Claiming A Demon's Heart

Hello and thank you Erzabet for letting write about my newest book, Claiming a Demon’s Heart. First, I’d like to talk a bit about writing series in general and the snags that come with weaving all those different stories into a recognizable flow!

I’m always asked is it difficult to write a series. The answer is no, but also yes… For me personally, I can’t seem to write just one standalone book. I’ve tried, but those pesky secondary characters knock around and whine, and before I know it, they are a full blown novel of their own. Sometimes so annoying that I have to jot down their story or never get any sleep.

A series, for me, is filled with people. Each of them is a person with a story just waiting to be told. When I first started writing, I wrote Midnight Star, Silver’s Chance and Golden’s Rule simultaneously. That’s right. I wrote all three books at one time. I was new to writing, and after years of suppressing my stories, they just burst from me! If I hit a snag in one, I’d work on the other two.

I’d not recommend it as a way to write. My stories, at that point, shared scenes. Ugh….I’ll take a second to explain that in a bit, but when I write now, I make certain the other characters don’t take over. (That’s why I jot down their story!)

I also keep notes. Not so detailed as you’d think, but for example, those shared scenes – which I swore to my editor to never do again – have to be perfect. That requires notes on what the scenes look like, what is happening prior, and so on.

If you’ve read A Spartan’s Kiss and Golden’s Rule, or A Spartan’s Kiss and Silver’s Chance, then you’ve read some shared scenes. The scene shared between Golden and Spartan is small, actually it got trimmed down to just Aeros thinking about what Beauty and Torque told him on his men having a perfect match out there.

Tabithia and Aeros share an entire fight scene with Samantha and Derrick. Holy moley! How did I do that? Why? Well, back then, remember I was new to writing, and I hadn’t plotted out Tabbie’s story. She came later and her story was a difficult one to write because of her ordeal with cutting herself. Anyway, I had this scene, in an alley, where she and Aeros race up, meet Derrick for the first time, then fight a few really disgusting Death Stalkers. It had to stay. In both books. So, I had to pull the focus in Silver’s Chance out of Samantha’s point of view, and turn it to Derrick – who always focuses on her. J It worked. In A Spartan’s Kiss, I didn’t have as much of a problem and kept the scene short and sweet.

Confused? I was too. Should I have nicked the scenes and not shared them? Maybe. But Silver’s Chance was written and published. The time line was set. So, in a way, I challenged myself to get that right, and I hope I did. I might have a few gray hairs now, but I wouldn’t change either book now.

So, a series can overlap, as I just wrote, but it can also flow one after another. But think about it. While you are reading my blog and enjoying it (I hope!) your friends might be out meeting the man of their dreams, getting married and moving to Alaska. You’re doing your own thing too. No news is good news, is a saying for a reason. I guess I take that to heart. A lot of my books overlap, not with scenes but happen at the same time. At this point, though, I can’t claim they are standalone books. The progression of them builds with some of the battles they fight.

I guess I think of a series as weaving this huge tapestry, with the lives of my characters connecting in various areas, some strongly woven together, while others barely blend into the enormous picture. They’re all colorful and bright, but merge in different parts of the whole.

The experience of writing shared scenes helped a great deal in working on Agni and Bethany’s epic novel. Those two….sigh. I was one stressed out author writing their story. I might have thrown things, it’s blurry. I think I drank too much at one point.

Why?

Because even though I’d sworn never to write a shared scene again in their story I had to break that oath. Several times.

Bethany, who takes the name Blood Moon, is a character I’ve known for years. She’s percolated while her sisters got their stories, while I wrote about other witches finding their mates, and while she bonded, Agni popped in and out of all of those stories sometimes annoying the heck out of people, but always, always helping out when he could. So, Moon was there, growing up. Boy did she grow up. J Agni, the ancient demon wasn’t quite ready for how fast, but then he made one fatal mistake with her – he didn’t trust her to be strong enough to stand by his side. Mistake of course, she is young, but strong enough. But if he’d not made that judgment error, we might not have a book and that would be sad. 

I hope you get a chance to read Claiming a Demon’s Heart and see for yourself.

Any questions? Please ask! I’ll try my best to answer them.

Hugs, billi jean

Blurb for Claiming a Demon’s Heart:

This is book seven in the Sisterhood of Jade series.

Agni’s obsession will either claim his heart or bring him more pain than any other event in his existence.

Since first learning his mate is the third Sister of the Moon, Agni Fe Tarra, Prince of the Fire Demon Realm, has stayed as far away from the young girl as the mortal world would allow. But when she ventures to the Fay Realm and returns a full grown—and fully developed—woman secure in her Wiccan powers as well as in her Fay abilities, can he still stay away even if that’s the only way to keep her safe?

Blood Moon, once called Bethany by her family and friends, knows with Agni’s first kiss, he’s hers—but the demon’s first words to her don’t seem to match up. Is she to listen to what he says and leave him forever—or stay with him until she can claim his heart?

Like the sound of Claiming a Demon’s Heart? Buy it here: https://www.totallybound.com/claiming-a-demons-heart?utm_source=erzabetwrites&utm_medium=blogtour&utm_campaign=claimingademonsheartblogtour

About Billi Jean:

Billi Jean was born in California but didn't stay put for long. She's lived in New York, Indiana, Missouri, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts and Vermont. She's lived in and worked from ranches to beach-side coffee shops to the woods in western Massachusetts. Now living and working in China, she continues to write for Totally Bound Publishing.

Billi Jean has been writing since high school when she couldn't wait for Robert Jordon to write his Wheel of Time series faster. As an adult, she still finds herself drawn to fantasy-adventure stories, but with an erotic romance flair. Her books are extremely hot, with a focus on strong characters that are shoved into fast-paced adventures. Her unique style of incredible journeys infused with hot passion leave her fans hoping for more.