Strays

Author's Note, Random Trivia & Books

(If you have questions about more books, skip to the end!)

Author's Note:

Firstly I  just want to preface this by saying a huge giant thank you to the very first readers on this story. It's taken us four years - FOUR YEARS!! - to get this far, but if you stuck with me until the end, you deserve a medal and a big fat cuddle from one or both of my cute as hell puppies. You're the bestest <3  It can't have been easy watching me write, rewrite, then take a break for months on end because I couldn't get chapters right but (for me at least!) I think it paid off. This is the first story I've completed that stuck close (enough) to my original outline and came out close to how I'd always imagined. It's not perfect but I'm proud of what I achieved with it.

I've received a lot of invaluable feedback from a small group of wattpad readers, especially over the past few months, and whether it was guesses as to what Michael was up to or indignation on Juliet's behalf over the boys' antics, it never failed to boost my morale and I love you guys for it.

But I want to say a massive, massive, massive thank you to both NightRose154 and NeverTrustaDuck. I don't think I ever could have finished this book without either of you. It was amazing that I got to meet you both in person and 'talk shop' about books with people who get it. 

There's a lot of things I wanted to do with this book. I wanted to get more comfortable writing 'sexy' scenes but halfway through I realised I'm only happy if there's blood and or weird animal stuff involved. Don't judge me. I'm weird :P I wanted to let my gore-side out a bit and kill some people (hello werewolf fight club *.* ) but mostly I GOT TO KILL SOMEONE WITH A DRILL THROUGH THE SKULL. YOU GUYS HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY THIS MADE ME. I WAS GIDDY FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK.

Anyways. Thank you for reading :P I hope you liked it even a little bit as much as I loved writing it.

RANDOM TRIVIA:

✰ I pick up a lot of my character names from my favourite regency romance novels but I can probably thank Sabrina Jeffries for most of the character names in Strays - especially After the Abduction, which I must have been binge reading again during the planning stages. Except her Juliet and Sebastien wound up together and Ophelia was Sebastien's mother :P

✰ When I first imagined this story, Michael was originally a human caught up in the pack wars that Juliet found and vowed to protect. This character eventually became a version of Theo.

✰ The scene where Juliet is shot by Niall was one of the first parts I wrote, back when I was playing around with the story.

✰ Michael's character is based entirely on the song MY KIND OF LOVE by Emeli Sandé. Whenever I couldn't connect with him, all I had to do was read the lyrics and everything would click back together. I can't even pick my favourite lines because they're all relevant.

✰ As you know from the original author's note on this story, this book actually takes place in the middle of a series. I decided to play with this one first because Juliet always felt more animal than human to me and it gave me a lot of room to develop the werewolves/lycanthropes in a way that Sebastien's story couldn't.

✰Sebastien and Theo are first cousins (they're both related through their mothers). I've built an entire family tree that connects all of the Royals.

FINALLY:

IS THERE A SEQUEL? A PREQUEL? SOME SORT OF QUEL?

So you probably already know this if you've read the opening author's note but this book actually takes place in the middle of a series. one i have not written yet because i am weird and write things out of order sometimes. sue me. :P

Will we hear more from Michael & Juliet?

I have a few short stories written that I'll tack on the end of this book in due course but there won't be another full length novel. Imma let them stay happy and stuff. They've earned it.

Which one am I writing next?

Honestly, your guess is as good as mine! I need a small break and then I'll go where my gut takes me. We'll see :P