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Heidi Peltier
Author
The Book of the Delmar #2: Delphine
Delphine was a very personal journey for me. Much of what happens to her in this book happened to me in real life. Being a teenager is hard, and a lot of teenage girls think that they can so easily find true love. But at that young age, the idea of finding "true love" is mostly fiction. It's fun to write about and to read about, but it really isn't realistic.
NAMES:
Delphine: Delphine, as I said on the previous page, means "dolphin." The character of Delphine reminds me of so many dolphin qualities: intuitive, beautiful, graceful and intelligent.
Piper: The name Piper means "player of the flute or pipes." The meaning in this case is insignificant. When I created this character, I wanted a name as unique as she is, and I've always loved the name Piper. I thought it was a perfect fit. Her purple hair is based on a real life purple hair sighting. A woman brought her son to our church's Vacation Bible School a few summers ago, and she had the most beautiful lilac hair! I knew I had to incorporate that into a book sometime! The character of Piper is based on a combination of my mom and my childhood best friend, Mandy. Both of them saw me through some pretty rough, heart-breaking times.
Me & Mandy
High School seniors ready to face the world!
Matteo: Matteo means "Gift of God," but again, the meaning was insignificant. The character Matteo is named after my cousin Matt and modeled after my cousin Erick. When we were in school, Erick was my constant protector, watching over me almost like a bodyguard. Nobody messed with me!
Erick, Me & Matt
The Younger Years
Erick & Me
High School graduation
Do you see why no one messed with me?
Me, Erick & Matt
Still together after all these years
Phil: means "lover of horses." Without going into a lot of detail, Phil is based on a real person who did love horses...but apparently not girls.
Jack: Jack is also based on a real person, but I don't want to talk about him even more than I don't want to talk about "Phil."
Gareth Truman: Gareth means "gentleness," and Truman means "trusty man." The character of Gareth is based on my very own, personal knight in shining armor. True love DOES exist.
MISCELLANEOUS:
Piper's accidents: Every single accident Piper had in this book actually happened to me. The trailer on the toe? Our school parade float ran over my foot. The kid with the bike? My son ran into me with his bike. The luggage cart over the foot? For me it was a chair cart at school. I won't post pictures. I mean, who really wants to see that?
The Blizzard: I don't live in a very cold part of the world. In fact, I have seen snow maybe five times in my life, and even then, it was very light and didn't last long. So I had to find some snow stories from other people. The story of Gareth and Delphine driving through a blizzard and not being able to see the road came from a story my father-in-law told me. Years ago, he and a friend took a trip to visit what would soon be my mother-in-law, and the snow was so bad, he eventually had to have the friend ride with her head out the window to help him see the road. Luckily, they took an off ramp from the highway that took them almost straight into a hotel parking lot. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction! (by the way, the friend's name was Barbie, and she was on her way to see her then-boyfriend whose name was Ken. I am not making this up.)