Story Behind the Story - Trust

I'm copying Ava March today and doing a story behind the story for Trust

Stats: Submitted partial of Trust to Loose Id on September 10, 2008. Received request for full ms on September 21, 2008. Received email from editor saying they would want some revisions, but would consider looking at ms again after those were done on October 20, 2008. Rather than re-write a story I was pretty satisfied with, I chose to submit to a publisher I had already worked with, Ellora’s Cave, on October 21, 2008. Ellora’s Cave offered contract November 07, 2008. Trust was released on April 29, 2009.


Little Known Fact – When it came time for edits, my editor at EC asked for more sex. Other than Brad’s uncompleted blowjob in the prologue the first full sex scene didn’t occur until Chapter four (around that, it’s been a while since I looked at the book). Given the facts of their breakup and Justin’s car crash injuries I was dismayed to say the least at this. How was I supposed to get Brad and Justin to do it any sooner?

My editor suggested a flashback and though that was not my preference, I wrote the scene of Brad and Justin’s first encounter in college. I thought there was plenty of sex already in Trust and adding another scene would not add to the story. I wrote it anyway.

Extremely Little Known Fact – I debated having Justin catch Brad in full anal sex when he came into the locker room looking for Brad. I ditched this idea because I thought the uncompleted blowjob was going to be hard enough to get Justin and readers over let alone going for the whole thing.

How Did I get the idea for the book – Actually it came from a song. 38 Special’s “Second Chance”. If you haven’t heard the song it’s about a guy asking his girl for a second chance because his heart needs it after he has cheated on her. I both really like that song and it makes me angry at the same time. It brings out an emotional response in me and I wanted to do that in a book. And I chose to make Brad a paramedic, a selfless hero, to make him more likeable to the reader, who might consider giving him that second chance just as he hopes Justin will.

If I could edit the book now would I change anything – Yeah, I had a reason for making Brad celibate for the entire time after his breakup with Justin. I wanted him to torture himself, I wanted it to be mental and messed up. But I did get some reviews where certain reviewers doubted Brad would be celibate for that many years so I would have either explained it better or perhaps changed it. Really though I was pretty happy with the book.

Will there be a sequel – Never. I gave them their white picket fence and the characters are under contractual obligation to EC.

Misc stuff- Trust is one of my more controversial books, if not the most. Some readers loved it, and especially loved Brad. Others just couldn’t get past the cheating, no way, no how.

Trust ended up being my last published book with EC. I had some really good experiences there and some successful books, but sometimes there comes a parting of ways. I didn’t want to write the kinds of books EC wanted to publish and vice versa. It took me a while to come to the conclusion that the two of us just no longer suit, but I have now and have moved on.