When I decided to write adults fiction, I decided to give myself a challenge. I wanted some romance, but for the romance to not necessarily be the focus. To have suspense. To have characters with genuine flaws, not that “cutesy” clumsiness that everyone has so they can be “flawed” without meaning it. To have villains who have motivations. To have a villain the reader will hate with a passion, but then turn around and genuinely love and root for. My characters have to earn their happy ending, and I put them through hell for it. They have to mess up as much as real humans do, and make the reader think “Fuck them,” but then turn around and be glad it worked out. I wanted earlier books to have easter eggs for later books.
And I research. A lot. A LOT. To a degree most people may consider absurd, but when deciding to tackled tough topics in books, this is necessary. Respect the reader by respecting the importance of research to understand. And part of respecting readers is giving warnings for content that may not be expected.
For now, each book will be password locked for beta readers. Check out each page, and if you read the blurb and prologue and are interested in being a beta, please click on “contact me” and let me know. I truly welcome all feedback, and I believe that you should be able to leave it directly beneath each chapter. No one ever improves if all they hear is what readers like. I want to know what readers don’t like and what doesn’t make sense even more than I want to know what works. I get upset if I think someone’s withholding criticism. The greatest compliment one can give someone is genuine constructive criticism. That means “you are worth the truth.” That is why I write.
Shattered Glass
In 1933, Grace Anne Colby never could have imagined that moving to the big city of New York from her family farm to pursue a career in journalism would land her in the middle of two rival mafia families, but when one boss ends up trafficking children, she can’t just do nothing, especially when she learns that she’d nearly been one of them.
Shattered Glass I
Shattered Glass II
Content warning for Shattered Glass I and II: This story does contain sensitive material including dubious consent, mafia violence, and themes of abuse, though the game itself goes farther than I could make myself write. However, it is not gratuitous, and anything involving children is never described or shown, and it is not there just for shock value. It’s deeply relevant to the story. Everything I write into a story is very deliberate and serves a purpose to the overall narrative. If it doesn’t, I nix it.
I have a lovely collaborator/co-writer for Shattered Glass. Lisa Barfield is absolutely lovely, and Shattered Glass wouldn’t be what it is without her! Shattered Glass is a shared passion-project, and her friendship means the world to me. So I want to make sure she gets her full credit for this. Shattered Glass is part of a much larger story we’re creating. It’s all so exciting.
Fillmore hexaology, individual novels not yet named:
Fillmore hexaology 1 and 2: Byron
Abandoned early in childhood, Lavinia Williams was raised by her best friend’s wealthy family. Patriarch Franklin Fillmore keeps her, his three children, and even his wife living in constant terror as he uses their love for each other to manipulate them. When his secret son, Byron, is sent to live with them following the boy’s own mother’s violent death, an already unstable household begins to implode.
Fillmore hexaology #1
Fillmore hexaology #2
Fillmore hexaology 3 and 4: Spenser
Fillmore hexaology #3
Fillmore hexaology #4 (Working title: Dancing on Shattered Glass…yes, I rescued part of this title)
Fillmore hexaology 5 and 6: Chaucer
Fillmore hexaology #5
Fillmore hexaology#6
Content warning for the Fillmore hexaology: I don’t shy from heavy issues, such as a former addict having temptations, or someone being slipped a roofie, or abuse, or widowhood and single parenting, or genuinely huge mistakes that we’re used to seeing as being the catalyst for a permanent breakups. If you read my books and wonder if I even realized what I just wrote since I didn’t address it as an issue, yes, yes I am fully aware of what I did, and I didn’t address it as an issue precisely because society often fails to make a big issue out of things that should be. But the fact that you may notice is, in my view, a step in the right direction in being able to identify things that, not so long ago, would have been seen as something positive.
For now, each book will be password locked for beta readers. Check out each page, and if you read the blurb and prologue and are interested in being a beta, please click on “contact me” and let me know. I truly welcome all feedback, and I believe that you should be able to leave it directly beneath each chapter. No one ever improves if all they hear is what readers like. I want to know what readers don’t like and what doesn’t make sense even more than I want to know what works. I get upset if I think someone’s withholding criticism. The greatest compliment one can give someone is genuine constructive criticism. That means “you are worth the truth.” That is why I write.