Deceit

Now that Beautiful Carnage is written and ready to head off to the editor, I’m diving into the fourth book in the Hollywood Guardians series, Deceit.

This is going to be my first true enemies to lovers story, and it’s got a forbidden element, too. Devon and Asher are step siblings, and their hatred for each other is a lot of fun to write.

When I began writing Beautiful Carnage, I started something completely new and different to anything I’d done when writing my previous books. I go through a series of questions to get to know the character better, writing out the answers in their voice. I usually end up with about 10,000 words of history, hopes, dreams, opinions, backstory, and everything in between by the time I’m finished, but it really helps me figure out who each character is as a person.

In this book, our heroine is Devon Holmes, an award-winning actress with a dark secret in her past that’s slowly destroying her. She makes a mistake and the only person she can call for help is the stepbrother she loathes and wants in equal measure.

Asher is our hero and I’m so excited for him to finally get his book. In Deceit, he’s going to have to balance stepping back into the family he wants no part of after a tragedy shifts his entire life around while also helping Devon clean up her mistakes and protecting her when the consequences of her fuck up mean more than just a bad headline or two.

The banter and chemistry between these two is a lot of fun to write so far. You can check out the first chapter by clicking HERE.

As always, if you want to read ahead while I work on this book, you can over on my Patreon.

Character Flaws

When I start brainstorming a series, that can look different every time. For Crossed Souls, it started with the characters—Willa specifically. I saw her initially as a sort of cupid-like character who was destined to help people find love while also being a person who couldn’t find it herself. She’d never known what being in love felt like, and was a really lonely person.

So many of the reverse harems I read involve a female main character who’s badass almost right from the beginning. That’s not who Willa is, though. She’s just not. She’s been beaten down by life, and instead of rising to the occasion, she’s been defeated and is sort of just trying to get through her days and appreciate the things she does have and the people who are in her life.

Unfortunately, this means that sometimes life just happens to her. She doesn’t know how to handle it when life throws her a massive curveball she didn’t expect. Because she’s naïve and been sheltered her whole life, she doesn’t always make great decisions. In the first book of the Twisted Soul Magic series, this means that sometimes she’s a pushover. She lets her guys make decisions and goes along with them because she’s just trying to learn how this new world works before she jumps in.

She’s cautious and inadvertently reckless at the same time because she doesn’t have all the information. She’s doing her best, but sometimes her best is frustrating because she doesn’t seem to get it.

Trust me when I say this is all part of the plan. Yes, I’ve got a plan for Willa and how she’s going to grow throughout the series. She won’t always be the clueless and frustrating heroine she is in book one. If she were, that would make for a shitty series, right? But… if she doesn’t start somewhere low, how can she have the journey that will make you root for her to have happiness and everything perfect by the end of the series?

You’d get just as bored if she was a badass from the beginning and stayed a badass throughout. So, while I know book one might’ve been frustrating, I promise things will get much, much better as the series goes on.

Get to Know: Magnolia

Taming Griffin is upon us (eek, just 13 more days!) and now seems like a great time to introduce you to Magnolia Dawson, Griffin’s other (better!) half.

Magnolia’s fresh out of college, so she’s young like Griffin, and she’s already had a pretty rocky life. This book explores some dark subjects like domestic abuse, but I wouldn’t call the book itself dark. It’s more a redemption, a story of a girl finding herself and her happily ever after despite the circumstances she’s been through.

I’ve wanted to write a southern heroine for quite a while now but it wasn’t right for any of the stories so far until this one. Right off the bat, I knew Magnolia had to be from the south. I’ve lived in Texas a few times and there’s something about that part of the US that’s a little more welcoming, a little sweeter, and a little more relaxed and slower-paced that I love so much. But women from the south? They’ll be sugar-sweet to you while cutting your legs out from underneath you with their words and there’s something about that I love so much, I needed Magnolia to have that quality. Unfortunately, it’s been buried pretty deep, so she’s going to have to work to bring it back out.

Magnolia’s from Georgia, so she’s got that southern sass and a twang to match. She was raised by her grandmother (Grammy!) but spent most of her childhood lonely and without a lot of friends. She was determined to go to college because of a promise she made to her grandma, and that’s where she met her ex, Winston.

