Reading So Readers Feel Seen

I’m waiting to hear back from my editor about the last book I finished. It ties up a final character in my three-book, Dark Sides series. Titled Move Me, that book releases in early June. That means I’m also pondering what story to write next. I’ll keep you posted on that.

While I’ve been eagerly checking my email for my editor’s response, I’ve also been reading more. I recently finished The Secret of Secrets, by Dan Brown. The story was remarkable and by the end it blew my mind. The author wrote a lot about setting, a little more than I care for, but overall, I’m glad I read the book. If you’re a fan of Dan Brown’s books, you’d probably love this one too.

Before I read The Secret of Secrets, I read Murder at Haven’s Rock. If you’ve ever read books written by author Kelley Armstrong, I know you share my enthusiasm for her stories. I especially enjoyed Bitten from her thirteen-book PNR series featuring the world’s only female shifter, witches, a half-demon, a clairvoyant, and other women who live on the edges of society.

The reading of her books is intense and intriguing. It also sort of led me to write PNRs of my own. Tropes in her books can be found in my Fierce Hearts series. I didn’t copy her style; I wrote in my own voice. Readers will find themes of being different and facing oppression, bigotry, and discrimination, but with a twist. As the shifters in my books live on the edges of society, they also unite in a found family, one that embraces and supports them. They face internal conflicts and massive external conflicts that force them to grow and thrive, or stay unchanged and die. When I wrote the books, I wanted readers to feel seen. Don’t we all face varying degrees of do or die situations?

But what is a PNR without spice? As with Armstrong’s books, my characters seek someone to share life with, romantic love who accepts them as they are. While my characters can shift into lynxes, are physically strong, and have the acute senses of a lynx, they are completely human, too, with careers and family problems, and are simply trying to live their best life—while trying to save their colony from The Nexus Group and prevent their world from imploding. Under those circumstances, who wouldn’t be looking for a meaningful relationship full of expressions of love?

Here’s an excerpt from Secrets, book one in the series, in which the male main character, Casey Mitchell, runs up against a major fear of exposing his true identity to Michelle Slade, the female main character.

Casey sat up in bed, the dream he’d been having still alive in his head. He rubbed his hand through his hair. Sweat beaded on his forehead. “Oh, my God.” His heart thudded hard and fast in his chest. He glanced at the clock on his nightstand, sucking in deep breaths of air. Four in the morning. Loneliness heavied his heart.

The dream had been so real, so terrifying. So unusual.

He set his feet on the cold wood floor and sat still on the side of the bed. He took in the room, his room in his house, and sorted through the images in his dream as his body reactions calmed.

He was accustomed to dreaming as his lynx form. Dreams of running through fields with the speed and exhilaration of freedom made frequent nighttime appearances. But this, this dream made him shiver. He dropped his head in his hands and lived through it again.

He saw himself standing in his human form with Michelle in her backyard. Darkness enveloped them comfortably and above a starry, moonless sky contained their moments of shared solitude. He’d brought her warm hand to his lips, the scent of her skin heady and alluring. She’d laughed, delighted when he pretended to take a delicate nibble of her skin.

Casey balled his hands. The moment of togetherness in the dream thundered through him as he revisited what happened next.

He’d lost control. He’d done the unthinkable. He’d shimmered, right in front of Michelle, into his lynx form. Horrified, he’d stood there as his purest self and her screams echoed fiercely against his heart.

To learn more about the Fierce Hearts series, visit my website. And for a look into what comes before the beginning, download my prequels of the series books at Bookfunnel, starting with Hidden.

Until next time…