where credit is due:
It’s not a surprise that I took a lot of inspiration from Bridgerton.
First and foremost; the name Benedict. He’s my favorite male character in Bridgerton. I remember watching the first season of Bridgerton on Netflix and saying to my husband, “If we ever have a boy, we’re naming him Benedict.” Well, if you know my story I highly doubt I will make any more children. I mean, never say never, but completely doubtful. So then I changed it to “If we ever get a puppy.”
Well, I wrote a book and my main male character became, Benedict. I consider this novel my baby so I did end up getting what I wanted. Also as a Shakespearean fan, my favorite is Much Ado About Nothing, and low-key ironically Benedick is my favorite character in that playwright.
Granted with the kind of novel I wrote BenedicK would have been an inside pun to only me, but nevertheless, I like BenedicT so much more.
Another thing in Bridgerton was the children all being named alphabetically.
I paid homage to that by making all the siblings named a flower—Calla’s fourth in a bunch of half a dozen. There’s Ren (a lotus), Daisy, Poppy, Calla (lily), Primrose, and (sweet) William. Her parents also own a florist and they happened to have a family dog named, Floral.
That one book about BDSM:
Another thing that I pulled inspiration from was none other than Fifty Shades of Grey, but not how you think.
Though my novel is quite spicy, my expertise doesn’t lie in BDSM, maybe some kinks.
When I was writing the word count was shooting up and up. I decided to make it a series and use the trilogy theme. So Benedict and Calla’s story is the span of three books.
I’m working on the second book now and even though their relationship is still the main focus I like to shift the meaning of the word, love and draw some attention to friendships and bonds. A few expected and unexpected people are there to help pick Calla up. I hope to get this novel out soon.
