Life gives you lemons you make lemonade. Or at least that’s been the saying I’ve been told most of my life. I learned young that this is very true. Life throws us challenges and obstacles that sometimes we drown in. The rabbit hole is what I call it. When we go down the hole, it’s a hell of a challenge to get back out.
There was a time in my life I was falling down that hole. Reading gave me my first taste of escaping the reality of the world. The words on a page let my world narrow down to a set of characters and live in their world for a while.
I read. A lot.
During this time, I was a teacher and had been for ten plus years. Needless to say this job was very hard and stressful. Reading was my to disappear for just a while and I clutched onto it with everything I had.
Then a story came to mind and I talked to an author friend of mine who told me to just write it down. I did. My first two books Safe and Wanting You were written in 2012 and published the next year. Those two books didn’t do well, but I enjoyed writing them.
In 2013, I was told I needed to watch Sons of Anarchy. Let’s just say I fell in LOVE with Gemma and Tara. My brain started to roll, twisting and churning. It wouldn’t stop nagging me wanting to expel onto the pages.
The problem was there wasn’t a lot of time for me to put the words down on paper, between my job, being a mom and wife, but I needed to get them out.
Therefore to combat this, I carried a notebook with me everywhere getting two or three sentences in at a time. Then at night even when exhausted, I’d write as much as I could getting only a few hours of sleep and I’m a not a no sleep kind of person. I love my Zzzzzz’s.
Princess wouldn’t let me go though always below the surface and itching to be written.
The first words to Ravage Me were written down during gym time while a teacher. My notebook was in hand as I walked around and began the journey of the Ravage MC.
Below is the picture of the first words in Ravage Me. On the left is my chicken scratches with all my great math at the top. On the right is the finished product.
A lot of this book was written by hand because between being a mom, wife and teacher, author was put on the back burner a lot of the time.
But I never gave up. Princess and Cruz wouldn’t allow me too. And I can’t tell you how grateful I am for them. All the bottled up feelings I had inside spinning around were put onto paper.
Princess is such a kickass character. The badassness that comes from her bleeds on the pages. When she first started, I thought she was so far over the top, way past the point of realism. I didn’t know if people would connect with her at first because of it. If readers would throw the book down thinking This is just unrealistic.
This began my research into clubs, how they work and function. The different levels of the brotherhood and what the women in their lives saw and felt. A good friend introduced me to a woman I’ll call L. She gave me a ton of information being an ol’ lady herself.
As we talked it became very apparent that Princess was indeed real. Her over-the-topness is just her. Her strength and independence were traits of a true ol’ lady. It takes a lot of those two things to be a woman in the club life.
I’d already written the scene where Princess meets up with Sting. I thought damn I bet this would kickass. But early readers didn’t believe it. Didn’t believe that one could have the big O on a Harley.
L convinced me it was very true calling it a Milwaukee Vibrator. Therefore I didn’t change the scene one bit. Yes, I got a lot of slack for it, but I didn’t care because it was Princess’ truth.
Now Cruz. There wasn’t really a muse for him. He wasn’t a manifestation of a show or a book. Cruz was everything I thought was hot as hell in a man. Every scrap of his dominance, strength, confidence and attitude poured into him.
It was all there and gave him everything I could.
The entire Ravage MC series focuses around one main thing: family loyalty. The binding of people who may not be blood, but are family all the same. They were chosen to be part of this unique family not out of obligation, but out of a mutual respect and loyalty to one another.
Each member of the club has the other’s back. Always.
That is how the Ravage MC came to life.
If you haven’t started your journey with the Ravage MC, now is the time to start. The first book Ravage Me is FREE on all channels.
Want to know more about the series? Check out my website!
