Ariana Nash's Blog - Posts Tagged "funny-mm"

I wanted to talk a little bit about why I decided to write SOS HOTEL and why it’s different from * waves at all my previous dark and gritty books *all these.

If you don’t want to read all the below, the TLDR is: I wrote it because I needed something new, fresh, and less angsty after over a decade of writing dark and heavy stuff.

Forgive Me was a tough series to write, due to some of its darker content. (Vitari had me crying three times in the final book). Before that, we had Toymaker’s Son, which if you’ve read it, you’ll know is a complete mindfuck. That book was a BEAST to write. We also had Lark & Arin from the Court of Pain series, who took it out of me too. Basically, what I’m getting at, is every book takes a piece of me. These aren’t easy books to read or write. That’s part of why people read my works, to get that visceral, REAL, dirt under the fingernails experience from a book. I write about fantasy people in fantasy lands, but the feedback I get over and over is how REAL they feel. People are messy, so are all my characters.

After 11 years of this, I really needed a mental break. I wrote in my group about how 2024 would be slightly different, due to burn-out, changes in the market, etc. I intended to write more contemporary books, books with less angst and said then, that fantasy was taking a back seat for a while.

But I hadn’t anticipated SOS HOTEL.

I knew I needed something less angsty, something a bit silly, something that wouldn’t have me sobbing into my laptop three times during the drafting process. As it happened, I was talking about an old series under my defunct pen name (MF fantasy). A series that was never completed due to lack of sales, and frankly, Silk & Steel and this name ‘Ariana Nash’ took off at the same time as that series, through which I found my love of MM. I just couldn’t write MF anymore. I tried to write the final book in that MF series and HATED it. My heart had shifted to MM, and once you go MM, there’s no going back.

Anyway… Discussing that series, the fan said, (paraphrasing) “Why don’t you write it again as MM?” I sort of laughed it off. It doesn’t really work like that. I’d get bored, for one, as in my head, the story had already been told. But that little seed of an idea took root. Other readers were saying how much they had loved those characters. A few days later, I was still thinking about it, and began to wonder, what if I took the very bare bones of that world, and tossed in some funky fun? It would be very different, but I already had the world in my head. I’d done the heavy-lifting, so to speak. The characters from that old series were a lot more serious and dark, but what if they didn’t have to be like that? What if I just sat down and wrote something off-the-wall bonkers? Why does it have to be so serious?

So, the idea for SOS HOTEL took shape. A hotel for Lost Ones (supernaturals) stuck here when the veil between our world and theirs sealed itself. A vampire, a demon, and a not-so-normal human. It’s still a little bit dark – because I need that grit to keep me invested – but it also pokes fun at itself, which I needed. It’s not a fluffy, cozy romance. It’s a cake of silly, with some murders and gremlin sacrifices sprinkled on top. I don’t even know how to market it, or if anyone will read it. But I needed it, just for fun.

That’s why SOS HOTEL is so different from my entire backlist, and why it’s happening now.
I’m sorry to all of you here (pretty much everyone) who came for the dark, angsty, gritty and real stories, and you’re now getting swamped with a sassy sex demon, his boring human, and the suave vampire daddy. If you’re not here for that, please do stick around, as there will be more dark and angsty books coming. I just need to get SOS HOTEL out of my system first.

Normal service will resume shortly…

In the meantime, just enjoy the ride. 😄😘