Feeling the Love -- Barrett & Eden
It's just days before St. Valentine's Day! Despite how you feel about the actual day itself or whether you intend to celebrate it, this week I will be posting about the characters I've created -- The couples within my stories. If you've read my books, you'll recognize them and you can comment on your own views. If you. haven't, I hope these intrigue you to read more.
Now, I should remind everyone that I write clean romance. My reasonings were discussed in last week's post (Feb 03 2025, titled "Where's the Romance?") but you can expect PDA and flirting at most in my books. Insinuations and innuendoes as well. But does that make for a crappy romance book? Nope. In fact, I doubt you'll even miss the spicy scenes.
(NOTE: All photos are AI representations of the characters created using various AI apps on Canva.)
So let's get started!
**This is obviously an earlier image of Barrett and Eden as opposed to when you'll meet them in the The Allegheny Chronicles. For other AI images of Barrett and Eden, be sure to visit www.TheAuthorEmBrooks.com
Q: How did you come up with Barrett and Eden?
Barrett and Eden were developed from Embers to Ashes, book 4 of my Portrait of an Unlikely Affair series. I have discussed this before in prior posts (Dec 04 2023, "Why Should You Read an Em Brooks book, part 4") but in Embers to Ashes, the characters of Eden and Barrett were "created" by Seth Jacobson as a book series turned television series. Avonlea already had the role of Colonel Eden Magnuss and Brian took on the role of the Alchemist to give credit to his portrayal of Cade Bennett. I wrote the story as a character background so that I could have my Embers to Ashes characters easily discuss it. Like Portrait of an Unlikely Affair, I had never intended to share the story but it turned out to be worthy of sharing.
Q: Why did you decide to have their story be so drastically different from Portrait of an Unlikely Affair?
Writing TAC: Eden and the Alchemist, I intentionally made it different because I knew it was a story from a story, a story that would be a TV television series in the book. So I considered what I have seen on television these days and wrote it from that perspective. The Allegheny Chronicles series in general will have more insinuations and swearing in it than my Portrait series, including a little more passion, a little more "impossibilities," and some 'supernatural' action. Having said that, the relationship between Barrett and Eden was different from the beginning of the story, one that is uniquely them. Although Avonlea and Eden play Barrett and Eden, they are not the same characters.
Q: How did you come up with their names? How are the two series similar?
It all just fell together. I had a 'mad writing session' where I wrote half the book in a day. The names just flew from my fingers. I did try to give some connection between Portrait of an Unlikely Affair and The Allegheny Chronicles with the Magnuss last name -- In Portrait, Avonlea's biological great-grandfather was Admiral Magnusson. Of course, an admiral is a naval rank so I chose to have both Eden and Barrett be in the Navy. Are the events of the book 100% accurate and in accordance with with how life and the military does things? Nope. That's why I write fiction. There is also a link between the Agency in both books. And the secrecy. Both the Firm and Allegheny are national secrets.
Q: Would you have changed anything about their story or their romance?
In many ways, their story is heartbreaking and somewhat cruel in the introduction but it becomes a true romance. I don't think there is anything I would change about their romance or their story.
Q: It's Valentine's Day. What songs are Eden and Barrett going to dance to?
Um, I'm not sure dancing is something they get to do a lot but because I know where their story goes I'm going to say Stand by Me, the version by Bootstraps. And probably Fall on Me by Needtobreathe. I'm sure there are several more that could also fit but those are the first two that comes to mind today.
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