Lauren Dane is making her own rules!

I’ve got two books out this month, first there’s WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS…AFTER DARK from Harlequin Spice and then RELENTLESS from Berkley Heat. As it happens, both of these are stories that required worldbuilding.

My first book was a paranormal set in New Orleans featuring a matrilineal line of witches. As I continued on through the last five years, I’ve kept to some of the themes I loved back in 2004 when I wrote Triad. 

Making up my own rules! I love paranormal or futuristic worlds where I can build my own universe and give it rules. Things run how I want them to. Of course, that means it has to make sense, even if it’s made up. Nothing is more annoying than a paranormal universe with all sorts of rules that contradict each other, or worse, leaves you totally confused.  Still, to me that’s the fun part. 

In RELENTLESS, I was able to expand the world I introduce in UNDERCOVER. I get to go into more depth about the system of rule, who is Ranked and why. I can dig into the meat of that because it’s very important to both my characters so it’s relevant to relate to the reader. That was fun too, creating a system of governance for this world, giving it heart, giving it flaws.

Family/friendship groups! This is something I use across genres from my contemporary Chase Brothers books to my Cascadia Wolves. I’m of the belief that you get to know a person or a character via his or her relationships with the people they’re closest to. It gives the characters a place to hang up their coat. Are they protective? Do they have a hard outer shell but they go out of their way for their mother or sister? It’s a glimpse into someone’s character.

In RELENTLESS you meet Abbie, who is very close with her siblings and who has a very complicated relationship with her father. And Roman, to whom Family is everything because he’s a single father and the most highly Ranked leader in the Known Universes. He seems remote and aloof, but when you see him with his sons or with his friends, you know he’s much more complicated than it appears at first glance.

And in SENSUAL MAGIC, Nell’s family are the witches in her Clan, she relates to the world via her position in her Clan and her relationship to them as the Hunter. Poor William, he’s rather alone in the world except for his brother, Nell is more than he ever expected.

For me, the joy of each book is when I feel like I’ve truly given readers a glimpse into a character they can root for. Doesn’t mean you won’t want to pop them in the nose sometimes, but in the end, characters and a story who make readers feel something, even for just a few hours.

That’s the joy of it, the joy of it for me as a reader, when I open up and book and get swept away (be it to a werewolf pack or a small town in Georgia). I hope I can do that too, I hope that when readers finish my books they feel their time was well invested and that my characters stay with them.

How about you all? Are characters important to you? Is the story important? Do you have settings or themes you avoid or go right for?

For more information on Lauren Dane and her books please visit her website at: http://www.laurendane.com/

***Leave a comment answering Lauren’s questions. She has graciously offered up a chance for two commenters to win their choice of either What Happens In Vegas…After Dark or Relentless. Good Luck***