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Never venture out of bounds without a buddy—preferably two.
Back when I wrote the book Falling, Freestyle, I had a few goals. I wanted to have a contemporary love story set during the winter in the mountains. It was going to include skiing, or snowboarding, and I wanted to write a friends-to-lovers situation.
What ended up happening made this book one of my favorites of my writing career.
I’m one of the writers who starts with a very loose plan, then I let the characters take me where they want to go. There’s often a ton of surprises along the way, and that’s kept writing interesting for me, as well as giving me a bunch of ‘Oh Noes!’ moments. Falling, Freestyle was no different. The heroine, Dara, showed up just as planned. But her two best friends? Neither of them would back down and stay the best buddy. They both wanted in as heroes.
“This isn’t supposed to be a ménage a trois, guys,” I reasoned with my characters. They shook their heads and insisted they knew best. Suddenly, I had two male egos to deal with, and frankly, I had hoped for a much easier book.
See, there are a lot of times I just don’t get threesomes in romance books. Unless the guys are also into guys, it’s always struck me as a little—odd—that rarely does anyone ever mention that having another male in the bedroom is anything but weird.
Kane and Jack agreed. They wanted to talk about how two heterosexual guys dealt with this situation. They wanted to discuss a bunch of other things, including what Dara said she wanted, and what she was really asking for…
Slowly the book came together. It’s got the snowy setting, with skiing and snowboarding. It’s got the friends-to-lovers, and it makes me smile.
In the process, the characters have discussions that I really think would take place between friends. (Yeah, it’s guy talk some of the time—crude, rude, straight up. You know, fun 😉 Between people stepping beyond the boundaries they’d previously set, and moving into a more intimate relationship—because although I do write explicit scenes, it’s not mainly about the sex. It’s about first, and foremost, about relationships. And that’s what made this book for me. Friends—moving to being lovers in a way that I could actually see happening.
I hope you enjoy the story as much as I do.
The Extreme Adventures series features extreme outdoor sports, but it’s mostly about people finding a way to love. Falling Freestyle includes skiing/snowboarding. The second book, Rising Freestyle, features rock climbing.
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