"The Inspiration Behind Becoming Charlotte"

I plan to post a weekly blog focusing on how I research my books. Most people don't realize that researching a subject often takes more time than actually writing the story. Today, AI gives us access to endless information. The problem is that not all of that information is correct. Research still requires digging deeper, verifying facts, and understanding the people and situations behind the story.

But what inspires the research in the first place?

Stories don't just create themselves. They come from somewhere. For me, they are usually inspired by something that fascinates me, angers me, or simply makes me want to know more. Ideas come from the news, politics, history, conversations, and everyday life. Sometimes a single article or event will stay with me for days until I find myself asking, "What if?"

One example is my novel Becoming Charlotte, the only true love story I have ever written. Ironically, it was inspired by anger.

That may sound strange. How can a love story be inspired by anger?

The answer is simple. We live in a world that has become increasingly divided. Too often, people form opinions about lives they have never lived and experiences they have never had. I have never been particularly political, but I have watched politicians speak with certainty about deeply personal issues that affect real people every day.

Doctors aren't perfect. No one is. But I often found myself asking a simple question: What does a politician really know about what someone feels inside?

That question became the seed for Becoming Charlotte.

Charlotte represents countless people searching for acceptance, understanding, and the freedom to be themselves. Everywhere they turn, they encounter obstacles, opinions, and judgments from people who have never walked in their shoes. The story isn't about politics. It's about humanity. It's about identity, love, family, and the struggle to find where you belong in a world that often wants to define you before you've had the chance to define yourself.

As a writer, I wasn't interested in making a political statement. I wanted to tell a story. I wanted readers to step into someone else's life and see the world through their eyes. That's what fiction does at its best. It allows us to experience lives and perspectives different from our own.

Whether you agree with Charlotte's journey or not isn't really the point. The point is understanding it.

If Becoming Charlotte awakens something in you—compassion, curiosity, empathy, or even a new perspective—then I accomplished what I set out to do as a writer.

Stay tuned. Next week I'll discuss how the research for the book began and some of the surprising things I learned along the way.