A Fox Retrospective

While I was editing The Wild Charge, I started thinking about the first time we met a character, versus their most recent moment in the current text. I was thinking about just how much time had passed - in the real world, for me, the writer; and within the Dartmoor universe. I love working with such a big cast of characters - except for the times when having that many players on the board gets hectic - and it's always an interesting internal process to go from "I need a character to plug into this spot" to, over time, through writing them and peeling back their layers: "What's this character's deepest fear/love?"

Fox first appeared in Snow In Texas. 

Two men who could only be identical twins sat at a table with longnecks, watching Oklahoma play Tennessee. A third man sat at the bar and turned, taking note of Colin's appearance with a slight nod. His eyes were large and an eerie shade of blue, starkly visible across the distance. Familiar eyes; he'd seen them somewhere else. His bottom rocker read England.

...

He dropped his bags when he reached the stool and stuck out one giant hand. "Hey. I'm Colin. Bob sent me up from NOLA."

There was a beat, a moment of appraisal in which those blue eyes tracked down and then back up him, flat, cool, and giving nothing away. Then the guy accepted his shake, firm grip despite the height disparity between them. "Fox," he said, nationality confirmed by his accent. "You're Mercy's brother." Not a question.

"Half-brother," Colin said firmly.

Fox tipped his head in acknowledgement. "Lots of us have half-brothers, I 'spect. You met mine, I'm sure. Walsh."

That's where the eyes came from. This brother had dark hair instead of Walsh's blonde, and the faces weren't quite the same - the noses, the angles of their jaws. But the eyes were a dead giveaway. And they shared that spooky calm that belonged on a much larger, more physically imposing man.

"Ah. Yeah, I did. You guys aren't in the same chapter."

One brow lifted. "Neither are you and your brother."

"Fair enough."

The book dropped in early 2016 - How has it already been six years??? - and Fox, while a horrid little delight, was very much a background character who I wanted to remain that way. I thought of him as a fun deviation from the other guys, and a useful tool when I needed an spec ops touch in certain situations.

But that was the thing. In making Fox the "spec ops touch," it expanded the Dartmoor world outward a few degrees. It was no longer confined to dealers, criminals, and misfits. Up 'til this point, Michael and Mercy were the only "specialists," so to speak, but their skills were more about willingness rather than any sort of formal training or experience. 

And then here was Fox. Mr. Spy. A character who offered new opportunities...but new risks, too. Each time you expand a universe, you risk taking it in a direction that strays too far off the main course. Not to mention: the more complex a character's background, the more legwork it takes in the writing to bridge the gap between them and the original characters. 

What resulted was several cameos, which led to POV scenes, then chapters. All told, Fox's journey has taken place over several books, and it's one, given his nature, that is very much still ongoing. He's not a happily ever after character; with Fox, it's more about helping him slowly realize where his heart and mind converge - although he'd tell you he doesn't have a heart to speak of, the wanker. 

He debuted in 2016, and this is a snippet from last recorded scene, just last week:

The farmer's market laid out in the narrow, shaded streets of Saumur was a bazaar of every kind of food imaginable: from staples like baguettes and cheeses wrapped in wax, to fresh seafood and local beef, to escargot quiches and piping hot sandwiches and flaky pastries. At a small, streetside table shaded by an umbrella, Fox thumped down baskets of steamed mussels and handed around plastic forks.

"I like the cap," Tenny observed, breaking a loaf of bread into quarters and putting the largest portion on Reese's paper plate. "It's very London cabbie chic."

Fox flipped him the bird without looking over, popped a mussel in his mouth, and scanned the street. "He's late."

Reese sliced two fat hunks of camembert, put one on Tenny's plate, and topped a slice of bread for himself with the other. Added a dollop of plum jam and, after his first bite, quietly swore off American grocery store bread. "Well," he reasoned, "Devin's a little..."

"Stupid?" Tenny offered.

"Annoying as shit?" Fox asked. "Insufferable? Prone to running his fucking mouth?"

"Hey, my mouth does what it needs to do, thank you very much," Devin said, materializing behind Fox and dropping into the chair beside him.

