From a technical standpoint - research required; logistics; scale - Lord Have Mercy isn't my most complex project. (There's a reason I haven't been able to find the time to work on Lionheart; it's a monster) But it is unique in that it's taking well-established characters I've been working with for almost a decade and shaking all of them up. Everyone went through a journey of growth and self-discovery in their solo books, but now they're all doing it again: an inevitable and organic evolution speed-run thanks to crazy circumstances. You could call it Ava and Mercy's book, but Ghost, Aidan, Walsh, Fox, Tango, Roman...everyone's having revelations. That starts to weigh heavily on a writer's mind. It's simply a whole lot.
One of the scenes I'm working on today is Walsh-centric, with a little Michael supporting action, and I'm really pleased with how it's unfolding, and I think that's down to some of the breakthroughs that happened while I was working on A Cure for Recovery.
No matter how different and distinct other projects look on the outside, for me, every project supports another project. It's a symbiotic process. Writing fantasy helped me sharpen and intensify Dartmoor. But there'd be no Drakes or Sons of Rome if I hadn't gotten comfy writing violence in Dartmoor. I'm always pleased to hear that a standalone project "feels" or "reads" or "sounds" "completely different" from my other work, because it means I was able to make it authentically itself, and not merely a carbon copy of work I've already produced. But there have been countless times that working through a certain scene in one project helps a scene in another project click.
In this case, Walsh and Tommy really aren't all that alike, but writing about Tommy's struggles has helped me hone Walsh's self-sufficiency issues in a way that I'm now really excited about playing out on paper. It always makes me sad when I see an author work for years and years on one manuscript, convinced they have to make it perfect before they write something else. Writing something else will make that first manuscript better! The more you write, the more stories you finish, the more perfectly you'll understand what it really is you want to say with your work.
Lord Have Mercy has been a particular challenge all the way through, and I couldn't have done it without Lawson and Tommy's help. College Town, and then A Cure for Recovery provided immeasurable creative help in crafting this Dartmoor epic.
Speaking of...
A Cure for Recovery dropped this week! It's now available in all the usual places:
"Tommy’s been a Granger instead of a Katz or a Cattaneo for almost seven months, and he’s still not tired of signing his new legal name on documents, or seeing it printed in his email signature. He especially likes the sight of it in the elegant script of Leo and Dana’s wedding save-the-date cards.
But even the charm of his new name, and the new life it represents, can’t make up for the drudgery of yet another doctor’s appointment."
Tommy survived a shooting, retired from the NYPD, and married the love of his life, but recovery, he's learned in the seven months since, isn't as straightforward as physical healing. Set after the events of "College Town," A Cure for Recovery tells a domestic story of love, and frustration, and working through tough times with the people you love most. A story of family, and the fears and joys of a future you never thought you'd get to live.
This M/M novella is not a standalone and must be read after "College Town."
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