How a Ghost with a Judge Judy Obsession Ended Up in My Romance Novel

When I first had the idea that would become Ghost Of A Chance I knew that I wanted it to be light and fun. I like spooky but not scary.  I was brainstorming the ghost. I’d toyed with a haunted house but couldn’t get that work so started digging deeper and thought about tying it to a book. I love books and if I’m going to come back as a ghost and haunt people there will definitely be a ghost involved!

From there Jasper was born. This cinnamon roll of a hero who is haunted by his roommate who died junior year in college.  I wanted there to be some fun poltergeist activity for Paul and I thought about the shows that my daughter watched in college.  Judge Judy was the clear winner; Coco and I always watch it when she’s home.  This obsession became the backbone of the relationship between Jasper and his haunted physics book.

Judge Judy with her plain speaking and common sense judgments appealed to me. But also she works in small claims court where most of the litigants know each other.  Friends or family members who have had a falling out and are so mad that they want financial compensation. Jasper and Paul’s relationship was normal enough but when you live with someone little things start to irritate you.  So for Jasper of course Judge Judy is always playing because that was something that Paul did.

But the ghost couldn’t be just one note so I started to break down other things that happened.  Like the lights flickering on, appliances that come on when the ghost is irritated with Jasper.  Not enough to be noticeable to the outside world but enough to really annoy my hero.

Here’s a glimpse at some of my early notes for the ghost, trying to figure out who the ghost was.  I toyed with a historical figure who might pop up and have unresolved issues.  As you can see from this photo I was really going for either a World War II assassin or Guy Fawkes. 😂

While I’m sure those would have been fun, I started to drift into a poltergeist--did you notice my misspelling—yikes! I defo need an editor!

Then I drift more into mysterious death trying to add an element of suspense.  I’m not sure if you’ve read any of my romantic suspense books but I like to have at least two-three red herrings and had thought about doing that with this book.  Two to three possibilities of who the ghost could be. Then I jotted down a list of possibilities even toying with the idea that there is no ghost and Jasper is just sort of dogged by malfunctioning appliances—haha!

But those didn’t work out and when I started going more light academia everything fell into place. I created this mood board for the book, then started working on the main characters. I had Jasper from the beginning and his ghost in the haunted text book.

So…to make as much trouble for both of my characters I knew that my FMC had to somehow do something with talking to ghosts. But that’s not a talent I have so I was thinking wouldn’t it be fun if she sort of fakes it.  From being an author I know that there is pressure to make yourself sound different and exciting.  So what if she writes mysteries with a heroine who can talk to ghosts and sort of let slip she might have the same ability.  That one thought cemented the entire idea.

Kirsty was a perfect foil for Jasper in terms of temperate and just everything.  I wanted to explore the fact that everyone is wearing some kind of mask whether its at work, at social events, at the PTA meetings even with friends.  And how sometimes (maybe this is just me) we wish that we could be ourselves but lack the courage (again me!) to.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse behind the scenes of Ghost Of A Chance. I’ll be posting more stuff in the weeks leading up to the release on September 2 Ebook US/UK and paperback release September 25 in the UK and September 30 US. Preorder your copy here.