The idea for Blue Light Special & Yellow Brick Road Collide came to me when I heard Alan Jackson singing his song "The Little Man". The song is about small town businesses that have had to close because bigger ones, owned by chains and big corporations, have taken their patrons. I've seen this happen in many towns that once had busy Main Streets and city squares and now have boarded-up buildings. They look more like ghost-towns than lucrative enterprises while out on a highway away from the downtown area big discount stores are doing a thriving business.

I originally called this book "Bad Boy of Merced County" then later "Billy Joe McKinsey Returns" and finally settled on the current title because it seemed to fit my idea for the theme of the book. Small towns do have to work to rejuvenate themselves to succeed in the world today. Being from a small town I have seen the difference in how city leaders who are willing to make changes have helped their communities progress while others have all but disappeared because leaders wanted to stay as they have always been.

Hannah Gavon is a hometown woman who has never moved away. Instead, she was basically forced to take over the family business after her father and husband died. While doing this, she's put her real dreams of being an artist on hold. Billy Joe McKinsey's return to Merced makes her take a look at what her life is really like compared to what she thought it would be.

To a certain extent, I used my own experiences as a hometown girl right out of high school for the character of Hannah as my first job was at the local lumber company. We also carried hardware although the lumber is what was advertised. As the oldest child in my own family, I do know how hard it is to go against one's parent's wishes when they're asking you to preserve their heritage. I can't say that anything else in the novel is autobiographical though. Hannah has had a child with Billy Joe, but kept it a secret from him because he was not around. He had left right after high school and she doesn't know why.

Billy Joe is a composite of what, in my imagination, the bad boy of any town who has rehabbed himself would be. From what I've seem of my own classmates, often the most unlikely people are the ones who have turned out to be very successful in their chosen fields. However, people from the town may always think of these people as they did when they were young. Once a reputation, always that reputation, whether it is right or not--especially in small towns.

The neighbor, Althea displays this kind of attitude over and over again and she's not unlike many people in any town. I loved writing her character and all the people with an attitude. I find that as an author, I can give them characteristics that I wouldn't dare give the hero or heroine and it's fun developing these people.

Being a horse lover, who has never owned one, I've also become interested in how they are used to help people with physical disabilities to be able to get ample exercise and become more independent. It seemed appropriate, with Billy Joe's former reputation that he might have a child who has some physical problems. I truly love Danny as a person. He's the kind of child, I believe, that anyone would like to know and one doesn't really think of him as anything other than perfect, even though he has physical limitations.

The novel is placed in mid-Kansas because my husband I have traveled this part of Kansas extensively. Although I've heard people talk about how dull and flat Kansas is, I don't find it to be that at all. The area between Emporia and Wichita is, to me, some of the most beautiful rolling hills I've ever seen. The towns are few and far between and the tall grass makes good grazing for cattle.

Since you're reading this, I hope you will give Billy Joe and Hannah, or the people in one of my other books a chance to brighten your life. I enjoy leaving my readers with a smile on their face, whether I'm writing contemporary books, like Blue Light Special & Yellow Brick Road Collide, or books about the Old West.