Here we go: the official Beware of Dog debriefing post. I reserve the right to tack on additional posts in the likely event that I forget to include something of importance here. There will be spoilers, so I'll include a cut to keep plot details off the main blog page. Proceed at your own risk! And if you haven't grabbed your copy yet, you can find it here:
“Something’s up with you.”
Mercy glanced over without turning his head. The fire didn’t quite reach Walsh’s face, just a red flicker against his pale eyes. “I’m lying on a big-ass rock and I haven’t showered in days. Yeah. Something’s up.”
One slow shake of Walsh’s head: not buying it. “You slipped out of dinner the other night.”
“For a smoke.”
His brows went up. “You need to be very careful, brother. If you like young ones, that’s your business–”
Mercy put a bite into his voice, one Walsh would know wasn’t bullshit. “Yeah, it is.”
“ – but Ava, that’s a whole other issue.”
Mercy glared at him.
Anyone else would have caved and looked away, but not Walsh. “I’m just saying, is all. I’m the first one to notice. But I won’t be the last.”
While I was writing Fearless, I was already envisioning stories starring the rest of the Dogs, and that definitely flavored the amount of attention I paid all the secondary characters when I wrote scenes like this one. Obviously, I didn't share everything I already knew about Walsh here, but knowing him inside and out helped me craft Mercy's perception of him. Secondary characters serve first and foremost to provide outsider perspective for a hero, but if that's the only way an author views a character, the characterization inevitably falls flat. That's how you end up with "sidekicks." With secondary characters who either throw up roadblocks for the sake of plot, or who serve as a hero's "yes man." Your main characters then feel very main charactery, and everyone else is cardboard high school play props. Conversely, fleshed-out secondary characters with their own agency and agendas increase the tension in a realistic way.
On a lighter note: the campfire scene is my favorite of Chapter Nineteen because, as was inevitable, people are starting to notice. Mercy and Ava have zero chill when it comes to one another. An outside observer who is busy, or caught up in his own thoughts all the time (*cough* Ghost *cough*) won't notice, but the quiet, thoughtful people in their sphere are definitely picking up on the vibes.
The next scene is Ava's first day back at school, and the meeting she has with Maggie, the principal, and the guidance counselor. It was important to me that we get to see Maggie's maternal ferocity on-page. Ava's still young here, and still has timid moments - at least around adult authority figures. But it's no wonder she turns out as fierce as she does as a mother given her own mother's fanged approach to dealing the school on Ava's behalf.
Mullins aimed a wagging finger at Maggie. “That attitude right there is why Ava’s having trouble getting along with her classmates.”
Maggie fired back. “That attitude is the only thing that gives my baby hope that she isn’t alone when it comes to dealing with the spoiled Mean Girls who run schools all across this damn country. You can run this place, Mullins” – she gestured to the room around them, the school – “but you can’t run my family. You keep Ainsley Millcott away from my Ava, and you and me won’t have a problem.”
This scene, and others like it, provide an interesting opportunity: in a novel in which the outlaw MC was painted as villainous, Maggie's blunt, threatening approach with Mrs. Mullins would rightfully paint Maggie as the bad guy. But my approach with Dartmoor has always been that, if I'm writing from the MC's perspective, then they don't see themselves as villains, and my characterization of them should always be intimate and sympathetic. We the audience know that Mrs. Mullins and Mr. Freeman are seeing someone who is essentially a mob wife use said mob as a threat against public school employees. But we're sitting in that chair with Ava, and we share Maggie's outrage that Ava is treated differently not just by students, but by teachers and administrators as well, because of her background. We also, like Ava and Maggie, know a faint prickling of fear that Ava will be denied opportunities, or even harmed, by a principal's prejudice.
It's not Music Monday, but Mondays are for the Fearless read-along these days, so I'm posting the Beware of Dog playlist today.
Thank y'all for supporting the book! It was fun and refreshing to write, and I got very attached to Cass, and Shep, and their relationship.
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| With the cat, of course |
Beware of Dog published one week ago today! Feels like longer.
If you haven't grabbed a copy yet, you can do so here:
If you have read the book, you can keep scrolling for some personal headcanons/alternate version of scenes. There are spoilers here, so proceed with caution!
