Nikita

“Perhaps your story is as full of twists and turns as my own. Perhaps not. Either way, I think both of us have many secrets.”

Recommended Listening

White Wolf is populated with characters of all kinds, but the two central figures are Sasha, who I've already blogged about, and Nikita. Unlikely allies, even unlikelier friends, and both victims of circumstance. One of the themes of the book is identity: the contrast of public versus private identity, the need to pretend to be one thing in order to accomplish something more important than oneself. The novel's setting has proved an immense challenge when it comes to research, but I wanted to use it because it provides the perfect landscape in which to take the monster/man identity concepts of paranormal and horror literature and break them down in a historically-grounded, very human way. In many ways, I think the most horrifying aspects of the story are the real-life atrocities committed by humans. 

If Sasha is the endearing and honest figure of the story, then Nikita is his foil. Full of secrets and repressed emotion. Full of guilt and starting to doubt himself in significant ways. For me, he's endearing in his own way, and his relationship with his lady love is proving, thus far, to be one of the most challenging, balance-beam romances of my writing to date. Very worthwhile, though. 

I absolutely cannot wait to share this one with you guys. It's been challenging, and thrilling, and I'm psyched to get all my little book babies on the page so they can start meeting each other and disagreeing about everything. 

***

“I’m not a nice man. But I always tell the truth.”

Sons of Rome

*rubs hands together gleefully*

So NOW that "The Stalker" is out in the world, we can talk a little bit more about Sons of Rome as a whole. (If you haven't seen it yet, you can grab the prelude short story, "The Stalker," at Amazon for 99c.) 

The characters introduced in the short - Fulk, Anna, Dr. Talbot, and Vlad - are all major players in the series. Fulk and Anna are my favorites, and we'll get to see how and when they met in a later book that's all about them. I mentioned in the author note at the end of the story that Fulk le Strange is my fictionalized version of a real baron born in 1267 - and the same is true of Vlad. A historical figure, now more myth than man at this point, who I'm molding into shape for my own storytelling purposes. 

Because it's a character-driven saga, the emphasis will always be on telling the various individuals' stories. There is an ongoing plot that is further developed with each separate adventure, but for anyone who isn't familiar with, or who doesn't care for paranormal stories all that much, I think you'll be happy to hear that this series is very much a human story, at its heart. The paranormal aspects are very much present - immortal characters with powers, etc. - but the stories are about families: about lovers, spouses, siblings, friends. About moral dilemmas, and nature vs. nurture, about sacrifice and loss. 

While this series is very different from the Dartmoor books readers have come to expect from me, it's similar in that it's a series written for readers like me, who want to get good and invested in a story. This is a rainy day, cup of coffee, blanket on your lap kind of series. It is not designed for the reader looking for instant gratification. It's my great hope that it will be an immersive reading experience. That it will be at times scary, at times funny, and that at the end of all its adventures, true love will indeed save the day. 

If you enjoyed "The Stalker," get ready, because there is so much more of that on the way. This is my favorite genre, and I can't wait to contribute to it, and share it with you all. 

The year is 1942, and a boy from Siberia is caught up in the Great Patriotic War. 

The year is 2017, and a NY homicide detective dreams every night about blood, and snow, and dead wolves...and a man with blues eyes who claims to know her family.

A baron returns to his manor. A legend wakes. A brother-killer walks the earth again. The Sons of Rome have stepped from the world of fable into the world of the living, and everything is about to change.

White Wolf, coming Fall 2017

Surprise Release - The Stalker

Surprise! 

A short story prelude for my new, paranormal Sons of Rome series is now live on Amazon for 99 cents. Get it here. 

This short introduces two important characters from the series and sets the scene for what's to come. Sons of Rome officially launches later this year with book one, White Wolf, and kicks off an epic saga with historical and contemporary storylines, and a crazy cast of outlaws, misfits, and literal monsters. 

I can't wait to share it with everyone! We're just getting started. 

