Nights in Rodanthe, unlike my previous novels, was not inspired by specific events within my own family. Rather, is a story of two characters that were drawn from many of the people I've met in my life, and in many ways, these characters are the most unique -- yet universal -- characters I've included within a novel.

Adrienne Willis is forty-five, a divorced mother of three, whose husband left her for a younger woman. Paul Flanner, at fifty-two, is a successful surgeon who lived a life devoted to his work, and because both the characters are older than my typical characters -- Noah and Allie, in the final third of The Notebook, notwithstanding -- they are facing dilemmas that are different than any dilemmas I've written about in the past.

There are children and elderly parents to worry about, both of which add a different type of challenge to the relationship as it unfolds. At the same time, both have reached that point in time where they seem to realize that although that not all of their dreams for their own lives have come true. In the course of writing, I grew to care deeply about both characters.

Nights in Rodanthe is probably the most romantic of the novels I've written to this point. From the setting to the characters, the story was written to show how people can fall in love at any age, and often when they least expect it.