Ready?
Last chance to back out...
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She sighed again, and tucked her hair back when the wind swept it across her face. “I’m not upset with you,” she said, softening. “I know none of this was your idea. Shep was…well, Shep was being a good guard dog, but not with any kind of finesse.” Her gaze turned thoughtful as she studied Cass’s face. “But he wasn’t doing it on anyone’s orders, and if he had been, he definitely wouldn’t have had clearance to go into the Blackmons’ home and lay hands on a little rich boy flying his colors.”
Cass nodded. She knew that was true. But her pulse was still racing, and she didn’t know if she’d like the rest of what Melissa had to say.
“He did what he did on his own. It was an emotional response.” She tilted her head a fraction, hair blowing out to the side, blue gaze shrewd and too-knowing. “He really cares about you a lot.”
Inwardly, the statement filled Cass’s chest with warmth. It sent pleasant shivers down her arms and back. But it frightened her a little, too; cut too close to the bone of all that she’d been thinking and feeling lately. “If you say so.” She missed the mark on flippant. Her voice trembled at the edges.
Melissa wasn’t deterred. She was locked on, grave-faced, in full-on detective mode. “I don’t know Shep well,” she started.
“No,” Cass said. “You don’t.”
Melissa blinked, but otherwise took that statement in stride. “I have, though, learned a thing or two about the Lean Dogs in general in the last four years. Presidential orders are well and good, but if one of these guys thinks his woman is in danger, he’s going to do what he’s going to do, and he’ll deal with the fallout with Maverick afterward.”
“I’m not his woman,” Cass protested, but damn, it sounded good. Sent a thrill through her.
It's been QUITE the busy week, so I'm behind on replies, emails, comments, etc. But I wanted to pop in and say THANK YOU, dear readers, for buying, supporting, and reading Beware of Dog, and leaving such lovely feedback. This book took much longer to publish than I anticipated, but I'm proud of it, and it wound up being tons of fun to write. So thank you, thank you 💖
If you haven't yet heard, book six in the Lean Dogs Legacy series is now available!
I'll post a full debriefing sometime next week. Until then, happy reading.
And that's a wrap!
I've spent ten years writing these characters, and in some ways, it feels like a long, slow decade, and others, it feels like a blink. I'm insanely proud of the final books in both the Dartmoor and Lean Dogs Legacy series, for a variety of reasons. Both are brimming with full circle moments, but both are bursting at the seams with all the characters we've met along the way; all their baggage, all their growth, all their love for one another.
I tend to focus on my failings, and what I need to do next, but sometimes it's important to look back and see how far I've come.
All told, there are eighteen books across the original series and its spin-off series. They're best read in chronological order, which is also the order of publication. It goes:
Fearless
Price of Angels
Half My Blood
The Skeleton King
Secondhand Smoke
Snow In Texas
Tastes Like Candy
Loverboy
American Hellhound
Shaman
Prodigal Son
Lone Star
Homecoming
The Wild Charge
Long Way Down
Nothing More
Lord Have Mercy
Beware of Dog
Shaman (Ian's novella) is the only book not available in paperback, and all the rest are also available for Kindle, Nook, and Kobo, as well as paperback.
Over the course of the series, the club goes from a big criminal fish in the relatively small pond of Knoxville, to an international underground superpower. It's wild to look at everyone at the end and see how far they've come.
If you ask me about my favorite book, or favorite scene, or favorite line, it would shift from day to day. Walsh is my favorite Dog, but I don't know that his is my favorite character journey; I'd be hard-pressed to choose that. As of right this moment, I'd say my two favorite scenes in the whole series are two from Lord Have Mercy: feeding Big Son; and Aidan, Ava, and Ghost in the St. Louis cathedral.
I'm not going to lock the series away in a time capsule and say I'll never return to it. It's always a possibility. As of now, I don't have any pressing stories within the universe I want to tell. The series has found some new and first-time readers in 2025, and I hope its audience can grow. These characters are so vivid for me, and have taught me so much as a writer, that I'm always going to find blog inspiration in them, and maybe a fluffy bonus scene or two to share here on the blog.
