When I first wrote Crimson Dawn, I envisioned it as an
ongoing lesbian vampire series. I chose DarkLife Saga as the name for the series. If
I remember correctly, the book’s first chapter was written in about an hour. Once
that chapter was done, I stopped, went back, and worked on the backstory for
the world that my characters inhabited. The more I wrote, I became compelled to
delve into the lives of other supernatural creatures and write their stories.
Because of Marcus Daniels and his connections to Val, I
intended for those first characters to be werewolves. But David was firmly entrenched
in my thoughts, so the wolves had to wait. David’s story became Freak Among
Freaks and the first YA DarkWorld story. Freaks picked up a decent audience on
Wattpad, and I love YA fantasy, so I began fleshing out more of the teen side
of my Darkworld. I was so entrenched in the teen world that I outlined stories
for witches and fae and was about to tackle werewolves when I got sidetracked.
That sidetrack was Black Moon Rising. I won’t rehash my struggles
with BMR, but I was put off from writing for a while. When I returned, I was
still wary of Val and Irulan, so it was finally time for my werewolves to
shine. I knew I wanted Marcus to connect the two stories, but I wasn’t ready to
tell his story. I considered telling Thade’s story, but it hadn’t come to me
yet. And aside from that, I wanted another lesbian protagonist. I don’t remember
the catalyst for Still’s creation, but as soon as I had her name, I knew that
she would be the opposite of Val.
Where Val was accustomed to living her life in the spotlight,
I wanted Still to be the anomaly. In a world where supernatural beings lived
their lives in the open, Still would keep her status hidden. Where Val’s attraction
to women was a revelation, Still would be an out, loud and proud member of the
LGBTQ community. Once that was established, her backstory and supporting
characters came quickly. Wolves of Goose Creek was born and would be an
entirely new series set in the DarkWorld. Or so I thought.
After a few months of writing, I knew that line of thinking
was a mistake. There was no way I would be able to keep up with separate series
for each creature and do the same with the YA side. Not and keep my sanity intact.
That’s when I thought about Kelly Armstrong and her Women of Otherworld books.
She wrote about werewolves, witches, necromancers, and more, and they all fell
under the same series title. Bazinga!
My DarkLife Saga became Tales from the DarkWorld. The YA stories
would all fall in the Freaks series, and all my creatures, henceforth, would frolic
together and live happily ever after. Well, not too happy because that would
make for a boring story.
If you’ve read Crimson Dawn and its sequel and decide to read
Ascension, you will recognize Marcus Daniel’s and get to see him in a role other
than the Sentinel commander. If you haven’t read Crimson Dawn, you can jump
into the DarkWorld with Ascension without any confusion. The stories are connected
but not intertwined. Not at the moment.
Those stories are coming.
A timeline and reading order will be coming soon.
