Michael and Lindsay at it again

Time frame: Before... almost everything.

"What do you want for your birthday?"

"Brett Hudson."

"C'mon, you know I can't give you that."

"Why not!"

"You know why."

"I think 'he's too smart for the organization' is a stupid reason."

"I'm aware of what you think. Pick something else."

"I want Jesse Stone's head on a stick."

"I would love to give you that. But we agreed we'd save him for Becca."

"No, you said we'd save him for Becca. But I happen to know that Becca doesn't care. And for the record, giving Becca her former abuser isn't going to make her like you."

"I don't want her to like me. I just want her to not hate me."

"Never gonna happen. She knows what you did."

"I blame you for that."

"Well, it was, in fact, my fault. So I will accept that blame."

"Lindsay pick a damn birthday present."

"...I want a day off."

"We're flying to Texas tomorrow!"

"That's what I want."

"...fine. Go to the Lounge."

"Yesssss."

Long books

One reason why my books are so long is I love to explore the why.

Okay, you like being tied up and pegged in the peach. But why? Don’t just give me the physical reasons. Give me the mental and emotional reasons, too. Give me the drive, the backstory, the development that makes that scene, or that moment, or that argument, or that decision so incredibly important. Give me the reasons, so I can feel it with you.

I recently tore through The Dominance Playbook by Anton Fulmen. It was definitely one of the most useful books I’ve read about BDSM. The chapter on scene craft and planning made a huge difference in the way I think about play, and there’s a bit of a nod to that section in one of Jeff Ludlow’s little lectures to Becca. Fulmen talks about how a single scene can be performed multiple times, with exactly the same components, but the scene will feel different every time based on the energy, how things are said, and what both people are trying to get out of it. The why of the scene is more important than the what of the scene.

And I realized that’s how I write, too.

In January, I wrote a 45k word novella in 11 days that I sat on, and chose not to publish right away. Not because it wasn’t good, but because it was superficial. My alphas and I (y’all know who you are) felt like it was good, and cute, and fun, and very hot, but there was more to it that I hadn’t given myself the time to really dig into.

Now that I’m starting to dig into that story, I’m glad I didn’t just push it out and call it a last minute Christmas Miracle. Because there is so much more to it, and it’s going to be so frickin’ fantastic.

Now don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with superficial and smutty. I have a whole list of recs that are fun, easy, mindless, one-handed reads. I’ve even written and published a few.

But they don’t make my heart sing.

This is all to say, moving forward, you can continue to expect unapologetically long books that demand your attention and stick in your head. At least for the AnchorX series.

And as far as that novella I wrote over January?... I’ll jump into expanding that in a few weeks, once I hammer out a few more details and give myself time to binge-read all the books I added to my TBR over the past few months. You can expect another AnchorX book sometime late October, early November.

Benny Newman

One of the reasons this book took me so long to write was I had Benny’s character all wrong.

When I first started writing this book, Benny was one of those characters who I had too many things going on at once, and there was no clear definition.

He was a cocky, bratty, rude, disrespectful little shit, and Becca was going to have to “whip” him into shape. (haha, BDSM pun… Shut up, I’m exhausted.)

But honestly, I didn’t like him. And I knew Becca wouldn’t either. Why would Becca be drawn to someone like that? What was Benny’s draw? What made him who he was?

What made him?

Oh, what made him.

When I finally threw away all the crap and the masks and the lies and got down to the truth of who he was, what he wanted, and what made his heart sing, everything clicked into place.

I had a lot of readers tell me that even though he’s a guy, and even though there are a lot of chapters written from his point of view, they related to him on a very deep, personal level. Because at the end of the day, Benny is a submissive through and through. And there is something really, truly special about a man with a submissive heart.

He’s one of my favorite characters, and he’s going to continue to show up in future books. I also plan to continue to write fun little shorts between Becca and Benny, much like I do Alice and Reuben. Those extras will be live on my website. Make sure you join so you can read.

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