A look into the creative mind or
How I come up with this stuff

(let me know if you'd like to hear about my inspiration for other books - jelquinn@att.net)


Undercover Lover - The inspiration for Undercover Lover came in stages. It began with my hearing about NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month - in November of 2004. Write a 50,000 word novel in a month. I had several novels of double that size that had taken considerably longer than a month to write, but none were published yet. This seemed like an interesting challenge. The next stage was to come up with characters and a plot. Everything kind of coalesced after that during my walks in the evening with my husband. On our way, we passed the cutest coach house, and it captured my attention. It instantly became Liz, my heroine's, home. Right next door to it is a Victorian which became the location of Sam's apartment. Okay, I had setting, so I started brainstorming the character back stories with my hubby. He probably thought I was crazy with some of the scenarios I came up with.

Ancient Ties – In the Roman Museum, Bath, England, I took a photo of the tombstone of a Roman soldier. The photo was developed, and a haze covered the center carving, the edges were sharp. When I showed friends, I said the Roman soldier's ghost obviously wanted to come out to me. Three years later, I returned with my new husband and took the same photo. This time the entire tombstone was clear—the center carving as well as the edges. I took that to mean the soldier approved of my husband. But this was the start of an idea to write a story about a small town school teacher who goes back in time to meet and fall in love with a Roman soldier, becoming Janney and Marek’s story.

Valentine’s Day – In a writing group, the suggestion was made to write a snippet using a red satin heart-shaped pillow. My snippet began with Rafe performing a very intimate act upon Valentine. These childhood friends reunite years later and discover they’ve loved each other all along.


Mercenary Desires – A cough syrup commercial. An ugly guy coughs his way through the day irritating co-workers and friends. When he downs the cough syrup, he becomes a handsome dude. Unusual inspiration, yes, but it led to a beautiful love story. Rowdy, a bearded and scraggly looking mercenary rescues Sara from a kidnapping in Egypt. Does she fall in love with the man beneath the scruff? 


Home to Stay – The original title of this story was The Deputy, an homage to the old TV series with Henry Fonda, hence the hero’s name Hank.
Sheriff’s Deputy Hank survives a tough childhood
and a stint in the Marines to come home to small
town Iowa. A serial non-committer, he finds himself falling for Nickie, who is equally not interested in a relationship. The trouble is she’s being stalked. He has no choice but to protect her. 


His, Hers, & His – This was written because a group of writers on Erotic Romance Workshop decided to write stories about sex in elevators. The idea for my offering came from a segment on Dr. Phil about the website, sugardaddy.com—rich men and younger women connecting on-line. I upped the ante with two sugardaddys and one newbie to the ménage scene. The title refers to matching towels. This was my first ménage, and boy, was it fun to write.


Windy City Love Affair – One day at lunch, I walked past Union Station in Chicago, fantasizing about meeting a visiting modern day cowboy. So, I wrote a few pages for a story. A few months later, Phaze put out a call for Urban Phaze stories—stories that take place in major world-class cities. What city is more world-class than Chicago? I had so much fun writing a passionate story about a man, a woman, and a city as the main characters.