The Oft-Delayed BREAKING POINT

Let's face it - I'm not the most active blogger.

I could say that a resolution for 2015 would involve more blog posts. But I won't.

Why?

Well, the best reason would be for me to write more novels. The other reason would be that I forget to blog and then bam, it's been six months.

Fret not, dear readers. I will still occasionally blog - in the erratic style to which I'm sure you've all become accustom to.

Now, the topic of today's post is the third book in the J. Carter & Associates series. This book has been more of a headache than I anticipated. While writing Fatal Target, my head was chock-full of ideas for Breaking Point. Then I finished Fatal Target and the ideas dried up. Woops.

Honestly, I over-planned for 2014. I think I had six releases planned. Guess how many actually got done? (One. One whole novella.)

This novella, right here.

I was simply burned out and wanted nothing more than to sleep. Then when I wasn't sleeping, I stared at a blank page. Or, even better--worked on anything but Breaking Point. That's how Blood Ties came about (more on that later).

What's wrong with Breaking Point? My last major, complete 50K+ draft was written in 2008. There was no simple way to rework it, given that the previous two books were nearly complete rewrites of previous drafts. There were also two main characters in the draft we have yet to see in the series, who had to be written out. The tone was also lighter in some aspects.

Okay, cut the characters. Done. Well, next problem - how to make this a complete story then? Those characters contributed to some conflict in the third act. So I trashed the third act. You can see where this is going.

The villain remained. How Kat and Aidan met the villain and how Kat ended up taking a swim changed. Two scenes that stayed mostly the same were her abduction and her near-drowning. Even who rescues her changed.

One fun change was the introduction of Gwen DeFlair. We've seen Jesse DeFlair (a creepy cameo in Fatal Target) and we've heard about Patrick and Elektra DeFlair since book one. Gwen is one of my favorites because of her connection to Aidan. Like Kat, she's underestimated because of her gender. She's the child of a powerful figure, who happens to be a sadistic monster. Unlike Kat, she has siblings. She wasn't raised alone - she was protected by her brother. Gwen's the only girl in a sea of brothers and was born and raised in a man's world.

Final cover art!

Gwen plays a big role in Breaking Point. In order to put her in her role, there was another complication - how to get Aidan into trouble and keep him from saving the day.

All I can say is - he's gotta lotta mommy issues.

Thanks to the maze of drafts, health setbacks, and everyday life, I'm proud to finally announce the eBook release date of January 25th, 2015 for Breaking Point. I sincerely think it will be worth the wait. I scrapped a lot of words and reorganized, reedited, and read, then reedited again and rewrote some more in order to make it the exciting book I hope you'll all enjoy reading.

Kat's story takes a backseat as we learn more about Aidan and where he came from - and why he's so determined to protect Kat.

I can't wait for you guys to (finally) read it!

Switching Gears

Earlier I mentioned Blood Ties as one of my diversions. My last blog post mentioned the Duality Trilogy I wrote under the Kindle Worlds imprint. Blood Ties is a saga also set in The Vampire Diaries world. Blood Ties is about the bonds between family. It's the story of the Salvatore family from the 1860s to present day with one major addition - Elizabeth, Stefan's twin sister, and the only person to survive the Battle of Willow Creek and her brothers' bloodlust. Left alone in 1864, devastated by the death of her family, Elizabeth marries to save the family estate. In 2009, Lizzy Salvatore befriends a human historian writing a book on the Battle of Willow Creek while Damon terrorizes their home town and Stefan falls in love with a doppelganger named Elena.

Book One

Over the decades and into centuries, the Salvatore siblings fight and often separate but they're still drawn together by the blood they share.

I've been doing a lot of researching and planning for this series, plus some rough drafts on FanFiction.Net as preparation. It's part historical saga and part romance.

Thicker than Blood is the first part, tracing mainly the 1860s from Katherine's arrival to Elizabeth becoming a vampire, along with modern-day Lizzy's budding relationship with Sam and reuniting with both her brothers in Mystic Falls. I have an arc of three-to-four titles planned. I hope to announce a release date for the first novella soon.