For Whom The Doors Open

The story of Mariah and Patrick is loosely based on my life experience. I think all women have the capability to be Mariah in these situations. As the author I found myself truly loving her character. She seems to be the love which Patrick sought and manifested for himself. His character is a mixture of what I experienced and what I wish I would have experienced in my life. I did drive around the country the year prior to commencing this novel; most of the places about which I wrote I did visit. That year I saw many old friends. One of them had been my college roommate during my last two years at the University of South Florida, ‘Go Bulls’. In the same city was a long time friend of mine and a great nurse. She had ascended professionally to one of the most sought out clinical therapists for couples, and people with gender issues in Houston. She was also a former girlfriend of mine while in college and all three of us spent many good times together. All the rest were former girlfriends or female friends who worked in healthcare. From a High School girlfriend who now is a modern executive in a major healthcare facility in Cleveland, a former college girlfriend who works for decades in the veterinary department a major University in the Midwest and brought her daughter to join us for breakfast one early morning; to a high school friend of mine who was also in the Healthcare field in Kansas and was surprise that I would drive more six hundred miles to visit her. These women make up the spirit which Mariah has and added certain parts of their character to Mariah. The statements of gratitude, to which Mariah was so committed, was a channeled idea as was every sentence which she ‘spoke’ during intimacy. The actions and thoughts of Patrick, during that same time, were all from my own physical reflexes after I wrote the actions of Mariah. I was born in Cuba and only arrived in Miami when I was ten. The experiences during the Communist Cuban revolution are all factual as the emotional and physical consequences. I pushed the envelope a bit with my Cuban American social awareness which contributed greatly to his attitude towards his disappointments. The passages of sensuality were almost all channeled. As I wrote I also got exited. A few times I stopped and read and re-read the passages after writing them. I felt that Patrick was a man after my heart. I like his ability to laugh at himself and at some of his experiences. His physical impairment is based on my own.