He plays a big part in this story, and in order to get the feelings and situations correct, I talked to a lot of women who’d gone through what I imagined Magnolia had been through, too. Since she met him, Winston’s always been a shadow hanging over her life, so this book will explore that in detail.

Our pretty southern heroine is in full-on survival mode in this book when we first meet her, but slowly she starts to open up and her journey from when we meet her to the end of the book is amazing to watch unfold. I can’t wait for you to read it. Griffin’s really the best, sweetest guy ever (even more than True—shockingly), and he’s there with her every step of the way.

All Magnolia’s ever wanted was a place to call home and a family to love since those aren’t really something she’s ever had the chance to have. You’re going to have to wait to read to find out if she gets them, but just for fun, here’s a little sneak peek:

Magnolia

My heart beat wildly in my chest because standing up to people and confrontation were basically my biggest fears, but I had to get over it if I was going to run this tour like it deserved. I couldn’t let her see my fear. “I’ll do no such thing. You’re going to pack up your stuff and get off my bus. I wasn’t notified you’d be traveling with us, so we don’t have room for you or him.”

She narrowed her eyes even further and I took a step back. I flinched and the triumph that flashed in her eyes made me hate what I’d become even more than I already did. I hated cowering when someone acted aggressively toward me, but I couldn’t help it. It was instinctual now. She tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and smiled at me, though it was more teeth than anything. “Make me,” she challenged, and then her smile widened as she looked over my shoulder.

Wait until you see who she was confronting… and who’s over her shoulder. Are you excited for Taming Griffin?

Meet: True

From the moment True announced his presence in my mind, he’s been the sweetest, most caring guy ever. He has the ability to handle shit when he has to, but mostly he’s a laid back surfer who’s good with going with the flow. He’s the peacemaker and he’s a total romantic.

True was raised by both of his parents in a loving and supportive household. He has one brother (Hale) and he looks at his parents as the ultimate example of what love should be and what he wants for his life. True is the moral compass of the group, the light one who keeps everyone from going over the edge into places that might not be easy to recover from.

He’s the kind of guy who’s happiest with a long-term girlfriend or nothing at all. He’s not a fan of hookups, and while he takes advantage from time to time, mostly he’s focused on other aspects of his life.

And musically? He’s incredibly talented on both guitar and as a singer. He and Zen both sing and play guitar, but in the official capacity of the band, True plays and Zen sings. But when they write music together? They make an amazing team. Think Lennon and McCartney levels of teamwork and creativity. True finds his peace with his family, the guys from the band, and hitting the waves.

And in Shadow Phoenix? His laid back ways get him in a bit of trouble the guys have to help him out of….

Meet: Maddox

Maddox was actually the second character that really solidified himself in my mind when I was writing Finding Zen. He was partially inspired by the song “Marry Me” by Thomas Rhett. I knew what his story would be like, but I wasn’t quite sure about his personality.

But the more I wrote him, the more of an asshole he came to be. But I loved that about him. He was the snarky one, the first one to make a snide comment, to flirt unabashedly, to stir up drama and give people shit. He spoke his mind without reservation and I loved that about him.

The one thing that he always is without fail is protective, though. He’s the fixer of the group, the one who makes problems go away. He does what he has to do, but there are lines even he won’t cross. There aren’t many, but they’re there. He has morals and standards, they just might not be what we all think they are.

When we meet Maddox in Shadow Phoenix, he’s still so torn up over the way he left Ryan behind that the guilt is absolutely destroying him. So to cope, he resorts to some unexpected things that I think will shock a lot of people. But, I really enjoy playing with sexuality in a more fluid way, and of all the guys, I thought Maddox could handle it best.

We get a little sneak peek into Maddox’s comfort level with who he is in a scene in Saving Maddox with Ryan and Quinn, but Shadow Phoenix really takes a deeper dive into exploring the dark time he’s going through trying to cope with how to move on from trying to move on without the love of his life.

Where we see Maddox in Shadow Phoenix is just the start of almost a decade-long downward spiral that he recovers from and comes out even better on the other side, but prepare yourself for a Maddox you’ve never seen before.

