10 facts about my books

Due to some technical complications, I am posting this blog tour content here:

Prompt: Share 5-10 facts about the books

 

I wrote Night Owl in less than two months. I had a day job at the time, so I would wake up around 5:00 a.m. and write before work, then get home later and write into the evening.

 

Night Owl opens with a description of a collaborative writing project between the main characters, Matt and Hannah. The story they’re writing involves Cal and Lana, a demon and a human with supernatural powers. I’ve actually written that story with someone.

 

Only a handful of people in my actual life (that is, my offline life) know that I’m the author of Night Owl. Even some family members are in the dark.

 

Although I took much of the inspiration for Night Owl from my actual life – people I know, things I have seen – I have never been to the Finger Lakes region of New York, where Matt has his infamous breakdown. I would love to go there one day.

 

I originally intended to make the sequel to Night Owl a paranormal novel in which Matt becomes a vampire. Crazy, right? I wrote 11,000 words of that novel. Now it makes me laugh.

 

My editor and agent didn’t love my proposed titles for the second two books in the Night Owl Trilogy, Last Light and After Dark. Book two nearly got named Daydream. I was saved by the sales department, who agreed that Last Light and After Dark were good titles.

 

My muse for Hannah read and loved Night Owl.

 

Nate Sky is based loosely on my oldest brother. Not only are Matt’s alcoholism and addiction issues based on my personal struggles with substance abuse, but there have been multiple times when my oldest brother had to “rescue” me out of bad situations. Like Matt, I’ve detoxed in the hospital many times and experience delirium tremens and withdrawal firsthand. I’m six years sober.

 

I started several bad novels before Night Owl, which are all unfinished or unpublished. One of those novels was also named Night Owl. I liked the title enough that I decided to keep it for my erotic romance.

 

I had no outline for Night Owl as I wrote it, and no plans for Last Light and After Dark when I signed with my agent. I wrote Night Owl in a state of constant surprise, never knowing where it was going. When my agent and I decided to try to sell Night Owl and two proposed books, I quickly wrote vague synopses. The whole trilogy has been spontaneous like that.