I still marvel over the fact that he became a fan favorite - but I'm encouraged, too. Big, splashy characters like Mercy can feel like they suck all the oxygen out of a fictional room. It's nice to see the sneaky one steal a few hearts. 

Dartmoor Book 9, The Wild Charge, dropped this Tuesday. 633 ebook pages of Fox and his two junior Foxes. You can grab it HERE. 

New Release - The Wild Charge (Dartmoor book 9)

 “Tennyson. That’s your name, yeah? He gave you that name...But you picked your last name, and you picked Fox. You picked my name...And you’re at least half my blood. You’re half that old bastard Devin. So listen to me."

#TheWildCharge

#DartmoorSeries

The Wild Charge is live! It picks up right where "Homecoming" left off, with the club facing down a powerful enemy, and Reese and Tenny facing their own wants and needs as free men. Action, intrigue, violence, romance, and Devin's brood doing what they do best.

Thanks so much for the support over on Wattpad! Reviews are lovely

Grab it for Kindle or Nook.

It's done!

 

It’s done! I did it! It’s finished!

Ah, the short-lived giddiness of finishing a manuscript…before reality hits and you remind yourself that you’re many, many manuscripts behind, there’s millions more words to write, and nothing will ever be enough. Lovely.

Still, you take the little victories where you can, no matter how little. After more than a year of writing – which, admittedly, was filled with long stretches of not working on it at all – The Wild Charge, Dartmoor book nine, is finished. I posted the last chapter on Wattpad yesterday, and, after it’s edited, I’ll post it up for sale on all the sites soon.

Spoiler-free post-writing thoughts ahead.

I said before I wrote it, and while I was writing it, that I didn’t want to write The Wild Charge. The end result is one I’m pleased with, one I’m proud of – one that I think brings something new and interesting and engaging to the series without being a rehash of a previous book with names and hair colors swapped. There are series that do that, to quite successful sales figures: series that are more or less the same story over and over, the same characters, the same conflicts, only it’s Bobby and Jane instead of Robert and Sally, etc. While I understand that this is a smart formula, it’s one to which I cannot adhere because, to put it bluntly, that sort of repetition would leave me so bored and contemptuous of my own work that I wouldn’t be able to continue an ongoing series. The risk, then, in trying to keep things fresh, is straying too far from the earlier works that readers enjoyed more. So am I pleased and proud? Did I accomplish what I set out to with this book? Yes. Do I still wish I hadn’t written it? Also yes. Because it strays too far from what’s been decided upon as the standard “MC romance” subgenre setup, and I can already hear the Goodreads disappointment in the back of my mind.

Speaking of “MC romance”…

I’ve never considered myself a romance author – not because , as I’ve had suggested to me, I hate women or don’t wish to support them (I am a woman; I tend to read mostly women authors, and I have yet to understand why a woman is somehow “more,” “better,” or “the right sort of woman to support” because she writes romance as opposed to sci-fi, fantasy, or mystery; riddle me that one, Batman) but because romance, as both genre and subgenre, are constrained by an incredibly rigid set of writing rules…rules that I don’t wish to adhere to while I work. It’s a matter of classification. Similarly, “MC romance” as a subgenre holds no special significance for me on its surface. It’s a cool aesthetic, but the motorcycles and the tattoos aren’t the reason I’ve written well over a million words in that universe. The MC scene, just like the medieval scene, like the vampire/werewolf scene, the Viking-inspired dragon fantasy scene, the heaven vs. hell scene, is appealing to me because it provides otherwise impossible opportunities for exciting stakes and character growth.

I do so love a cozy story. A Rosamund Pilcher novel full of warm Aga stoves, toddies by the fire, cottage gardens and soft, gentle love. But despite this, and despite being the most sinfully boring person on earth, as a writer, I like to play with big emotions; I like the peaks and valleys, the scary, everything-on-the-line emotions, and you can only get to that through elevated stakes. The motorcycle club setting offers those sorts of stakes: a group of people living on the other side of the law, making their own rules, battling for supremacy against other underworld forces. That automatically lends itself to action, violence, difficult decisions, and skillsets honed in moments of crisis. A setting that allows us to go on much wilder adventures, with life-or-death stakes that bring out the best and the worst in the characters.

