NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
I hope the second part of Teller and Charlotte’s story was everything you wanted it to be! I’m still in love with it at this point and I hope you are too! Thank you so much for being open to the idea of a duet. I can’t say I want to do this again any time soon.
As you know if you read my last author notes, with Beyond Reckless I worried readers would think Charlotte was too close to Hope’s character because of the lawyer thing. And for Beyond Reason I wondered if people would think her story was too similar to Trinity’s (even though it’s vastly different.)
While I was desperately trying to finish Beyond Reason (having half the book already written is not the same as having the whole book written. When will I learn this!?) Hollywood was having a shocking-but-not-really-shocking scandal and #metoo was all over social media. For days, I was up to my eyeballs reading stories similar to things that happened to me at various points in my life. Some of them at the time I hadn’t even realized were harassment or inappropriate or not even my fault. Worse, the people who should’ve protected me (teachers, relatives, employers, friends, clergy) didn’t.
At one point I was like, whoa, I worked a ton of these issues into both books (hell, probably all of them if I go back and look.) So, no, I don’t think having two sexual assault survivor heroines in my series was a stretch. Especially not in an MC series, which as people are so fond of reminding me “real MCs are much more gritty, gory, violent, brutal” or whatever. Yeah, no kidding, so is real life apparently. #metoo. But you found my books in the “fiction romance” part of the store, right? Not the “non-fiction documentaries section.” I’ll take my fictional, vigilante, badass-but not that bad-bikers any day. Real life is brutal enough.
I think my husband’s getting a little scared of all my “why are men so disgusting?” rants. But it’s also made him more aware. He’s always had no filter and given zero fucks what anyone thinks, so he’s not afraid to call out shitty behavior when he sees it at work or anywhere else. And I think that’s important. Men aren’t the enemy. They should be our allies. Sexual assault is a horrible crime against another human being, not something you only care about when it happens to someone you love. Right? Or are we too busy trying to ask the victim stupid shit like “what were you wearing?”
I once had someone tell me Tattered on my Sleeve was stupid, because no way would an MC president rescue some girl (Trinity) and not expect her to put out. Boy did that make me sad. Why is that such a hard thing to believe in a fictional romance novel? Like, wow, what kind of shitty men are in your life that even your fictional heroes have to be douches? Men aren’t capable of controlling themselves? They only help women they want to fuck? Even in fiction?
Which leads me to the other complaint, when heroes don’t fuck everything in sight and it’s apparently considered un-alpha. Again, how is it an alpha trait that you literally have no control over where you put your dick?
Back to Charlotte’s story. So, in the original draft of Beyond-Reckless-Reason, I sort of went in the direction that Merlin was the one who raped Charlotte (it was one of those threads I left open to interpretation that my crit partners were like “No. Bad Autumn. You need to close that storyline.”) But Merlin as the villain didn’t feel right…it almost felt too…obvious. In the Beyond Reckless spoiler group (which you should totally join, because it’s awesome) the consensus was that by the end of book #2, Merlin would be dead. (Damn you’re a bloodthirsty bunch!)
We all know I hate to do what’s expected of me, so that’s when I knew it wasn’t Merlin. But how could I redeem him, when he’d been so creepy? Well, I can’t. People are complex. Not everyone is 100% good or bad. I know in fiction they’re supposed to be more black and white, but we already know I don’t like doing what’s expected of me. And I already had it in my head that Charlotte’s mother and uncle had some weird kind of relationship. And he was so mad at Charlotte’s mom for criticizing her appearance at family dinner night…it made me think…
Dammit, I hate when my side characters have their own fucking backstory and shit going on! And no, Merlin is not getting his own story!
Maybe Merlin had been in love with Charlotte’s mother first. Maybe he tried to do what his twisted brain told him was the right thing, even though it cut Charlotte so deeply. Also, I liked the idea of the ultimate betrayal coming from Charlotte’s mother. Don’t ask me why.
Who knows? Maybe Merlin really saw the error of his ways. Teller wasn’t so sure, but he’s kind of biased. I had a lot of fun writing their “chat” on the way to bury Keeper’s body.
I had several people ask why Teller didn’t beat Carter up on several occasions. I’ve written extensively about how important respect is in the Lost Kings world—and that’s very true of real world biker culture as well. However, after the first punch in Reckless, Teller made his point. Besides the fact that Carter is Charlotte’s brother and it would be disrespectful to her, I can’t think of anything less “alpha hero” than to pick on someone weaker than you.
So, I realize I’ve written these badass bikers who also happen to have a trigger when it comes to women being abused—whether they know them—or even like them—it’s a no go.. Yes, there’s dirty talk and sex, but consent is always a huge part of that—at least I try to make it so. Dirty talk is fun if the other party is willing. Otherwise it’s just harassment and kinda gross. So while my guys are crude, my ladies enjoy that crudeness and give it back. There is still always an underlying respect for each other.
I think one of my favorite scenes in Beyond Reason (and I have a lot.) is near the end, when Charlotte and Teller are being playful in bed together and she’s grumbling that he’s only supposed to wake her up on the weekends for sex. Good grief, if you put that conversation in a different context, it would be sort of disturbing. But for them, it’s playful and teasing.
Ah, what’s next? I’m not sure. I have this secret project I’ve been working on since June. I’m so in love with it, but it’s probably not what I should be working on. One of those characters made an appearance in Beyond Reason actually. I think that’s a land Murphy might visit. Ahhh, Murphy, how much did I love him messing with Teller in this book? He’s such a sweet soul and a little bastard at the same time. I can’t wait to write more about him one day.
I want to write my sequel to Bullets and Bonfires. And I’m still toying with finishing Objection (Mara and Damon’s story) because I think it would be fun to see Hope before she met Rock.
But oh my God, I really want to write After Burn. Like I love this book and the whole idea and all the stuff that’s going to happen in it so much. I’m afraid to work on it because I don’t want it to be over with. And the thought of bleeding all over those pages just to have people glibly tell me they skipped it because, well, whatever, and then complain because they didn’t know xyz happened in the series (I’m looking at you—people who asked what happened to Wrath’s gym!) seriously makes me want to cry.
Z. I keep getting more and more persistent questions about Z. I love him. And I know the broad strokes of his story, and I think the rest of it will come to me as I’m working my way through After Burn. The events in After Burn will end up reverberating through at least the next two books. After that, I’m not sure. The deeper I get into the series, the less it sells, which sucks, because if anything, I put more time, effort, money, and energy into each book. I’ve had people tell me to write spin-offs (like “make Z open up his own charter somewhere else”) but that makes me sad, not to mention Z doesn’t want to move. He likes NY thankyouverymuch.
I’m looking forward to one more signing in 2017 (West Virginia!) and in 2018, I’ll be at RARE London. It’ll be my first time in the U.K. and I’m really looking forward to meeting some of my UK readers.
Phew! I think these notes are shorter than Beyond Reckless-yay! Thank you for sticking with me, for reading the books (unless you skipped White Knuckles, then a pox on you!)
I’m kidding!