Hi, guys!
Holy shit, it’s almost release day! It’s freaking tomorrow!!!!
*gasp*
I can hardly believe that, as of tomorrow, I’ll have FOUR books published. I’m ecstatic.
And in honor of release day, I wanted to share the origin of this gut-wrenching book.
It all started…with the trailer for an erotic film. Which is ironic since an actual sex scene is one of the only triggers not included in the book, even though a brothel features pretty heavily in the plot.
It was a high end, story driven one (obviously, since it had a damn trailer). Anyway, the trailer consisted of a girl wearing heavy furs and old-timey clothes tromping through the snow on a mountain side until she passed out. Then, some guy, also wearing furs and medieval clothes, found her and carried her to safety.
And for some reason, the idea of someone finding someone near-dead in the snow just stuck with me.
I’d been in a post-apocalyptic headspace for a while, so I shifted it to that rather than a fantasy setting.
Of course, I didn’t want the baggage of “Is he going to kill me or worse?” hanging over the love interest, what with the potential hostage situation, so I flipped the genders. I don’t particularly enjoy writing women who fall in love with men after thinking they might kill or rape them.
So, Chloe found Christian bleeding in the snow. Then, I just needed a reason for him to be there, which is where Karen (Christian’s sister-in-law), Jesse (Christian’s late brother), and Tate (Christian’s nephew) came in. I built the world around them, unintentionally throwing nearly ever potential trigger into the book.
I never even ended up watching the erotic film that inspired the story. Hell, it didn’t even get made. It just stayed a trailer.
This book sits so close to home, literally and figuratively. It’s set in Southern Illinois, aka the place I’ve lived my entire life. I took some liberties with town names and distances between them, but ya know…creative license and all that.
It’s also deeply emotional. So many of my own experiences have gone into this one. Of course, the experiences were changed to fit the story, some exaggerated, some downplayed with the burden split across multiple characters. And some things were just experiences I dealt with secondhand during my internship days getting my bachelor’s degree in psychology.
Regardless, a lot went into this novel.
There were a lot of teary-eyed typing sessions. Some all-out blubbering. Sometimes over sad things and sometimes over sweet, touching scenes.
Some of the dialogue is pulled from real life to give the characters that extra bit of realism.
I’d even been getting into survival stuff a little heavier just before I wrote it. Over the course of about six months leading up to it, I took up archery, learned to clean fish, bought a pistol (.45 baby desert eagle…Chloe happens to prefer a .45 in the story), and brushed up on shooting. I put together bug-out bags and jumped into (very, very mild) prepping.
And then, I got the idea for this post-apocalyptic novel, and I realized most of my research was done.
As I said, sooooooo much went into this one.
If you want to learn more about the characters, check out the #WorldForTheBrokenWednesday on Instagram for all my character profiles and several excerpts from the story.
Preorders are still available everywhere until midnight, at which point you can just straight up buy this motherfucker.
Check it out on amazon at: mybook.to/WorldForTheBroken
I’ve got one hell of a blog tour lineup coming, with some chances to win free books (signed hardbacks!) and custom book swag.
Follow me on social media or subscribe right here for all the updates on the giveaways and tour information. (Links down below)
Keep reading. Keep writing. (And keep your eyes peeled. You never know where inspiration will come from.)
Later.