The Inspiration Behind The Peckers Series

It was just before COVID when I walked into a local Hooters sports bar for the first time to pick up an order for someone.

Sure, I knew the restaurant’s reputation. I expected the all-wood interior, anticipated the waitresses would be in revealing uniforms, and assumed I’d find televisions tuned to sports stations.

With the overbearing smell of fried food and beer and the heavy, over-polished wood everywhere, I remember feeling a bit claustrophobic.

There’s nothing wrong with any of it — I just knew it was not designed with people like me in mind.

As I waited for them to finish the order, my mind started to wander:

• What would a restaurant designed for me look like?

• What kind of food would it serve?

• How would it make me feel?

• And, most importantly, what would it be called?

By the time I had the takeout bag back in the car, I was already turning over names for my fictional restaurant, and — well — Woodpeckers, or “Peckers” for short, literally fit the bill.

Like its inspiration, it was half bird mascot, half innuendo, and totally perfect.

The fact that I’d found what felt like the perfect name for my parody restaurant only made the idea more intriguing.

At that point, I began writing the story as fanfiction, using all of my favorite characters from a popular book.

I only got a few chapters in before my passion for it died.

The story sat quietly in the back of my mind through some of the hardest chapters of my own life — my father’s passing, my own cancer, and a mental health crisis.

But this January, when I revisited it, I met Jenny, Sierra, Roxie, and Martha.

I wanted to write a spicy romantic comedy… but these characters had other ideas.

Peckers is still the golden thread that weaves through the story. You can almost think of it as its own character, with its own growth, setbacks, and triumphs.

But along the way, Jenny told me about her ex. I learned about Sierra’s family. Roxie surprised me, and Martha became a dear friend.

They didn’t want an easy romantic comedy.

They wanted depth over spice.

So… that’s what I wrote.

Ultimately, it became a series of books about love, friendship, healing, ambition, and the messy, beautiful ways life refuses to stay inside the lines. Oh, yeah - and romance, too.

And it all started with one question:

What would a restaurant designed for women like me look like?