Well, the end for now.
Wrath and Trinity’s story was long and complicated. But I have more in store for them in the future. Once or twice I snickered to my husband that after 145,000 words, Trinity still isn’t patched or married at the end. I told him I was worried you guys would hunt me down. If you’ve read me before you know that I’m not a big fan of conventional HEAs. My thought on that is that unless you want to read about a couple until the day they die, all of it is HFN (Happy for Now). Maybe I shouldn’t put that in writing. I’ll get my RWA membership revoked!
I was blown away by all the notes and messages I got after Strength From Loyalty. Every day for weeks I woke up to messages or posts describing how much someone loved the book and what it meant to them. Since it was hard to express my happiness and gratitude without sounding crazy or using a dozen smiley faces, I started using what I call the “Snoopy-dance picture”. That’s basically what I look like every time I get one of your messages, so it seemed fitting.
Expectations for Wrath’s book were so high, I was convinced all the way through I’d screw it up. Probably a dozen times I said “fuck it, I can’t do this.” Thankfully I have my husband, crit partners, and writing partners who kept reminding me that no matter what, I can’t please everyone and to just write the story the way I felt it needed to be written. So that’s what I did.
That’s how the threesome scene ended up staying. Wow. I’ve never gone back and forth about a scene the way I did the Teller-Murphy-Trinity threesome. It was risky and something I think you can only get away with in MC Romances and Indie publishing. I know readers are always harder on the heroine and I hate that double standard (no one suggested I take Wrath’s couch blow job out). But I was writing about a club girl and I wanted to be honest. I got such 50/50 feedback on that scene. Some of my betas said “you have to take it out” some said “it’s hot, leave it in there” (which was funny because I thought I wrote it pretty dispassionately). I needed to get two things from that scene, but with some rewriting, I could get them without the actual sex part. At one point, I ended up taking most of it out. I discussed it some more and ultimately decided it was necessary to show how the guys respected Trinity’s boundaries. So then I wrote most of it back in. There were a couple other scenes that got similar rewrites, but that one gave me the most angst.
You see, I’m an obstinate sort. I hate the notion in a lot of romances that the man can have all the sex he wants and the woman…can’t. I also can’t stand what I call the “golden vagina” heroine. The woman the hero falls in love with and treats like gold. But all the “other” women, club girls, whatever, are treated like trash for no reason other than they don’t possess the golden vagina. There’s nothing sexy or “alpha” about that to me.
But my guys are still MC guys so their feminist streaks only run so deep. Even though my series is a romanticized, less gritty MC, Hope and Trinity won’t be getting a seat at the Lost Kings table. Not that either of them want one.
Tattered was a challenge because I had the time line from the first three books to follow. While I was committed to keeping the time line straight and I knew what their story was, a lot of Hope and Rock crept into Wrath and Trinity’s story. Thanks to my crit partners and editor, I have an endless pile of deleted and heavily rewritten scenes that put the focus back where it belonged.
Wrath’s story came about in an interesting way. Last year when my betas were going through what became Slow Burn, he was one of their favorites. I couldn’t understand why, since he was usually a jerk. I think around that time I also took a class on Goals, Motivation, and Conflict and it got me thinking about why he was such a jerk. Once Wrath had my attention, he wouldn’t shut up!
Since no two people experience the same event the same way, I really liked the idea of exploring the same situations from another character’s perspective. I also realized if I rewrote word for word every single thing from the first three books in Wrath and Trinity’s POV it was going to be a long and boring ride. I tried to pick and choose the most important events that moved Wrath and Trin’s story forward.
I’ve heard from people who want more from Rock and Hope in the future. They felt there was unfinished business of some sort? If you were one of those readers then you’ll be happy with Book #5. If you’re tired of Rock, Hope, and Wrath, then you’ll probably want to skip White Heat (Lost Kings MC #5). Rock and Hope will have their wedding…I just need to torture them a little bit first. Expect it in December 2015. Oh, and you read that right. It will be Rock, Hope and Wrath. No, they’re not having a threesome. You’ll just have to wait and see.
I always assumed Z’s story would be next. But I’ve been bombarded with questions about Heidi and Murphy. I’m shocked by how many people are team Murphy. Like, passionately Team Murphy. Don’t get me wrong, I love Murphy too, but wow. Axel has some fans too (Mr. Lake being one of them) but not the way Murphy does. I laughed when people were arguing team Murphy or team Axel while I was writing Tattered, because I knew Murphy was a bit of a dick in this book.
With some help from my crit partners I have a good idea of what Murphy, Heidi and Axel’s story is. It’s complicated and will take me some time to figure out and get right. I’d like to say expect On the Edge, (Lost Kings MC #6) in early 2016. I have a few other projects I’m working on as well, but the Lost Kings are still my first priority.
I’m lucky to have some amazing readers who kept after me, very gently nudging me and prodding me about when Wrath’s book would be finished. I hope you know how much I appreciate it. I’m planning to attend at least two signings in 2016, so I hope I get to say hello to some of you in person.
If I left you with unanswered questions, you know by now I did it on purpose.
Thank you!
Autumn