(inspirational pin board found here)

Dear Heart Chapter 27

Hi! So, this isn't the normal place for updates on Dear Heart, but Wattpad has changed their coding so that it's impossible to write a chapter and then copy/paste or upload it. I'd have to write directly on the site, which would ruin my formatting, and just...no. Ugh. So. Here's chapter 27 - be warned that it is incredibly short. I had a message last week about publishing it, and I told this reader that it was waaaay back on the back burner while I work on all my other projects. And it is. But as it sometimes does, a question like this got me poking around in the manuscript, and I was filled with sadness as I read back through bits of chapters and reminded myself why I started posting this story, and why it's hard to set it aside for the time being. I decided to go ahead and post what I have for 27, though it isn't much. And I'm hoping I can continue to post more regular updates here on the blog.

Real talk time. I started this story because I fell in love with the characters, and because, at heart, I love soft, sweet couple stories about living life and getting past hard times. And once I started writing, I found that this book, like Walking Wounded, was going to be one of THOSE books, the ones where, for whatever reason, my writing could come to the page in its truest and best form. Even today, as I skim through it, I'm very proud of the writing mechanics of it. It's a rare thing when I write something with the sensitivity and attention to detail that I crave while reading, and this book is an example of such. 

Compared to my other Wattpad entries, Snow in Texas and Tastes Like Candy, reader interest has been low. (I know how typecast actors feel now, ha!) But I would love to find a way, possibly through some sort of magic, to finish this one this year and have it available on Amazon. I don't plan to continue updating it chapter-by-chapter...unless you want to see that happen. If you like the updates, please consider showing it some love. Stories like these are my absolute best work, and I'd love to be able to write more of them in the future. 

You can read chapters one through twenty-six here. 

I'll be sure to let everyone know when the final, complete version is available. 

xoxo

Sasha

From

White Wolf

Copyright © 2017 by Lauren Gilley

All Rights Reserved 

Nikita.

Good. Kind. Dangerous.

Friend. Pack.

There was so much pain. So many sounds. And smells.

Chaos. Too bright, too cold, too much.

He smelled blood, and something dead, and the rank fear-sweat of humans. Humans afraid of him.

If it's true about Dartmoor that I like to write characters who are difficult to like, but easy to love, then it's doubly true of the characters in White Wolf. Maybe. Some of them, at least. I think Sasha is pretty darn loveable and likeable. 

The fun thing about writing, for me anyway, is stepping outside the box of my everyday life and into that of someone who, on the surface, is different in every way. And then excavating down and finding the universal things that make them wonderful, and weird, and familiar. 

Sons of Rome, being paranormal, gives me a chance to explore with a freedom that doesn't exist in a closed environment like a biker club. There are still rules to this paranormal world, yes, but we can go anywhere, peek in on anyone, and see things through an array of lenses. It's freeing, and at moments worrying - do I have the writing chops for this? - but it affords more latitude when it comes to characters. 

Sasha is nineteen, Siberian, naïve, and kind-hearted. By contrast, his friends are jaded, experienced, necessarily violent, and duplicitous - also necessarily. It's delightful to invert the trope, and turn the sweet boy into the monster...and the monsters into the helpless tagalongs. 

Cover Reveal - White Wolf

Detective Trina Baskin keeps having nightmares. Vivid, graphic nightmares about snow, and blood, and wolves. She thinks they're just that - nightmares - until her latest case has her asking all sorts of questions about what's humanly possible. Together with her partner, Lanny, she stumbles onto the truth not only about the case, but about her own family history as well. 

Full synopsis to come...

First Look - #WhiteWolf

Happy Saturday, all! I've been teasing and talking about my new project, White Wolf, for a few weeks now, and let me tell you, I am SO excited about this project - about this new series, Sons of Rome, which combines so many of my favorite genres and tropes. I can't wait to share it with everyone later this year...which is why I'm going ahead and sharing Chapter One now.

White Wolf is the first in a character-driven paranormal series with historical and contemporary storylines. Warnings (in general) for blood, violence, magic, scary stuff, sex, epic romances, accurate historical details...inaccurate historical details, alternate history, war scenes, actual battles, military stuff, lengthy references to real figures in history, and opinionated characters. Also, wolves...and the people they work for.

White Wolf

Copyright © 2017 by Lauren Gilley

All Rights Reserved

1

There was blood on the snow.

Gallons of it.

Arterial spray, the analytical part of her brain catalogued. She’d seen it before. But never this much. Great crimson arcs across the fresh white drifts, grisly hieroglyphs that attempted to explain what had happened to the bodies that littered the clearing.