Fun Facts for “A Matter of Trust”

Factoid One
DudeGate:
I have gotten a lot of flak for how often I had Chloe use the word "dude" when speaking to Morgan and others.
Interestingly, most of the detractors have come from overseas. Women in America don't seem that bothered by it, which I think indicates a cultural paradigm. Perhaps here in America, we are used to people using the word "dude' very casually, especially on the west coast.
I've known lots of people who use the word "dude" as much as Chloe, particularly younger people who are my age. You just don't even really notice it.
Still, though, I can't complain. DudeGate may have cost my 2nd book a whole star when readers ranked it but any writer will tell you that they'll gladly take a four-star review any day of the week.
Also, it certainly gave Chloe a distinct personality... :-)

Factoid Two
Chloe is actually one of my favorite characters in the Carlsbad Village Lesbian Romance series so far. I like her vivacity, her sex appeal and her commitment to achieving her goal of opening her own coffeeshop one day despite the fact that she herself felt like she was kind of falling behind in terms of accomplishing stuff in life.

Factoid Three
OK, try to keep up because this gets confusing...

--When I started writing the book, Chloe's love interest was named Connie.
--About 20K words in, I decided I no longer liked the name Connie for that character.
--I then changed Connie's name to Spencer.
--That lasted about another 10K words before I realized I couldn't stand the name Spencer either.
--I was stuck and had no idea what new name to give to Chloe's love interest.
--Then I realized that I really liked the name I had given Connie's/Spencer's best friend. Morgan.
--And so, Connie became Spencer and then Spencer became Morgan. Meanwhile, Morgan became Naomi.

Factoid Four
Speaking of names: Morgan's last name was originally Bankston but then I shortened it to Banks.

Factoid Five
Modeling Clint after Sam Elliott was no accident. For some reason, I've always liked that actor and have enjoyed everything I've seen him in.

Factoid Six
"A Matter of Trust" gave me the chance to develop the character of Sienna more. She fascinates me and eventually I will craft a story for her in the series.

Factoid Seven
Remember when Chloe tells Morgan that she loved the idea of picking a woman up for a date and then surprising her by flying her to Paris?
Well, I had originally considered that as an ending for this book, with the two of them perhaps even getting engaged in Paris. But when I was approaching the end of the novel, Europe was still closed off to foreign tourists due to the pandemic and I deemed that ending too complicated to write realistically.

Factoid Eight
Remember that Morgan had just moved into her house.
I had conceived of a housewarming party scene (curated guest list, of course, due to the pandemic) and Morgan inviting Chloe to the party, after they started dating. The scene was going to end badly with Chloe feeling uncomfortable and frustrated because Morgan was obviously trying to hide her relationship with Chloe, hurting Chloe's feelings. Also because Chloe was feeling that she was out of place amongst Morgan's older and more educated friends.

Factoid Nine
Chloe was originally going to come from a more middle-class family. But certain elements in the story made that impossible. The construction of the tiny house, for example. And the enormous backyard the Marchand's have. I also knew that I wanted Chloe to eventually have her own shop and so I needed her to be able to come into some money. Working at La Vida Mocha for $15 an hour plus tips was not going to do it.

Factoid Ten
I panicked slightly when I reached Chapter 11 in this manuscript and I still wasn't close to the point where my MCs have sex for the first time.
In Nothing But A Fling: A Carlsbad Village Lesbian Romance, Megan and Vanessa first have sex in Chapter 11 and I didn't want "A Matter of Trust" to make my readers wait too much longer past that.

Bonus Factoid
About halfway through writing "A Matter of Trust" I decided that, as the writer, I wanted to have as little angst in this installment as possible. So, I decided to go against the typical lesfic formula and NOT have my two characters endure a third act breakup.
I simply wanted "A Matter of Trust" to be an easier ride for my readers and it is a formula I am going to make use of more in future books. :-)