After re-reading a close friend's email I was reminded of where the character of Alicia Bennedetti, in Nicolo’s Tragedy originated. My friend, although liking the story, was a little disturbed regarding Alicia’s death. In my first novel, Ordered Solutions there is the character of Allison Bennett who is the woman both John Avery (Jay) Hamilton (the protagonist) and Ed Frank (Eduardo Francona- the antagonist) both loved. The story was almost word for word from the very first draft of the book. However it went the way of the cut to save words.

But in that version Alicia's gang friends only pretended to bury her so that Nicololo, her father, would suffer. Ed Frank, in the only decent thing he ever did in his life, brought her from New York, where he had been visiting the Don- (Don Mugnani- Mafia overlord) to Miami and raised her as a daughter or younger sister. Eventually Allison, who was fond of Ed, could not abide Ed’s mafia connections, she changes her name from Alicia Bennedetti to Allison Bennett and moves out of country to Paris, France, where she becomes a distinguished member of one of France's largest International Banques.

In the final version of the book, Alicia, (Allison) is one of the major reasons Ed Frank went insane after finding he was losing her to Jay Hamilton. The thought of the man he hated, loving her and possibly marrying her was more than he could take.

Amazing tho, I had very nearly forgotten how the story actually came to be. I guess I really must be getting lost in my writing persona. But it also demonstrates how the ideas for stories sometimes are born out of a necessity to develop characters for an entirely different story.

As was the case for another novel of mine, Raw Talent, it started out as an exercise to help me overcome a block while writing Freedom in Peril. I liked the idea so much I used it for a completely different project.

Writing is a lot of fun. No?