I first introduced Reese in American Hellhound. He began, in the early drafts, as a means of explaining Badger’s depravity, a walking testament to this rival club’s brutality. But by the time I’d finished the novel, he’d become, for me, a chance to write a whole new type of character into the series. A new challenge, and a chance to work with a whole new sort of internal, personal struggle within the overall narrative: that of someone raised as a weapon searching for a sense of personhood. Because character is always my main focus, I knew it would be a slow and gradual process, that Reese had much to learn.

There was a moment, writing Prodigal Son, when I leaned a little toward pairing Reese with Cassandra. But the more I considered the idea, the less I liked it. I love a good age gap, but the gap between Reese and Cass was less about age and more about this massive gulf between their lived experiences. There was no way Cass could relate to him in any way, and no way her innocence and youth would help him better understand himself, or the real world into which he’d been plunged. It was a case in which opposites could not and should not attract, the more I thought of it. I hated the idea of Reese being “saved” in any way. I wanted him to learn. And to do that, he would need to learn alongside someone in a similar situation.

Enter Tenny.

Their story together begins in Lone Star and comes to fruition here, all told a tale that takes three books to unfold. TWC is bloody, violent, and, like every book in this series, ultimately an examination of family in all its forms. I enjoyed getting to write both boys, but Tenny has cemented himself as one of my favorite characters in this series. This book marks the first time I got to play inside his head, and it was the sort of creative challenge I find most enjoyable. Writing book nine in a series that long ago lost its shine for me, I found my favorite installment yet, and hopefully the mental energy to stretch the road out a little farther ahead.

I have no idea how the book, when it’s published in the next few weeks, will be received. Some are going to hate it because it doesn’t have the right tone or vibe or what have you. Some will like it. I can’t say “thank you” enough to those of you who came along chapter by chapter. I wrote this book for Tenny and Reese, and for you guys, really. Anything else positive is just gravy, I suppose.

Look for the final version on sale in the next couple of weeks. Up next, I’m diving back into The Winter Palace, Demon of the Dead, and hopefully starting a new standalone with yet another, entirely different vibe.

 

#TeaserTuesday - TWC

 

I make quite the face when I remind myself that I started posting The Wild Charge last July, and it's still an ongoing manuscript at 102k words as of this morning. Ugh. 

But, however slow and inconsistent, progress HAS been made, and we've finally come to the third act. Today's #TeaserTuesday post is actually more of an author update. Chapter 35, which I hope to have up in the next day or so, kicks off the final, bonkers block of action in the novel. I have a sinking suspicion the word count is going to get a little nuts, but there are lots of moving parts to this thing; lots of plots and plans and actors to make their moves. If the first two thirds of the book felt more like traditional, Knoxville-based Dartmoor, this last chunk - I'm gonna go with "chunk," because this is a fat portion of the book - is going to feel more like an action/spy thriller. 

The resolution of the Abacus plotline - which has been going on for three books now - demands heavy involvement from our whole ensemble. It needs lots of scene breaks, parallel action, and I'm determined to work a Daredevil style hallway/stairwell fight in there, because I can. It's this section of the book, with its tense meetings in Italian restaurants, its uber-powerful villains, underground auction blocks, and corrupt fed involvement that was planned from the first, and which inspired all my original misgivings about writing the book in the first place. Not because I think it won't work; not because I think it will be "bad." But because it doubles, nay triples down on the "spy stuff" from Prodigal Son. It also delivers the resolution that Prodigal Son doesn't re: Devin Green and his "Foxy" sons.

I included that photo of two red foxes in my teaser this week for a reason. This book is two stories. Like all Dartmoor books, it touches on lots of characters and teases glimpses of other relationships, yes. But at it's core, it's about two things:

1) Tenny and Reese. Their struggle for personhood and humanity. Their integration into a family, and their understanding of what that means. And their love story. 

2) Fox. Though he wasn't raised like Tenny, and though he isn't self-pitying, he has demons, too. This is about him learning how to lay those to rest in his quest to show his brother - and his brother's boyfriend - that they're worth more than their violence. 

That's why there's three wraiths in black on the cover. It's a story about all of them; about three half-formed, highly-trained, badly-in-need-of-love people figuring their stuff out. 

