To be totally honest, I wrote this book because I wanted to practice writing sex scenes. After I finished my first and second books (Three Alarm Tenant and Spark of Desire) I decided I needed practice writing sex scenes. When I finished it, this manuscript was a mess of head hopping, bad grammar and continuity errors, but there were lots of sex scenes and I never planned to publish it anyway. Well, as it happened, I was working in South Korea and decided to look for a writing group online. I happened across the group I am still with many years and three continents later. At the time, new applicants were required to submit some writing and a bio, and do a sample critique. Why I decided to submit Jason and Cassandra’s story, I don’t know. I had two completed novels and a novella gathering cyberdust on my hard drive at the time. Regardless, it worked and I was accepted by the group.

Within the first few days of being accepted there was a kerfuffle over another writer who had applied at the same time I had. Apparently she had read through some of the posts about her when the group was discussing letting us join and was offended, quitting the group immediately. Well, it had not occurred to me that the group might have discussed me and I wanted to know what they had said. Not much as it turned out. One member who shall remain nameless because I have no recollection of who it was said she thought I would be a decent critiquer, but thought my manuscript would be a “plotless wonder” (this I remember.) I already had a pretty thick skin by that point so I shrugged, laughed and filed the phrasing away as it was the first time I’d heard it.

This book was milled through the group and then published with another house under the unfortunate title The Rockstar’s Retreat. Believe me, that was the best one we could come up with at the time. I hated that title and knew I could do better by the story, so when the initial contract expired I took back the rights and proceeded to mess with it some more in addition to writing four more novels and five more novellas (and counting) in the same world.

And so the story goes.