Meet: Zen

Zen was the very first character I ever came up with. I’ve talked a little bit about this before, but when I heard the song “The Hills” by The Weeknd, I really started to wonder what that lifestyle would look like. For my first foray into attempting to write my own book, I wanted to write something exciting. What better to start out with than rock stars?

At his base, Zen was always an alpha, bad boy hero with a cocky swagger, ink covering almost every inch of his delectable body, and an emptiness inside that he wasn’t sure how to cope with anymore. He’d sort of been there, done that, you know?

As humans, we adapt to situations really fast, so his lifestyle wasn’t exciting to him anymore. He’d been at this whole mega-famous superstar thing for more than a decade and it was stale. So, I wanted him to be someone I could push around a little. Someone who’s eyes could be opened to new possibilities, and someone who could look at the world through fresh eyes if the right person came along.

His character’s look was originally inspired by Shane Burnell (@shaneburnell on insta, hel-lo), a green-eyed, tatted up hottie who all the girls wanted. When deciding on his name, I wanted it to be something short and easy to pronounce and remember, but also unique and worthy of his status.

In my mind, his parents were hippies and raised him (I use this term loosely since they weren’t really around at all) on a commune, so his name makes sense in that context, too.

As a kid, someone on the commune taught him to play guitar and he grew up singing songs around bonfires most nights. This was where his love of music came from, and I imagine that he liked to pass the time making up songs because there weren’t TVs or electronics or other things that most kids had growing up.

As a teenager, he decided he’d had enough and wanted to take control of his life, so he got emancipated and moved to LA and that’s where we find him when Shadow Phoenix begins. Zen is driven, hard-working, and determined to have whatever he sets his sights on. He’ll pursue it until he either gets it or is physically unable to do any more, but he’ll never give up.

He’s the perfect partner for Kennedy, but it’s a long road to get him to where he’s ready to settle down.

Wednesday I’ll be giving you some background info on one of the other guys, so make sure to check back in!

Which one of the four guys is your favorite? Zen, True, Maddox, or Jericho? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Character Inspiration: Connor

As you probably know by now, Finding Zen was my first attempt at writing a book. It’ll always be my favorite story because of that, but when I was doing character development, I really had no idea what I was doing. I jumped into 12-page character questionnaires that were FAR more detailed than necessary.

Thankfully, I learned how to streamline the process and it’s not nearly as intense now as it used to be.

That being said, I realized that if Zen’s story were anything like real life, and he were as famous as I imagined him to be, he’d be mobbed if he tried to go anywhere alone. He’d have all sorts of issues and challenges that he’d run into and for that he’d need a solid security team. And that team would definitely include at least one bodyguard.

Initially when I imaged Connor’s character, he was an older guy. He was in his fifties and sort of acted as the father Zen never really knew. In an earlier blog, I talked a little bit about Zen’s past and his parental situation (check that out here if you’re curious), but once the first draft of the book was written, it didn’t feel right.

There weren’t a lot of places I could go with his character. I wanted someone younger. Someone I could explore, and someone who could eventually get his own book (or own spin off series…). In my mind, he definitely needed to be ex-military. And since my husband is an ex-Marine and my brother-in-law is an active duty Marine, that’s what Connor needed to be, too.

He’s guarded and highly protective. He’s incredibly smart and clever, and he’s the kind of guy who isn’t afraid to wade into shady grey areas in order to keep someone safe. That makes him the perfect private security for a world famous band who’s needs and demands can change on the fly. He’s highly adaptable with connections all over the world.

Connor has varying levels of involvement in each of the three Shadow Phoenix stories I’ve written so far. You meet him for the first time in Finding Zen, he helps out a little in Loving True, and then he really steps into his own in Saving Maddox. He’ll play an even bigger role in Playing Jericho that I can’t wait for you to read.

Have you had a chance to meet Connor’s team yet in Saving Maddox? If so, who’s your favorite team member? Indy, Sebastian, Julian, or Connor?

