For those that asked about the story behind the story, following is a quick summary of the pieces. You may want to finish the book before reading further, as the details provided here may rob you of some of the little surprises in the book.


Many pieces that ended up in the Rose series lay in waiting in various notes and essays in various drawers of my desk and my mind. Most were just ideas and sketches--too small to stand on their own and lacking a plot to drive the story. These parts came together to form the core of book.

Dopamine Substitution Therapy
Women in the Biz
Tolerance and Understanding
Puppy Concept
Piano Man
Strangers in the Night

Tying It All Together

So, these pieces were lying around while I was actually working on a different book, namely "Terminal Solution," a political science-fiction thriller along the lines of "Nineteen Eighty-Four," and about as far away from a romance novel as you can get. In the summer of 2010 I came across a news piece involving Lindsay Lohan that got me thinking about the character that became Peter. This seed blossomed into the Rose series. It occurred to me somewhere along the way that by making the female protagonist a famous actress and singer, I could tie together the disparate pieces mentioned above into a coherent story. The extremes of the lives of these rare, exceptional, yet still human and frail stars and the underlying psychology really intrigued me and lead to interesting plot twist. As Roger Rosenblatt said, the story finds the writer. Lindsay inspired the book, hence it is dedicated to her. I thought long and hard about this. Although many other people contributed to the story, the book as such would not exist without Lindsay. She thus deserves the dedication.

To be continued...

Finally, a few words on the Rose series as a symphony are in order.

Sonata Form