I didn't want to write this book, but I'm pretty darn proud of it. I'll publish it formally (after edits and proofs) when I'm finished, but if you want to dive in now, the first 34 chapters, and beyond, are available HERE on Wattpad. 

#MusicMonday - The Wild Charge

 I don't talk about music that much, despite the fact that music is such an integral part of my writing process. I don't listen while I write - I prefer to have low-stress cooking or home reno shows on in the background while I work - but I listen to music while I work out and while I brainstorm. I have very eclectic taste and listen to every genre - save bro country. Ugh. When will singer/songwriter country return? Anyway...

I prefer pop and rock. I used to always say my favorite band was AC/DC, and it IS. My gosh, I love them, and always will. But...they have some competition, which is why I have to say that I have two favorite bands. 

I graduated college in 2011, and things weren't great. I had applied everywhere, couldn't get an interview, and despite querying a multitude of agencies, couldn't get a whole manuscript request. Basically, I was talented, but not marketable. I didn't know what to do...and that was when I found Marianas Trench.

Over the years, thanks to some ugly behind the scenes nonsense, I've hesitated to share much of my inspiration, despite music's role in my creative process. But I realized it's more important to share than it is to protect my process. MT's "Ever After" touched me so much that it made me brave enough to self-publish, and their work has continued to inspire me ever since. Josh Ramsay is my favorite vocalist; he's so talented, can do a falsetto and a deeper, growlier voice; he also orchestrates all the amazing string and French horn parts of their songs which elevate the band from simple pop to movie soundtrack worthy. (And as a former French horn player, I'm so weak for good brass)

"The Killing Kind" is on my The Wild Charge playlist. 

"Masterpiece Theater III" was on my Loverboy playlist. 

Hope you'll give them a listen, because they're so, so good. 

The Wild Charge

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, then you've (hopefully) seen the chapter by chapter updates of The Wild Charge as I post them over on Wattpad. I started posting in July, and, now that Blood of Wolves is complete, I'm going to spend the next few weeks knuckling down on TWC. 

I just posted chapter 19 this morning, so if you haven't heard about it yet, and want to get caught up, you can start chapter one HERE.

This is Dartmoor book 9, and it picks up right where Homecoming left off. The club is facing their biggest challenge to date in trying to bring down an international sex trafficking ring, and it's all hands on deck, with appearances from most of the cast and plenty of side-story action. But, at its core, this is Reese and Tenny's book. Our assassin boys are growing and adapting to life within the club, and most of that's down to their relationship with each other. So far, things have been a little slow, and a little soft, and I'm really enjoying getting the chance to tell this story in installment form because I get to layer in the light and fluffy before the sh*t hits the fan. And, boy, does it ever hit. 

I've received lots of questions about the book's completion date, and the answer is: I'm not sure. I post each chapter as I complete it, so, while I'm going to be working hard on it the next month or so, I have no idea when I'll actually finish. I'll publish the entire, edited book once it's complete, but I'm sorry to say there's no firm date. 

In the meantime, you can enjoy Reese and Tenny in bite-sized chunk form.

An Announcement

I have an announcement. 

Ooh, boy, the flu kicked my ass for two weeks. I had a few days in there when I started to feel a little better, and then would backslide. But now it seems I'm finally back on track. For obvious reasons, I didn't get much writing done in those two weeks, which puts me behind my personal goals, which is annoying. But I did do a lot of reading - a lot of fanfic reading - and a lot of thinking. About a lot of things.

I've always loved fic. I love the creativity, and the bite-sized chunks of character deep-dives; the ways writers expand on characters I already love and fill in all the gaps of story canon. From a writing standpoint, that's always been the way I work best: telling a story one chapter at a time. Blocking off a few months to write an entire manuscript in solitude, hoping people will actually read it once it's done is grueling. I've honestly never understood the way some readers reject installment-form stories: I would rather a story never finish, but have given me what enjoyment it could than never have read any of it at all. Better to have loved and lost, right? 

