Dark in the Woods has been a bit of a departure for me, no vampires, no dragons… but lots of fun. Why Pixies I’ve had several readers ask? Well, some years back I did a Pixie short for an anthology and have long wanted to write some more, so I felt it was time. I had already decided that this story would be set back in the far west of Virginia, up in some remote mountain hollow.
And a reader had asked me about writing werewolves. Unfortunately, wolves are no longer found in that part of the world, but bears most certainly are, so I made my shifters bears. Now I had my two communities: Were-bears and Pixies living side by side in the remote mountains. Both communities aware of the other’s nature and both committed to preserving their secrets from the outside world.
Into this rather odd, clannish world, I tossed my Boston born and bred heroine and poor Cassie is totally ignorant of the ‘Other’ natures of the residents around her and so in for culture shock in spades. To add to her worries (and because I so enjoy torturing my characters), I threw in her estranged husband’s odd family- including a mother-in-law from hell, threats and murders, and a worryingly sexy Pixie cop next door. (but of course, she doesn’t know he’s a Pixie)!
This is probably one of the darkest books I’ve written – it’s sort of on par with my Georgia Evans WW2 trilogy, but my Cassie comes through despite all the horrors and shocks, shows herself to be a true heroine – and gets the man she deserves.
I have several chapter excerpts posted on my Facebook page, so please come over and have a read and visit the world of Silver Grove and Andrews Meadows. And trust me, you won’t find either of them on a map of Virginia.
