I am going to start with Mitch.
Blurb:When mortal Bounty Hunter, Mitch Baine, decides to spend one night breaking all the rules with a sexy masked vampire, he has no idea that the stranger is Jarrod Axlerod, lead singer of the famous band Heartstrings, or that he will be contracted to kill Jarrod the very next day. Mitch has been trained to believe that the only good vampire is a dead on—a lesson cemented into his brain after years of killing them on contract for the US Army.
But his feelings toward the creatures begin to change after spending an incredible night at the masked ball. When he receives his newest contract, he is horrified to see that the vampire he has been hired to kill is none other than Jarrod Axlerod, the sexy vampire he has just broken every one of his personal rules with.
Mitch was originally published with another publisher. Now it has been revamped (pardon my pun) and re-edited for release with Resplendence Publishing.
Mitch had many inspirations. I had just watched the entire series of Queer as Folk and was not very happy with the way it ended. I wanted some of the characters to get the happily ever after I wanted them to have. With a vampy twist of course.
This one came pretty easily for me. I fell in love with Mitch and Jarrod right away. Their against the odds, not to mention against the rules, love was right up my alley. And adding Reagan a young, pain in the ass sister gave it a depth and dimension that I like to think resonates with people.
In fact, I fell so in love with Reagan while writing this book that I knew she was going to need her own story. Her book, Reagan (creative right?) should be completed soon and will probably be released in 2012.
Mitch was the second full length novel I'd ever written. It's quite daunting for me to take on such large projects. I've written a lot of shorts and a lot of novellas, but big ass novels are time consuming and brain draining. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE doing them, but they have to be carefully undertaken.
I am not one to outline much. But if I'm going to do a novel I have to have a vague idea of what is going to happen at the beginning, the middle and the end of the book. With Mitch, I thought I had all of that. Then I got a note from my editor politely informing me that I forgot to end the book. I'd pulled a Stephen King and stopped writing instead of giving all the characters a real finish.
I believe I ended up adding about 5,000 words to what I had thought was the end of the novel. And my editor was so right. The ending is much stronger with the additional chapters. In fact, one of my favorite scenes ended up being at the end of the novel. Unfortunately I can't share that one here because that would give it away to anyone who hasn't read it. But I can promise you, if you pick up a copy, you will like the end also.
Some of my favorite lines from Mitch:
"So this band… Reagan says they’re brothers, like the Osmonds.”
“My brother,” she paused to kiss my cheek, “is a big queer. A raging homosexual. Haven’t I ever told you that? He sucks more cock than you do.”
“Hey, Captain America.” His voice brought me back to attention. “You look like you’re going to eat me. And not in the fun way.”
These characters were so fun for me to write. I loved the dialogue that flowed from them. I don't know if its true for all authors, but I find that my characters take on their own lives, their own manner of speaking. I like to just let everything go and see where the story takes me. Yes, as I mentioned above I know where the story has to end up eventually, but it often feels as if I am not really driving. I'm just a navigator, gently nudging the characters toward the end of their journey, but letting them pick their own route.
So that is the anatomy of Mitch. I hope you've enjoyed taking this journey with me. If so please let me know and I'll try to do this again in the future with some of my other works.
XoXoXo
D
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