D'VAIRE

The husband and I flew to Washington, DC for a long weekend and we had a wonderful trip. My niece and her family spent most of that time with us, and we’d gone entirely too long without seeing each other. On Sunday night, we had the awesome opportunity to attend an Iron Maiden concert and one of my favorite bands, Within Temptation, opened for them. While we had a fantastic time on our trip, sleep was not high on our priority list, so it’s going to take me a few days to get caught up. Beauty and Valor was released about twelve hours or so before I boarded my plane, and I really hope everyone enjoyed Preston and Ridgely’s story. Preston is an old character, and many details about where he came from and what race he belonged to changed, but the core of who he was never differed. He went through a few mates before I found the right one, and Ridgely was the perfect fit. Halfway through Gargoyle Birthright , that pair was distracting me, and there was no question that their book was re...

On Tuesday, I finished the latest D’Vaire book despite an unexpected break in the middle to have new flooring installed in several rooms in my house. I wanted the project to happen while I wasn’t writing, but sometimes schedules are far harder to manage than they should be. Regardless, I kept on track and completed the second D’Vaire book that features three men picked by Fate to be together. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each of the guys. Two of them are characters that have appeared in the series before, though they never shared a scene, while the third was introduced in the last book I wrote. One guy had a cameo way back in Resurrection of the Fallen and has appeared a couple more times since then. The other was in a single book, Unpredictable Fate . Let’s talk about the recent release, Gargoyle Birthright . What a joy that household was to create, and I didn’t want to leave them. In fact, another book is already completed that features a member of that household. He was so ...

It doesn’t seem possible that I’ve published thirty books and four short stories, but somehow, I have! When I first started writing Dra’Kaedan’s story, I wasn’t sure I’d finish it. Through the years, I’d created other series and barely wrote more than a few chapters in each project. But my life changed. My biological mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and it galvanized my thoughts. If I wanted to be a writer, then I damn well needed to get my act together and make that dream a reality. The stitches were barely out of my arm after a recent elbow surgery when I picked up my notebooks and handwrote Dra’Kaedan and Brogan’s book. My mother was growing sicker, and I was exhausted physically and mentally, so there was no celebration on the day I completed it. I don’t even think I told anyone. Without worrying about publishing, I set it aside and started Gavrael and Gedeon’s story. Everything came to a screeching halt because I needed another surgery. A month later, my mother died. She...

The Fractured Fallen was a surprise book for me. Toby and Gentry were supposed to be a short story, but I’m so glad they insisted on more. It was interesting to think about the fallen knights in a way that wasn’t perfect. As good as Drystan and Conley are at ruling their people, they can’t be everywhere at once or anticipate every situation. I have a feeling that introducing their new testing strategies isn’t the last of the changes that the Reverent Knights will make in the coming years. Also, I must say I absolutely love what LJ Anderson of Mayhem Cover Creations did for this cover. All of her covers are fantastic, but to take that shield (without the RK on it) and swords from Resurrection of the Fallen and fracture it went far beyond my expectations! As for the group of friends that now surround Gentry and Toby, this is not the last you’ll see of them. Later this year, one of them is even featured as a main character, so I hope you enjoyed getting to know Ridgely, Warner, Jackson,...

Putting together my thoughts for this blog wasn’t easy. While my anxiety and I regularly approach release days with varying levels of dread, Venerably Daray made me decidedly queasy. It wasn’t because I second guessed my decisions—for me, the story dictates everything. I do not sway my characters from telling their tale. Although I generally know the reason behind the events, those may not be revealed for a few books or many. The storyline for  Venerably Daray wasn't straightforward. I was thrilled with Samson and Brynn’s love story when I completed the novel. But there were other parts of the book that bugged me and there were many, many revisions. I still wasn't satisfied so I stepped away from it. As the weeks passed, I looked to other projects and got some much-needed clarity. The result was the full story of Venerably Daray and the lives of the reapers. One worry I had was that the events that unfolded after the matebond ceremony would somehow take away from what the boo...

Scheredin’s story wasn’t one I ever thought would come to fruition. As I created the D’Vaire universe, I put Noirin and Scheredin in there because they’re a vital part of my life and it was fun to add my gaming personas into my fantasy world. However, while Noirin’s path was chartered quickly thanks to Rafe and how his romance with Aleksander worked out, Scheredin didn’t cooperate in the slightest. His personality emerged as I poked and prodded at him, and he was full of surprises. I tried to pair him with multiple partners, and although I was pretty sure about his magic, I wasn’t positive he wanted to be a dark warlock until I wrote The Dragon Masquerade . But from the start I wanted Scheredin’s partner to have something to do with his gaming. For me, that was a neat way to honor the true Scheredin who exists virtually. Thankfully, Scheredin and Kieran liked the idea too, and when they were ready, the details spilled out in a rush. Their book wound up being one of those that was relat...

If you’ve read Soul of the Imperian , you’ve probably realized by now that its story is incomplete without Demonically Daray . Which is why despite the difficulties I had with crafting Hexaniys and Eduard’s story, I couldn’t leave it out of the series though I did consider it. But then again, I have contemplated keeping many of the stories far from the public eye—such is the nature of my scared little heart not wanting to put my guys out in the world to be judged. As I mentioned in my last blog post, Eduard and Hexaniys once had a complicated plot, but it fell apart as things developed in other books.  I wanted more than to mention it as a footnote in Paszra’s book that Eduard had met his mate, so I developed essentially a prologue to the Imperian’s story and gave the Skeleton Lord his happily ever after. It wasn’t something I was completely happy with, but I had to contend with the characters and what they wanted. It was probably unsatisfying to read about Hexaniys’s lack of magic...