Character Inspiration: Charlie

When I’m starting the process of writing a book, I figure out who my main characters are going to be and then I start digging into their backstory. Who are they? What was their childhood like? What’s their relationship with their parents like? And do they have siblings?

I knew right off the bat that Ryan (the heroine from Saving Maddox) was going to be a tomboy in a sense, but not in a stereotypical way. She wouldn’t believe in the limitations that separate what girls can do from what boys can do. And the reason she believed that was how she was raised. That and she grew up surrounded by two sisters who were badass in their own right.

So, when it came to her sisters, I knew they would have similar morals and values. They wanted to help people. They never thought about what society might tell them they couldn’t do just because they were girls. They worked hard and went after whatever they wanted.

Charlie Knight is Ryan’s older sister. If you’ve read Saving Maddox, you know their dad Alexander had an accident several years prior. Charlie had always known she wanted to be a doctor from when she was just a little, bitty girl but when her dad had his accident, her specialty came into focus.

Neurosurgery.

It became her life’s mission to help her dad and people like him. People who’d lost the ability to walk or function at a normal level without assistance. She felt incredibly called to this line of work, and she threw herself completely into school and then her residency.

I love the Knight sisters so much. They’re my favorite group of siblings I’ve created so far - all with masculine names and soft hearts. I have a future series planned that will feature both Charlie and Justice and will show that women can be heroes, too.

Which Knight sister is your favorite? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Character Inspiration: Quinn

Whenever I start writing a new book, I spend a lot of time developing the main characters, their families, and the main antagonists, but outside of that, I don’t give it a lot of thought. I started writing Saving Maddox and realized there was a gaping hole on Ryan’s side that needed to be filled by someone. But who?

She was stuck on her family’s ranch and working it full time, and in a tiny Texas town no less, so she didn’t get a lot of opportunity to make friends. I knew whoever she had in her life friend-wise would need to be someone who worked on the ranch and someone who she’d feel really comfortable with.

Almost instantly, Quinn popped out of the woodwork basically saying, “I’ve got this,” and inserting himself into the story. I didn’t even need to think about him, his humor and wit and snark just immediately flowed out of me and onto the page like he was always meant to be there.

And it just fit that he’d be gay. Except maybe he’s not as gay as he first thinks… Because can’t sexuality be fluid? I’m excited to explore his character more in a future book where I can really see what makes him tick. Just like all of us, he can appreciate just how hot all the Shadow Phoenix guys are, but he’s the one who adds a lightness to Maddox & Ryan’s story.

Saving Maddox can be heavy at times and there’s a lot of emotion flying around, so when Quinn pops in with a joke or teasing, or just causing a little bit of trouble, he balances everything out in a really fun way. I hope you love him as much as I do!

You can meet Quinn in Saving Maddox, coming out next month. Read on for a Quinn excerpt.

Ryan

I heard the pounding hooves before I saw him and a slow smile spread across my face as I looked to my left and watched as Quinn came into view on the back of his horse, Daisy. He rode right up next to me, pulling back on the reins so Daisy would stop.

He hopped off of her back, his boots making a loud thud on the dirt before he patted her haunches and sent her over to the water. Watching him close the distance between us, his sculpted frame, messy dark hair, and hazel eyes that were framed by long, dark lashes were every girl’s fantasy. Too bad for all of us he was as gay as they come. That didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy looking at him, though.

Quinn flashed me a cocky smile. “My eyes are up here, sweetheart.” 

I laughed. “Damn, you caught me. If you didn’t want me to stare, maybe you should try putting on some weight, maybe around the middle.”

He dropped down beside me, leaning against the tree so our shoulders touched. “Not a chance. I don’t exactly have a lot of prospects out here in this podunk town, so I’m not about to let myself go and miss out on the random app hookups in the city. I’ve got to pull them in somehow and a picture’s all I’ve got to work with.”

Biting my lip to keep from smiling, I eyed him up and down. “You do you, boo. Just don’t mind me ogling you from time to time. Checking you out is the most action I’ve had… ever.” 

Quinn sighed and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pulling me into his body and kissing the top of my head. “When are you going to let go of the boy next door, Mr. Manwhore Rockstar himself, and finally move on?”