Do you ever wonder where authors get inspiration for their stories?
As an avid reader well before I became an author, there were books I read that were so astounding, I thought to myself, “How does someone come up with this stuff?”
It wasn’t until I sat down to write what would later become In the Shadow of Angels that I understood inspiration comes from the oddest of places, and at the most unexpected times.
In case you want to know, I was playing the Sims 3, testing out the 3D models I created, when an image flashed in my mind of a man greeting a woman in front of a fireplace in an opulent sitting room in a massive French estate.
If you’ve read the book, you know this exact scene.
It had started as a picture and formed into a whole story with characters who struggle with the decisions they’ve made while trapped in a dark world full of deceit…
But, I’m not here to talk about the Guardian Series.
I’m here to tell you a little secret.
Some of you know that my latest series is far removed from my previous books. The UnMasked Series is dark, way darker than anything I’ve written, and so spicy it’s a wonder the pages aren’t set ablaze.
Did you know that the idea came about because of a picture?
Did you know too, that author Emily Rath played a huge part in why I wrote Prey? Not that she knows this, but she was the reason I found the courage to write such a steamy Why-Choose/RH book.
Some of you know I live in NE Florida. Some of you know I live just south of Jacksonville, which is where her hockey romance series featuring her fictional hockey team takes place.
When her books hit, I was releluctant. I wasn’t a big hockey romance fan. It wasn’t until my good friend said, “Fanny, you have to read these books,” that I finally downloaded them and got so sucked into the story, I finished the book in 2 days.
And loved it.
Then, I said—literally, I said this to my partner—if Emily Rath can write a book like this, walk around town showing her face, and people LOVE it, I can write the sort of books I want to write…
And so I decided from there on out, I was going to be as spicy as I wanted and not be shamed.
A few months later, a reader in a book group posted an image of two masked men standing around a woman (she was bound and blindfolded) kneeling before them and asked, “Any recs?”
Some of you probably know the image I’m referring. It’s quite popular among dark romance readers.
The resounding answer to the reader’s question was that there were not enough books with masked men in a why-choose/RH story.
And that’s how the idea for Prey came to me.
From an image.
And my previous love for the popular game, Call of Duty.
That’s right. Ghost.
And yes, I played…
It was right at the beginning of October 2023 when I started writing Prey. Being so close to
Halloween, I knew it was going to be a costume party, and I knew from the very first sentence I wrote, it was going to be two best friends out for a night of fun.
And fun they had. 😏
Instead of two masked boys, I knew there were going to be four, and instead of our friends separating and only one having all the fun, I knew, just knew, they would stay together.
Because who isn’t more adventurous with their bestie?
As I continued to write, Prey turned into a story that reached far beyond the club where it took place, far beyond the spice and that leather couch in that private room, and stretched out into what I knew would be five more dark books that told the story of these four men and why they chose those two women that night.
Prey has become one of my best selling books, out-selling my previous fan favorite, One Night, and has earned me a following of dedicated readers that to this day, I can’t help sit in awe of.
If you want to know more, go follow me on TikTok, where I will share more behind the scenes information and snippets of upcoming works.
Also, if you love Prey, go thank Emily Rath by reading her books and supporting her. If it wasn’t for her courage to write a book about love in it’s most simplistic form (we love who we love regardless of what society thinks) I never would have had the courage to write the UnMasked Series.
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