So today, on Winter’s release to the world, I’ve been thinking a lot about the book and writing it and what was going on in my head. And I’m kind of having trouble remembering. Last year was a tumultuous time of my life — my mother had died, I was contemplating leaving my day job and making a go of writing full time, my youngest daughter was graduating from college… So I think Winter was a kind of escape from all that, a place I could throw my brain that was totally unlike the real world.
The main character, Aster, is a really nice guy. Even under pressure, he’s always polite. People sense his kindness and gravitate toward him– the woman who owns the adult shop where he works, the guys down the road, the man at the gym, and of course Vanor. Aster, who is very comfortable with his sexuality, is looking for a dom of his own. And when he finds one, his whole life gets turned upside down in ways he’d never dreamed. Suddenly, his inherent niceness is faced with a wrong of epic proportions to try to right, and it takes all the love he has inside to face it.
Vanor, without giving away spoilers, has been around for a very long time (think Vikings). His life is not fully his own, and he is trapped in a cruel way to a fate he can’t escape. He makes the best of a horrible situation. Meeting Aster, who fills a need deep inside him, gives him an outlet for his desires, but at the same time, makes him even more aware of how trapped by his circumstances he is.
The one thing Vanor does not want is for Aster to be drawn any deeper into his life. The one thing Aster wants is for Vanor to be free. Hence the conflict.
Winter is the hottest book I’ve written since Webs. (Remember Webs? Science fiction, the ship that runs off energy from sex?) But, as my editor pointed out, the conflict of the book does not revolve around the BDSM lifestyle. Both characters are completely comfortable with who they are. Their times together are their refuge from the world. “Winter” is their safeword. And it gets used.
What is an Intrepid? I can’t say without making a spoiler, but I can say where I got the idea. Back in the 1960s, a sailboat named Intrepid was built. She won the America’s Cup twice and eventually found her way to Lake Champlain in the 1970s, where she was moored across the bay from my camp and available for charter. I saw her on the lake every day when I was a teenager, and I remember one quiet evening when someone in a camp nearby shouted across the water, “You are beautiful, Intrepid!” And she was. You could always spot her, twice as big as other sailboats with a perfectly flat deck and sails so high that her mast touched the sky. She made the lake seem small — the other shore seemed closer when she was out there. There was something about her that changed my perspective on the lake, and hence, on my world. Eventually, she found her way back to salt water, and I believe she’s still available for charter, now out of Rhode Island.
So why did I name a race of beings in Winter “Intrepids?” I guess because they changed Aster’s perception of his world the way the sailboat changed mine. However, there is nothing about sailboats in Winter, though there is a bit about the ocean, and the association is purely in my head.
Here’s a snippet where Aster hears the word Intrepid for the first time:
Confusion was all around me. I thought I was in the hospital, but I wasn’t. The bright lights over me were from a decorative chandelier. The people around me weren’t in white coats, they were in dark business dress.
I sat up. I was in the middle of a large, oval business table. A blue, brown, and white logo on the wall across from me read World Alliance of Intrepids in a circle of stylized images of water, sky, and rocks.
The men and women jumped back, grabbing coffee mugs, staring at me with their mouths wide open as if I’d just interrupted a meeting. I frantically pushed myself up to my knees with a yell, sending laptops flying.
What the fuck?
But I was breathing. I kept sucking in deep breaths as though I couldn’t get enough wonderful air. Unless I was dead. Never in my wildest dreams had I thought of the afterlife as being a big business meeting. What an incredible disappointment. Really?
“Who are you?” The question from a man facing me pierced my panicky brain.
“Aster Lowe,” I gasped out. “Where am I? And what the hell is an Intrepid?”
“Well, we’re supposed to be a secret organization,” the man in front of me said. “May I ask who awakened you?”
So that’s a little bit about where my head was last year. I’m really excited about Winter being released– it’s my first book since Depth of Return, which came out almost two years ago (and won its category in the Rainbow Awards. Not that I’m still excited about that or anything). I promise it won’t be that long before another book comes out. I’ve got three books I’m self publishing all lined up. Beyond that… I’m not sure, but there is something in the works!
Thanks for reading!
You can buy Winter HERE