Character FAQ
Got any questions about my books or characters? Check out the sections below, and if you want to know anything else, feel free to send me a message via the contact form. Please note that answers may contain spoilers!
The Four Series
It came to me completely out of the blue. I was in the middle of writing another book when Caiden and the rest of the Four barged their way into my brain, and wouldn’t shut up. I guess it was subconsciously partly inspired by mystery stories I read as a kid, news articles, and real life experiences and locations.
The whole castle scene! I loved everything about it!
I have so many I love…but two of my very favourites are Caiden & Winter’s first kiss, and Cassius cooking bacon naked, for sure!
As their relationship developed over the course of the book, the songs changed, but three of the songs from The Lies We Tell playlist will always remind me of when they first started falling for each other:
Ocean Eyes – Billie Eilish (Blackbear remix)
Fire on Fire – Sam Smith
Catch Me If You Can – Walking on Cars
But really, that whole playlist is just so them, and I love it so much!
I didn’t specifically think of them before I wrote the books, because their birthdays needed to fit in with the stories. But here we have them:
Winter – Capricorn
Caiden – Virgo
Zayde – Pisces
Cassius – Gemini
Weston – Cancer
Winter would be Gryffindor. Cassius would be Hufflepuff, and Weston would be Ravenclaw. As for Caiden and Zayde…they would be in Slytherin
They all have different fears, but one thing they all have in common is fear of losing someone they love
Honestly? He taught himself. He managed to burn it the first few times before he worked out the perfect ratio. Now he’s the bacon king.
General FAQ
Usually when I’m just falling asleep (or even when I am asleep and suddenly wake up), or doing something inconvenient like showering or driving
Honestly? I have insomnia to thank for that!
It’s usually when they start speaking to me. Sometimes it’s completely unexpected – like with The Lies We Tell, I was writing office romance, and then all of a sudden these guys just appeared in my head and wouldn’t stop talking! So I had to sit down and write their story.
Sometimes I sign up for an anthology with a theme, and I sit down and think about the theme, and the characters just come to life. e.g. Trick Me Twice was originally supposed to be a short story for a Halloween bully anthology. I just came up with the rough idea of a Halloween event where the guys would wear masks, and it went from there. As I started writing it, it became clear that Carter and Raine had more to say, so they ended up with their own book. Then as I was writing it, Kian started talking to me, and he let me know that he was bi – which at the time was a big surprise because I thought he was just Carter’s asshole friend who also wanted Raine. So he ended up with his own story, which replaced TMT in the anthology.
As for the stories themselves, I never know what’s going to happen…I’m constantly surprised!
Character names – I usually look through names lists until I see one that fits. Sometimes I know straight away – Cassius and Zayde both gave me their names as soon as they appeared in my head. For place names, if it’s not somewhere that actually exists, I usually just bring up Google maps and look at names of tiny villages. I then base the description of those places on somewhere that exists that I’ve either lived in or visited a lot.
The storylines generally write themselves, and I never have any idea what’s going to happen, but with anything that involves suspense or mystery, I usually base at least some of it on news articles that I’ve read – e.g. the dog fighting in The Fight In Us.
