Favorite Book?

Brandon Shire is doing a series revolving around favorite books and about six weeks ago I was one of the guest bloggers. This is a reposting of that article. 



I have lots of favorites that revolve around my writing. A favorite way to write, as well as a place. Favorite things to surround myself with when I write, but an actual favorite book? I nearly gave myself hives trying to pick a favorite book of mine that I’d written. How could I possibly do that? It was like saying pick my favorite child.

Each book has its good and bad from the point of the writer. The book I’m most excited about is the one I’m currently writing. The book that gives me a warm gooey feeling (the thank heavens it’s done feeling) in my stomach is the one about to be released. But a favorite among the books already published, that was hard. So, I employed my variation of an age old technique. I stood in front of the framed versions of my covers, closed my eyes and went eenee, menie, miney, moe.

That’s how I decided to ramble on at you about Chained Hearts today. First let me insert the obligatory warnings. There may be spoilers here and this book is third in a series of six planned books. There, conscience clear, now let’s get at it, shall we?

The more I thought about what I wanted to write, the more I realized Chained Hearts had a lot of reasons to make it a favorite book of mine that I've written. When I went back and skimmed the story, because loving and remembering every nth detail are two different things, I saw there were a lot of parts to the story near and dear to my heart.

The basics of the series are, there is this guy, Todd Ruger and he lives about 300 years in our future and times have changed. Electricity is solar powered, the basic mode of transportation is horses and cell phones and computers live only in history books. Todd has an interesting job, he’s a supernatural bounty hunter known as a sentry. Todd’s main man is Nick, who is his mate as well as Todd’s slave. They are partners in every way. They have found themselves embroiled in a war where they are pawns of their government.

Todd is outgoing, one tough dude and afraid of nothing. Nick is quiet, uber-smart, sort of a smart ass and they are totally devoted to one another.

Chained Hearts afforded me the opportunity to really delve into each of these men’s inner most fears and feelings. The relationship between them is well established; they’ve already been through several crisis that have strengthened their bond. They confront a supernatural foe who can also dig deep into their minds.

I was able to explore how people deal when someone they love gets in a bad place in their heads. Just how far can one go and still be forgiven by the person closest to you? These are fascinating aspects of a character and throughout the book I have many opportunities to examine how each man will react, and what choices they make.

Digging into a character, and putting them in different situations to test their mettle is something I love to do. In Chained Hearts I was able to challenge my guys with both physical, as well as mental hurts with ghouly monsters and conniving women. On the flip side I could also delve into the various things they like, the little personal bits that really bring a character to life. Writing in a series gives me the time to let the characters grow not only personally, but in their relationship.

 Blurb and Excerpt