Hey Everyone!
Now that Breaking Free has been out for almost a month, I thought it would be a good time to talk a little more about the stories in the collection, where some of them came from and, perhaps, reveal a bit about the inspiration from my own life that found its way into them.
As I’ve mentioned before, and as I shared in the Author’s Note of the book, “Breaking Free” was the original short story I wrote twenty years ago about my own struggles, eventual coming out, and finding my husband. There’s an interesting timeline behind that story. It takes place from 1981 to 1998. I wrote it in 2005 as a way of expressing some of the resentments and regrets I carried about my past. Then, twenty years later, in 2025, I developed it into my debut novel, Unbound, and published it. So, I’m sure you can understand why that story has such sentimental value to me. It was also, of course, the beginning of my writing journey.
As for the remaining nine stories in the collection, each contains some trace of my own life. Some of those elements certainly could have found their way into Unbound, but doing so would have taken that novel in several different directions and disrupted the focus of the story I wanted to tell. I chose instead to keep Unbound centered on its core themes, knowing there would eventually be another opportunity to explore some of those other ideas and inspirations.
Breaking Free became that opportunity.
The other aspect of the collection I wanted to talk about is the nature of the stories themselves. If you finished reading all ten and thought some of them seemed almost too good to be true, a little too happy, or perhaps wondered why there wasn’t more conflict or darkness…well, congratulations. You picked up on something I did intentionally.
I wrote these stories and brought them together in one collection with a very simple purpose: I wanted to put something heart-warming, positive, and hopeful into the world. There is so much negativity around us today that I wanted these stories to lift us up a little and remind us of the good that still exists. We still have each other. We still have our relationships. And even through adversity, we can persevere by holding on to the love we share and the people who matter most to us.
That’s where the romance comes in. I wanted the relationships to remain at the heart of these stories and to celebrate the importance of love, companionship, and finding the person we’re meant to share our lives with.
I hope I achieved that.
Interestingly enough, I waited for my beta readers to finish the collection, half expecting at least one of them to point out just how much goodness I had packed into one book. They loved the different stories, characters, arcs, and time periods, but eventually I had to ask them myself: Did they think the stories were too contrived? Too happy?
Their answer was an unequivocal no. They recognized the heartwarming nature of the collection for exactly what it was intended to be, and they agreed that sometimes we all need stories like these. And they appreciated that. That was all the reinforcement I needed.
They did leave me with one other thought: I can always make my next novel truly dark or perhaps save that for a second collection of stories someday.
I thought, how true…
Well, until next time, take care and be good to yourself and each other.
— Chris
