Backstory

Ah … what to say about the backstory on this book?

Derek is Dex’s brother and makes a brief appearance in Baby on the Billionaire’s Doorstep. He is the father of little baby Isabella and the CEO of Messina Diamonds. He’s devoted his entire life to Messina Diamonds since he was sixteen years old. Now the poor guy has to balance finding out he’s a father and his assistant quitting all on the same day? Poor guy!

I always “cast” an actor to play my heroes and heroines. The actor I picked to play Derek was Liev Schreiber, who I’ve always just loved as an actor and who brings a nice intensity of the role. <g> When I went to look for a picture of him, I noticed that he doesn’t smile in pictures. I mean, I found a shot of him with his lovely wife, Naomi Watts, and their new-born child … and he’s still not smiling. Not a big open mouth smile. I became obsessed with trying to find a picture of him smiling. Maybe he had bad teeth? But no, in shoots straight from movies, he sometimes shows his teeth. They’re not yellow or jagged or horribly crocked. He just doesn’t smile much. Eventually, I decided I loved that quality about him. So Derek never smiles. Except on the cover.

Btw, since writing this, I did find a picture of him with his son at the zoo … and he’s smiling. That’s okay, I’d like to think Derek smiles when he’s with Isabella too.

Derek’s story was fun to write. His fiancee (no, not the heroine), Kitty Biedermann was loads of fun to write. She’s so self-centered, and just not a baby person at all. So of course, in my January book, she’s the heroine. And she’s pregnant!