I had gone through a move, I'm sure that had something to do with it. When things finally settled down, I went back home for a visit. One morning, I had a bizarre dream. I've been writing for basically my entire life, and I have never dreamed about my characters or written one of my dreams down.
I literally dreamed I was brainstorming a story. It was like watching a movie, while plotting it. I can remember coming up with their names so clearly, Liam's and Wulf's. Wulfric Stone was first, like he was introducing himself to me. Eden was second. Then Katya and Liam in the sex club, the crazy wild sex they had, everything, all the way up until she meets Wulf in her bakery. It was crazy! My brain did all the work while I was sleeping! Why can't it ALWAYS be like that!?
So yes, everything from the first word till Wulf meets Katya, is exactly how it was in my dream. I had no clue if it was going to take off or not, but the ideas kept pouring out.
As always, enough thanks cannot be said to Ratula. #CONGRATULATIONS, bitch, book number four in the bag! Through thick and thin, bitch fests, laugh fests, documentaries, scary movies, Tiny Dog – I look forward to our conversations each and every day, and I just want to say thank you for being an amazing friend.
For this book, I added a whole new slew of beta readers because it's fun to have strangers tell you when your stuff sucks, HAHA! No, but with every book, I usually add a new reader or two, to keep things fresh. This book, I added something like SEVEN. Some I'd never interacted with prior to them beta reading. And it was awesome, you all helped immensely, it was an amazing experience.
So thank you to my OGs, Angie, Sunny, Letty, Jo, Rebecca, Lheanne, Rebeka, Shannon, and Sue. Some of you have been there since the very first book – even the ones that haven't been published! Most have helped me since Separation. So thank you for sticking with me for so long.
To my new betas – Andrea, Jennifer, Berenice, Tink, Jennifer G., Deanna Pinklady, and Bex, you more than did a good job. You all proved to have great insights and wonderful advice, and taught me so many things. Sex clubs usually don't sell booze! I had no clue! Thank god you all filled out the form, this book wouldn't be half as good without you.
Thank you to Champagne Formats and Qamber Designs for giving me some of the best looking books out there! Each and every one are stunning, in my humble opinion, and your work harmonizes so well with my vision. Thanks so much.
Special thanks to Christine at Shh Mom's Reading. You've done all my releases since Reparation, but you weren't able to do this book. I'm so sad that aspect of our relationship is over, but so excited and happy for your new adventures. Thank you for six amazing releases.
A NEW thanks to The Rock Stars of Romance, for stepping in at kind of the last minute and handling the release of this book. I'm a nervous person by nature, I don't deal well with “meeting” new people, online or otherwise, so it was important for me to deal with people I “knew”, or who would get me. Milasy, you've always been amazing and supportive, thank you for helping out so quickly when I messaged you. Lisa, you're a rock star, and I wonder when/if you ever sleep – thank you for making this smooth and painless for someone like me, who expects everything to be difficult and uncomfortable.
Of course, thank you to every blog that has shared, posted, read, reviewed, done giveaways, made teasers, all of the above and everything beyond. What you do every day is amazing and when I feel like complaining, I try to picture what it's like to run a wordpress site, and then I shut up. Thank you so much.
All the readers. Each and every single one. Authors, bloggers, reviewers, stay at home moms, people reading at their desks at work. In bed at night, in their car in a parking lot, whenever there's spare time. Thank you for liking my words. This never gets easier and each time I'm sure it's going to be the worst book ever, but you all prove me wrong every time. I have a very magical profession – thank you for allowing me to pursue it.
To Mr. F. It's been an interesting year. Awful and wonderful and strange. I'm glad it happened, and I will be glad when it's over, but most of all, I'm glad you love me. Thank you for being such a big part of my life and for shaping me into the person I am today.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
A Twin Estates Novel
excerpt
Breathe. Breathe. Don't think. Breathe. Breathe. Did I sign that paperwork the office sent over? Breathe. Breathe. Have to check that escrow deal. Breathe. Breathe. God, what is she doing right now. How did this get so fucked up. I knew I should have fucking listened to myself and walked – DON'T THINK. Breathe. Breathe.
While Wulfric Stone's natural habitat was an Olympic sized swimming pool, it wasn't the only form of exercise he got – he had a stressful job, he had lots of different ways of burning off the tension. Running came a close second to swimming for clearing his head. It created a different sort of burn in his muscles, created a whole new plethora of aches and pains.
Sometimes, when he was particularly angry about something, he preferred it over swimming. After doing a couple miles worth of laps, he could just float away. Literally. Lay on his back and be weightless for a while. Not with running, though. How cruel – a sport that takes a person miles away from their starting point, and if they push themselves too hard, it just means they have to turn around and do the same distance back. Feel like collapsing? No weightless pond to float in. No, the best case scenario meant hopefully finding a cool patch of grass to collapse onto and pray his muscles didn't cramp up while gravity put pressure on every limb.
Yes, running was a very punishing sport, and Wulfric Stone was a bad man who definitely deserved punishment.
Breathe. Breathe.
His calves were burning and sweat was pouring down his body. He was pretty sure his lungs were getting ready to stage a coup and walk out on him. Still, he kept pushing, pounding his feet down harder against the ground.
How can I breathe when she's not here to help me?
Wulf let out a frustrated shout and ripped his earphones off. This wasn't working. He slowed to a stop. He knew it was a bad idea, he should jog for a while, reducing his pace slowly, but fuck it. Running away from his problems clearly wasn't helping. Maybe a massive charlie horse would successfully distract him.
Or maybe he could have a heart attack, that would be perfect.
He veered off the pathway, heading straight into the woods. San Francisco was entering fall and as a breeze hit his sweat slicked skin, he shivered. He grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and brought it to his forehead, mopping up sweat. When he lowered the material, he glanced around and realized he'd wandered so far, he couldn't see where the trail was anymore.
Good. Maybe I'll be lost in here forever. That would solve everything. Jesus, how did everything get so fucked up?