one way or another. I paid close attention to the stories of male actors who actually stood up for their female colleagues (spoiler alert—they were few and far between.) Not the ones who pretended they had no idea what was going on or “never suspected” a thing. Fuck those guys.
This is a theme throughout my books. I want my hero to always have my heroine’s back—even if it comes at a personal cost. Nothing is more important or greater than the love and respect my couples have for each other. Poor Chaser and Mallory were a bit dickish to each other at certain points but it was always out of a frustration that they weren’t together. When Andrew hits on Mallory, I suppose in some other world, he wouldn’t have believed her, or maybe he would’ve blamed her, and they would’ve broken up. Or maybe Mallory would’ve said, “sure, let’s bang!” But that’s not who they are. I love a couple who faces the world and fights their problems together. I’m not into the angst of a couple doing horrible, hurtful, things to each other throughout a book. I’m just not. There’s enough awfulness in real-life human relationships.
Even when Chaser’s own father questions their relationship, Chaser stands up to him. A worthy alpha hero always defends his heroine. Although, it did plant that tiny seed of doubt that eventually worked its way out of Chaser’s mouth in the heat of their argument over Andrew’s actions. But he didn’t let his pride stop him from making it right.
Oh, Chaser!
These two killed me. I just loved every moment with them. Maybe it’s the horrifically challenging times we’re living through right now, but I never wanted to leave their world.
It might surprise you to learn that I originally planned to kill off Jacob and Andrew. Andrew was such a dick. But a loveable one. Sort of. Somewhere in the middle of Blow my Fuse, he grew on me. I started wondering what his happy ending would look like. Does he even deserve one? Has he been redeemed enough? I still haven’t decided.
Poor Jacob. It was traumatic for me to kill him off, even though I had been planning to do it all along. I reconsidered his death several times. But sadly, we’ve lost a lot of brilliant artists in similar ways and he was representative of that and all the complicated emotions the band and his loved ones would have.
For some reason, back in 2018 when I started re-writing Kickstart my Heart, I planned for Mallory and Chaser’s story to be “three 50,000 word books.” I based all of my “plans” around those numbers. I booked editing time and scheduled the audiobook recordings on those figures. I budgeted to pay for those services on those numbers as well. 268,000 words later…I am exceedingly lucky no one said, “What the fuck, Autumn?” when I handed in these significantly longer books and coughed up the extra money.
Although I’ve used “True love stories never end…” as my author tagline for a couple of years now, I can’t think of a couple that it applies to more than Mallory and Chaser. Don’t you think?
As I pointed out several times in my Facebook group, I have a span of like thirty years to write books about Mallory and Chaser. We know they’re still together and kicking ass in the present-day Lost Kings MC world. Surely, they must have had lots of exciting adventures in that time.
I love leaving little things unfinished or up in the air. I love the discussions my readers have about certain events that take place in my stories. I love leaving breadcrumbs for you to find and ponder. Not just the evil glee kind of love, but genuine affection and appreciation. Maybe I’m biased or you’ll think this is obnoxious, but I am blessed to have some of the most incredibly passionate, creative, and enthusiastic readers an author could ever dream of having. The discussions in my Facebook group, in the spoiler groups for each book, the messages and comments I receive make all the pain and frustration worth it. Over and over readers tell me they re-read my books. I’ve always re-read beloved books. I still do. Not every book. Only special ones. So, I consider that one of the highest compliments. It also freaks me out because I’m always thinking, “OMG! Maybe this time they’re going to discover I’m actually a shitty writer!”