Want To Meet My Sidekick?

YAY! It’s my new cover! That’s Joey in the front and Aaron in the back.

I’m very excited about Collision Course, my December 9 release from Samhain. My heroes did an amazing job telling me the story, my editor did an amazing job making sure there were no plot holes, and then Anne made this amazing cover. And me? I got to hear sexy bedtime stories from two hot guys for a couple of months.

When I needed a friend for Noah to talk to in Diving In Deep, I never planned on giving Joey a book. Back in February, Joey started whining (loudly and incessantly) in my head about wanting his own hero. I pointed out that I’d already given him a new boyfriend after he and Noah broke up, but he complained that Mark was too much of a marshmallow. So I thought up the most difficult hero I could for him. Joey and Aaron took it from there.

To get to the point of my blog (beyond shameless self-promotion) Noah and Cameron, the heroes in Diving In Deep, make a couple of appearances in Collision Course and I learned some interesting things. Sidekicks and secondary characters can say all kinds of things that heroes can’t get away with. I knew Cameron had a dry sense of humor, but I didn’t know he could be that sardonic. I knew Noah and Joey had some unresolved issues from their previous relationship, but I didn’t realize how much of an edge could pop up in their conversations.

When I write a secondary character, I know that he considers himself the star, but without point of view, a secondary character usually stays where I put him. I’ve never set out planning to turn a book into a series, as much as I’ve always enjoyed reading them. Turning a sidekick into a hero is fun, even if it sometimes requires creative gymnastics to fix things that a sidekick can do that a hero can’t. But what I was most unprepared for was the way my other brain children would look in a newly anointed hero’s point of view.

As a reader, I enjoy the visit from old friends when an author writes a series. As a writer, the experience was full of surprises. I think I’m going to try that again. (Yes, Tony, I’m getting to you, just gimme a month or two, okay?)

And by the way, for those of you who were fortunate enough not to grow up with my friends, the correct answer to the title question is “No.” Otherwise, the questioner kicks you from the side. Violence in puns. Go figure.