The Inspiration Behind Daddy’s Money

Tuesdays are the days I showcase my writing on this blog. Since my newest novel, Daddy’s Money, released this month, I’d like to give a little background on how I came to write that story of family love and heartbreak.

One of my favorite movies of all time was Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, both for the story line and also because I’m a huge Tracy/Hepburn fan. But the other thing I love about that movie is how they tackled a serious subject with grace and humor, and presented it with flawless characters.

For years I wanted to write a gay Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, but I could never muster enough interest in writing a story where a son brings his boyfriend home to meet the parents. I had no desire to write a simple ‘coming out’ story. That has been done a million times.

But two years ago I got a flash in inspiration. What if the father is a closeted gay man, who is supporting a young man that he meets for sex once a week. And, of course, that young man, unbeknown to anybody, is his son’s boyfriend.

That was the spark of interest I needed. Now, instead of it being a coming-out story for the son, it is a story where a father and son are both in love with the same man. Throw in a pregnant teen sister to add a little comedy, and an overbearing mother for a dash of villainy, and you have a dysfunctional family where each member holds deep secrets.  

And of course, as with any good story, as the layers of this family are pealed away, all the secrets must be exposed and dealt with—the lies, the secrets, the betrayals, and also the joys and finding new love.

Like Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, Daddy’s Money deals with many troubling issues in a lighter, often humorous way. It has it’s moments of tense drama, as do all my novels, but there is a playful side as well.

By the end, it turns into a warm and rewarding story that delves into the traditional family vs. alternative family themes, and I believe will it satisfy a reader’s sense of romance as well as their sense of justice.

I spent a year writing this story as a screenplay in hopes of making it into a movie.  I have found a director willing to make the movies. We are now trying to raise money for the project.  I wrote the novel in 2012, and it has recently been published by Dreamspinner Press.  You can check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/bdyuhlw