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Origins

As I look ahead to the release of Dra’Kaedan’s Coven, my thoughts are drawn back to how it all started. There have always been characters in my head, but it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I understood they were stories that needed to be told. I have created many and for years I worked on a series of books that I still have yet to write. There are notebooks of plot outlines and timelines but nothing more than a collection of a few chapters. They are all contemporary stories and they started as M/F.

My first gay character started as a secondary one, but I kept getting drawn back to him. Once I started reading M/M his story wouldn’t go away. Suddenly, it wasn’t just his story in my head but there were other couples as well. Since I have always been a gamer, its difficult for me to escape fantasy and some of these new people wanted powers. It was time to create a new series.

At the start, I was going to do a mixed series. One book M/F and the next M/M. They were going to be mostly stand alone so if you didn’t want to read one or the other you could skip around. I started worldbuilding and the first character created was a dragon shifter. Why dragons? They’ve been a part of my life from the start. I was born in the year of the dragon, I was married in the year of the dragon and even my first tattoo was a dragon. Instead of trying to decide what kind of shifter I wanted, it was more like what else could he be BUT a dragon.

I named him Aleksander. King Aleksander D’Vairedraconis. I needed to find him a mate and she had to be someone worthy of the leader of Court D’Vaire. I found myself wondering what would happen if she was secreted off to a cottage by her evil grandfather with her familiar while a great war was happening. I named her Latarian and with her familiar Ayden she wound up spending six centuries or so with no idea she was the last witch alive. She met Aleksander, became Queen Latarian, and eventually the Grand Witch. Her familiar Ayden was shocked to find out his mate was Duke Brogan D’Vairedraconis and his story was going to be second.

I started Aleksander and Latarian’s book but after a few chapters something was wrong. I kept getting sidetracked by Ayden and his story. Latarian kept doing things that were out of character. She was supposed to be good, but she continued to act horribly. Aleksander was pissed and sad and I was wondering what the hell was going on. Once it became clear Aleksander and Latarian were just not going to work, I focused on Ayden. There was more to his story. What if HE were the one who was meant to lead his people? What if he had a brother out there searching for him? The first chapter of Aleksander’s book eventually became the opening of the first Book 1. (Parts of it are still in there but it’s no longer the way Book 1 will open when it’s re-released on August 30th.)

Ayden became Grand Warlock Dra’Kaedan and the rest I guess was history. I was supposed to do Blodwen’s story second but again I got sidetracked. I wanted to do her sentinel’s story instead. When it became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to keep myself from fixating on these wonderful gay couples, I dropped the idea of splitting the series between M/F and M/M. I may write M/F someday but if I do it will be under a different pen name but for now I have nothing but D’Vaire books in my sights.

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