SURRENDER released: A look back at the Lethal Obsession Trilogy
When I approached Liv about the idea of appearing on her blog with the release of my novel SURRENDER, Part 3 of the Lethal Obsession Trilogy, she suggested I write a bit about how I put the series together, or how I come up with the story ideas for the trilogy.
That’s actually a hard one for me, but I’m going to give it a try. I suppose the short answer is I don’t know entirely, I just start out most of my stories by seeing something that makes me ask “what if?”
With LETHAL OBSESSION, the first novel in the trilogy, I’d stumbled across some Craigslist postings where people were looking to hook up with someone. If you’ve ever seen them, you know people are offering to do most anything, with most anyone – even complete strangers. (And no, I wasn’t there looking for a hook-up. I was actually putting some items there for sale, noticed a label for personal ads, and curiosity got the better of me, so I had to check them out).
I went back several days and read through them. There are, shall I say, some uninhibited people in the world. But I also saw some lonely listings, people just looking for a friend, or for someone they could date.
We all know how popular Shades of Grey has been, and how BDSM fiction has become more mainstream with the publication of E.L. James’ novels. So, I wondered what if someone – maybe a lonely women whose husband either had left or was no longer interested in her, turned to Craigslist to find companionship. What if she had always wanted to experiment a little, see what some experimentation in bondage might be like?
That was the germ of the story, but that wasn’t yet what I considered a compelling story line. So I asked some more questions. What if she was a strong woman, someone who worked hard, struggled like all of us for something better, for the chance to move ahead, but she was tired, weary of that struggle. What if the attraction of BDSM was more than sexual, what if she enjoyed giving up control, not having to be responsible, the one others turn to?
Okay, we’re moving in the right direction, but so far I haven’t added anything to the genre, broken any new ground.
Then it came to me. What if she were a cop, a detective, and she put herself in a situation of complete vulnerability, allowing a man she never met offline to tie her up and have his way? What if she found she liked it, liked him, only to learn there was a serial killer on the loose in her town, someone who bound women, tortured them, and then killed them.
And what if those women were bound and tortured in the exact same manner the detective’s mystery lover had done to her?
Those are the what ifs I went through to come up with the basic skeleton of the novel LETHAL OBSESSION, although there are plenty of additional plot twists along the way.
As far as completing the trilogy, that was a matter of going back and picking up some loose ends from the first novel, answering some questions that had been left, developing my detective’s character a little more, and seeing how much further she would be willing to go into the world of BDSM, and what she was willing to do to eventually find, and then save, true love.
There, that’s my writing process, and I hope you’re not sitting there thinking that’s about as clear as muddy water.
What I really wanted to do with LETHAL OBSESSION, even before it grew to a trilogy, was to explore the world of BDSM, but do it in a way I hadn’t seen before. With real, life-like characters (no ditzy young virgins who look like models or billionaire masters who make the young ladies suddenly crave their domination), cloaked in a word of mystery and suspense that went far beyond the eroticism of the tale.
Have I succeeded? I hope so. I was pleased with the first novel in the series – more than I expected to be – and overall I’m happy with the entire series.
Here’s a little blurb on the third part of the trilogy, SURRENDER:
Detective Angela Martin returns to action in SURRENDER, Book 3 of the Lethal Obsession Trilogy.
Having lost the man she was falling for in the original Lethal Obsession, and having her new love snatched from her arms by human traffickers who wouldn’t think twice about killing to keep their national ring in operation, Detective Martin is determined to do anything necessary to save him.
That leads to her doing the unthinkable, making a deal with the kidnappers to save her Anthony, that eventually leads to being on the run from the very law enforcement officers she’s worked with her entire career.
Her only refuge is to go deep into the world of BDSM, turning herself over to a submissive training academy and risking being sold into slavery. Ultimately, she finds her own life may be on the line, but not before she learns firsthand what true sexual servitude and bondage is.
SURRENDER, like LETHAL OBSESSION and HELPLESS, is an erotic suspense tale that will keep you riveted to your ereader until the last word.
*****
Buying Links:
SURRENDER is available at Amazon by clicking the title of the book anywhere in this blog, or by clicking here.
The first book in the trilogy, LETHAL OBSESSION, is available here and is on sale for just 99 cents through March 18.
Book 2 of the series, HELPLESS, is available here.
Shandra’s Bio:
If you’d like to keep up with what goes on in my crazy life, you can check out my blog, Shandra’s Shadow World, connect with me on Facebook (send me a friend request, just mention Liv’s blog so I know who you are), or follow me on Twitter (I follow back!).
If you have any questions about anything I’ve written today, please feel free to leave a question in the comments section. I’ll check back over the next few days and reply.
Thanks for visiting Liv’s blog today, and I hope you enjoy the Lethal Obsession Trilogy.