When I started back to work, I spent half a day reading through the docs in my WIP folder, and, on reckless impulse, opened up my Reese and Tenny doc. I said months ago that I was washing my hands of that series because I'm sick to death of the hassle and bullshit people have given me about it. Like hell was I going to set aside my fun fantasy projects, block off four months, and write a book that I'm still not convinced will actually be read. But I read through that doc - I've got 23k words done on it - and...it didn't suck. In fact, I really liked it. Because even if I'm sick to death of being considered a one-trick pony, even if there are moments when I don't even want to speak the word "Dartmoor," Reese and Tenny were the thing I was looking forward to. I wrote Lone Star and Homecoming for the sole purpose of setting up their book. 

I have a love/hate relationship with Dartmoor. I never wanted to write an MC series, but when the jackals swooped in and started lifting whole-ass scenes from my fanfics to put into their self-pubbed biker books - when a few had the audacity to ask if they could "have" my ideas if I was "done with them." Then? That was the gauntlet throw-down. I was going to take my ideas back, and I was not going to write an MC romance series - I was going to write a series about a messed-up found family that happened to be bikers. 

I've been incredibly proud of certain scenes and moments. But over the years, realizing that the series was never going to be what people wanted, being bullied, and harried, the shine wore off. The bad outweighed the good. I didn't want to write a series *just* for the biker aspect - I wanted to write for people who genuinely loved the characters and were willing to follow them down some genre-atypical roads. 

I was honestly surprised by the number of people who reached out, after my March blog post, both in public and private, urging me to change my mind. Some of those people asked for more Dartmoor. 

And some of those people wanted to read the rest of Reese and Tenny's story.

So. I'm doing this for the Reese and Tenny lovers. Because I love them, too. And because, despite all the bad, I know there are quiet, kind fans out there who I'll be letting down if I don't see this thing through. 

But we're doing it on my terms. I will not be badgered into anything. I'm not setting out to write an MC book - no checking boxes on anything. These boys were raised as assassins and spies, and those themes are going to be front-and-center. I won't be delaying my other projects, so The Wild Charge will be published chapter-by-chapter on Wattpad, just like Snow In Texas and Tastes Like Candy. I'll start by posting the chapters I already have completed, and, if there's interest and enthusiasm, then I'll keep writing and adding chapters until the story is complete. 

Here's the thing, though: I'm not going to tolerate any nonsense. If anyone feels the need to leave a snide or disparaging comment on my FB page or blog, I'm deleting it. There are public spaces where you can say whatever you want, but, to quote Ghost, my personal pages are "the United States of [Gilley] and your First Amendment rights do not apply here." If you don't like M/M books, don't like "spy shit," and are mainly concerned with the Motorcycle Club aesthetic of the series, then I'll say upfront that this is not the book for you. If you can't read until the whole thing's available, fine, but you don't need to come tell me that. 

Like I said before: this is for Reese and Tenny. It's for the sweet readers who really are interested in them. I have no idea if that group of readers is large or small, but I guess we'll find out. I'm also doing this for me, because, if I stop worrying about delivering a bog-standard "MC read" for the general audience, then this is going to be a kickass, smutty action/adventure story with a wild plot and plenty of Devin Green's brood. 

The prologue and first two chapters just went up on Wattpad. Be forewarned that this is an M/M romance with explicit sex, lots of violence, intrigue, spec ops and spy action, and a healthy dose of childhood trauma. Usual trigger warnings apply: graphic sex, torture, gunplay, you know, all that. Mercy is a trigger warning all on his own. 

When you're an artist, the weigh to expectation can feel crushing. It's important to remind myself every so often that I don't have to do anything that I don't want to; the weight can only crush you if you let it.

Fans, thank you.

Haters, to the left. 

A storm is brewing, and the Lean Dogs find themselves in the center of it. What at first seemed like a routine clash with a cartel proves to be part of a much more sinister - and more powerful - operation than any of them expected. The Dogs have a choice: back out now, play dumb...or go full-on vigilante. 

Tennyson Fox has a new name, a new home, a new family...and, if he can admit it to himself, the chance to love and be loved. He and Reese - trained assassins both - will be at the spearhead of the Dogs' move on Abacus, and the two young lovers have to balance their burgeoning relationship with the thing they do best: killing. 

Book nine of the Dartmoor Series picks up right where Homecoming left off. A non-standalone M/M romance set in the world of an outlaw motorcycle club and the dark underworld they rule. 

Read it Here