Celia asked Catherine Ryan Hyde:

I have read Take Me With You and I am almost done with When I Found You. Both books are about men who are NOT biological fathers but are more fatherly and wise and wonderful than their "son's" real dads. Do you have a model for these empathetic characters? Both August Schroeder and Nathan McCann are men I truly admire.

Catherine Ryan Hyde Hi Celia. I don't know that there was any one specific role model for me, though I did have a male teacher in high school who really turned my life around. Just by caring and spending time.

In my newest release, Say Goodbye for Now, it's a woman who nurtures and protects two boys who are not her own. I think it's more that I have a strong interest in kids (and human beings of various ages) who "fall through the cracks." And I like stories about people who are willing to catch them. It would be great if everybody had a loving blood family to fill their needs, but not everybody does. And it's great when parents love their own children, but it's not remarkable. For the most part we are wired that way. In rare instances someone might be loving and giving enough to offer all that devotion to someone else's child, and to me that's where the good stories live.

I hope that answers your question. I feel like I answered sideways, but that's all the true information I've got. Sometimes the creative process is a mystery to me, even when it's my own.

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