If you're a paid subscriber to my Substack, you not only have access to my post-Lord Have Mercy Alex-centered story, Inherent Violence (working on Chapter 70 today!) but also a post-Beware of Dog story, "Tommy's Wedding." The gist is that Tommy - still living in London with that chapter - starts dating a woman who clashes with the rest of the family. He brings her to New York to meet his sisters and it doesn't go well.
I posted Part Five yesterday, and while I love getting to write cozy domestic scenes with Cass and Shep (they're the couple that won't leave me alone for some reason; I keep coming up with scenarios), my favorite part of the installment was Cass's line to Tommy: "What do you think Lean Dogs do?" It hits right at the heart of what makes writing Dartmoor engaging and worthwhile for me.
I'm supremely boring in real life. I don't like drama or conflict. Lying, cheating, stealing: not for me. But I get bored straight away every time I try to write a nice-boy-meets-nice-girl-and-they-date, domestic sort of book. Trust, I will be seated for the new Hallmark Christmas movies this year, but as an author, I need the drama - but not relationship drama. I like drama of the guns, car chases, murder mystery variety. I most enjoy writing romantic relationships that unfold in very unromantic environments. For me, the harrowing conditions of the novel build an unbreakable trust and intimacy between romantic partners, and their soft, domestic moments feel very deserved. I've written them in ugly situations, and then I find that I love writing fluffy tidbits for them to make up for it.
Cass's question to Tommy is a question I'm constantly, subliminally asking the audience. "What do you think Lean Dogs do?" The outlaw MC environment gives me the chance to step away from all that is polite and responsible and write inside of a completely different world, one in which the Dogs make the rules and hold outsiders responsible for breaking them. It lets me write convincing age gap, forced marriage, and bodyguard stories that feel not only acceptable, but necessary in this setting. If a man Shep's age was on a dating app searching for women Cass's age, it would be slimeball behavior in the real world. But in this setting? Given proximity and lifestyle, them getting together is organic and inevitable, and a positive shift for both of them. No matter how a relationship begins in this series, my ultimate goal is to create a mutual support system for the partners; it's not ever a power play scenario.
Because of their violent and dangerous lifestyle, that mutual support system is lovely and fun to write in quieter snippets like "Tommy's Wedding." I hope y'all are enjoying it as much as I am!