I'm also running a chapter-by-chapter Fearless read-along, so be sure to join us for that every Monday!
And if you haven't read Cass and Shep's story yet, it'll be one week old this Saturday! You can grab it here:
Now I'm curious: after ten years and eighteen books, do y'all have a favorite book? Character? Couple? Scene? Any character you were hoping to get a book for? Lemme know!
Thank you all for all your continued support! It's been one heck of a ride. 💖
Devin gazed at the phone a moment longer, then nodded to himself, blacked the screen, and slipped it back into his pocket. “Right then,” he said, face creased with smile lines. “Our girl wants us to get along. She wants me to treat you with kindness, so that’s what I intend to do.”
He stuck his hand out, and it was a friendly gesture, this time. “Hi. I’ve no idea what my real name is, if I ever had one, but I’ve been Devin Green for forty-some-odd years now. It’s suited well enough.”
Shep was still reeling from the text. Simple words, and a truth he’d already known, but hearing the way Cass had strung it all together for her father had left his sinuses stinging. He accepted the handshake. “Frank Shepherd. I’m gonna marry your daughter.”
Devin’s smile lines deepened. “Good. I think that’s what she wants.”
In case you missed it, Beware of Dog dropped on Saturday, and you can grab a copy here:
I won't do an official debriefing post until next week, so I can discuss spoilers, but the book inspired today's workshop post about narrative tension.
I can't write a story if I don't have a firm grasp on my characters. But the engine that drives any story is narrative tension. You can have the wildest, most creative plot in the world, but without tension, the narrative is going to fall flat, and turn out boring and forgettable. Tension can be high, it can set your teeth on edge and make you squirm while reading, but it can also be subtle and low stakes.
Obviously, there's tension present in the main conflict between the heroes and the villains. In Beware of Dog, that tension comes from Sig Blackmon and his family, and the people they hire to do their dirty work.
But I wound up leaving quite a few scenes on the cutting room floor because they amounted to nothing but fluff, with zero tension present. I might end up putting them here on the blog, for anyone who likes the fluffy bits, but I felt like they detracted from the novel itself, which is chock full of tension.
There's the romantic/sexual tension between Cass and Shep, of course. Then there's the tension of their relationship being secret: both of them are worried about telling her family, and, to a lesser extent, Maverick and the rest of the Dogs. There's tension between Cass and her roommate, Jamie, who she's trying to help. And, some of my favorite not only in this book, but in the whole series, the tension between Devin and his kids, and amongst said kids themselves.
In real life, tense relationships between family members are not fun. But if Devin and his brood were loving and well-adjusted, those family scenes would be boring on paper. In BoD, it's a low-stakes sort of tension. By this point, we know that Fox and Walsh love each other, but that tension between them makes their conversation on the clubhouse porch interesting, rather than a sap-fest. And for Shep, much like Mercy, he resents Devin's absence in Cass's life, and isn't shy about expressing his feelings on the matter.
“Your boys have been giving me shit,” Shep said, “and now you’re gonna give me shit, and none of it’s gonna scare me off, so why don’t we cut it out already?”
Devin studied him a long, unblinking, eerie moment, then nodded, and the life flooded back into his expression. “Fair enough. But I’m still going to say my piece.” He shifted his weight, cocked a hip. Ready? Or relaxed? God knew. “Son—”
“Don’t call me son. I’m not your son, and I hate your f***ing guts.”
Devin’s brows twitched, but mildly, and not with anything like surprise. “That’s a bold statement.” His lips quirked. “I’ve not heard the old ‘hate your guts’ since the boys were in short pants.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Smart. They’ve said it since.” He tilted his chin. “Them I understand. Why do you hate me, then, Francis?”
Not only does all of this interpersonal tension create a more interesting reading experience, but it also makes it much more rewarding when two characters finally come to an understanding. Just like trials and tribulations make a character's journey more satisfying, so too does a disagreement or a personality clash elevate a friendship when it finally forms.
He doesn't have a ton of page time here, but I love Devin in BoD. I would say he's become one of my favorite characters to write, but he pretty much started out that way. Instead, let's say I'm thrilled to see so many readers express their affection for him, now that he's grown on them.
