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If you’ve read The Accidental Hero, then you probably immediately thought of Mena’s signature scent … the one that drives Julian bonkers with desire and that he notices whenever she’s in the room.
When I was writing the book, I wanted there to be a symbol of Julian’s undeniable attraction to Mena and thought him noticing her scent was a perfect way of conveying his feelings.
I remember sitting at my computer, wracking my brain trying to decide what I wanted it to smell like.
I needed something sexy and sensual, which evoked the scent of sandalwood.
But I also needed it to be balanced with a twist of femininity.
The memory of driving through Sarasota on vacation several years ago and smelling oranges lingering in the air from the Tropicana plant nearby came to mind.
I thought to myself, “That’s it!” like Lucy from Charlie Brown.
And the scent was born.
Or so I thought.
This week, I started reading When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton. I instantly liked the book and got swept away by the main character Beatrice. The story is a coming of age of sorts about a sugar heiress from Cuba that gets recruited by the CIA to kill Fidel Castro in the 1960s and has a forbidden romance with a powerful senator.
But in one of the early chapters, I read something I never thought I would see …
Beatrice was entranced by the scent of sandalwood and orange coming from Nick, the powerful senator.
What?!?!
I sat there dumbfounded. Hadn’t I created the scent in my head out of thin air. How did Chanel Cleeton know about my signature scent for Mena? As I had done in The Accidental Hero, Cleeton continues to make Beatrice notice Nick’s scent as the book progresses.
I couldn’t believe it.
When was this book published?
Hmm … two months before mine.
So was sandalwood and orange a real thing and I didn’t realize it???
Why, yes my dear Angel, it is.
I googled the words and began to scroll through all the sandalwood and orange essential oils, lotions, creams and perfumes on Google.
I hadn’t actually created anything new.
Authors always talk about how there are no new ideas … just slight innovations on existing ones.
I had used the sandalwood and orange scent for my female love interest while Chanel Cleeton used it for her male love interest, evoking a similar feeling for the attraction and desire between our respective couples.
Neither one of us had created the scent and likely, Chanel knew she was picking from something that was already well known … unlike naïve little Angel.
Now that I know how popular the scent is, I’ll be ordering some sandalwood and orange goodies for my launch giveaway prize with the next release in the series.
In this episode, I talk about how it felt to know that I’d written something that was almost identical to another author and how I stopped myself from freaking out about it.
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