How Dark is Too Dark for you?

~MILD SPOILER ALERT and TRIGGER WARNING~

My co-authors and I purposely wrote our books for Human Surrender with the idea of “dark non-con” in mind. That had been Alta’s vision for the set and we were all excited to try it out.  I think I can safely say we all may have shocked ourselves with what came out!

At once point, while we were still writing, Sue Lyndon asked, “Okay, can I ask… what is the harshest thing your hero does to your heroine in your story?”

I confessed, “There is one moment that I’m a little nervous about where he yanks her leash and it pulls her off her feet and hurts her neck. I may have gone too far with that one…”

Aubrey Cara replied that she hadn’t been bothered by those scenes when she beta read my book, but the face-slapping had surprised her, but she went with it.

Sue’s concern in her own story was about the hero threatening to beat her bloody (that’s common in her alien’s culture). I told her it sounded hot as long as he didn’t actually do it.