“I love it when a plan comes together!”
Chances are you might know Hannibal Smith’s famous catchphrase from NBC-TV series The A-Team. But what you don’t know, is that those eight words changed my life.
I always wanted to be a writer. Yes, yes, I know EVERYONE says that. But for me it’s true.
I grew up in a sleepy little neighborhood with a library, but no kids my age. I spent hours in that library, devouring every book I could get my hands on, simply to curb my boundless imagination. However, I found that when the story didn’t end the way I wanted, and the plot didn’t satisfy, I’d have to go home and write out my own endings.
When I was ten my mother introduced me to the A-Team. I quickly fell in love with the rag-tag group of misunderstood vigilantes, and I could quote the entire intro to you upon request (still can). And even after watching every single episode so many times the tape in our VHS machine started to wear out, I couldn’t get enough.
I would think up my own episodes, write them all out and give them to my mother. Her instructions? Obviously to call up the producers of the show and send them MY episode so they could get the A-Team back together and make it for me. Never mind the fact that, shockingly, my mother didn’t actually happen to know the producers at NBC personally, and that show went off the air two whole years before I was born. It didn’t matter, because I had a plan, and I wanted it to come together!
I never got my episodes on the silver screen, but I kept writing. Poems, plays, epic fantasy dramas-you name it. My first year of high-school fate intervened and sent me a friend with a love of creative writing as deep as mine. Every weekend we would go home, sit down at our dial-up computers, and type out the latest chapter of whatever mini soap opera we were crafting, so that we could exchange the newest chapters on Monday. Drama, betrayal, love, and incomparable happiness lived within those pages, crafted after hours and hours of plotting and planning.
After I graduated and had to go out into the real world and get one of those nasty “real jobs” (aka-just think soul-crushing indentured servitude to the retail industry) while I attended college, I still wrote to escape. In order to keep my creative brain satiated, I would still spend hours dreaming up intricate worlds and plotlines as I drove to and from work.
This is where “Heart of the Inferno” was born. A mafiaverse so dense and complex that it would intrinsically reel you in, captivate you, and ensnare your heart. Mysterious dark twists and turns that hit you like a car crash… and leave you breathless.
But to create such a world, as well as something that would be more than just your typical dark love story, it would have to have a spectacular plot. There would have to be a plan that actually came together.
This made me look at what I was trying to create, the story I wanted to tell, and the subtle lessons I hoped to convey with my work. It’s no secret that Mafia-Romance has a bit of a reputation for being… well, dark. As in, VERY dark, dubious, and graphic. But whether the main character was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, or forced in an arranged marriage with their mortal enemy, or kidnapped and suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, all of these mafia romance stories seemed to be running on the same repetitive hamster wheel.
And just like all the stories I rewrote as a kid, I wanted to write something different.
But would anyone like a mafia romance where the main characters aren’t forced or conditioned to love, but accidentally trip and fall into it the old-fashioned way? Where the deliciously deviant and morally gray mafia don would treat everyone else like they were disposable, yet treat his woman like a goddess? Or where the lovable side characters of the extensive mafia family have questionable career goals, but aren’t just regurgitated character fluff. And where they are embodied with their own moral compass, as well as a deep-seated sense of loyalty, honor and family?
Perhaps. But I would need to do my research. And I’d certainly have to put together one heck of a supporting cast. An… Alpha Squad if you will. (Do you see where I’m going with this?)
Heart of the Inferno is a four-book novel series that tells the story of the dark and dangerous underworld mafia of Chicago, and the man in charge of it: Jaxon Pace. He’s a billionaire, playboy, and hotelier, who also happens to moonlight as the Don Supreme of the largest mafia syndicate. He’s a complicated man.
He’s also a single father. And when his six-year-old daughter Jessica is saved from a kidnapping attempt, by none other than Natalie Tyler-a simple yet courageous nurse staying at one of Jaxon’s hotels-he is confused. He can’t comprehend the concept that a woman he’s never met, would put herself in danger to do something so selfless for him. And, of course, the fact that she’s stunningly beautiful adds to his natural befuddlement.
But while Natalie is not the loudest voice in the room, she’s still a quiet force to be reckoned with. She’s just trying to survive the week-long trip to Chicago for her cousin’s wedding. But the truth is she’s in agony. She would love to celebrate and reconnect with her large close-knit family, but her cheating ex-fiancé is the best-man… and her family is unaware of the details of how he broke her heart, and continuously trying to reunite the couple.
Both characters are broken and damaged, yet still trying to find their own form of redemption and closure in order to move on from their past. When Natalie enters Jaxon’s life, a whole new sense of vulnerability and emotions are resurrected, bringing with them a myriad of lessons only love can teach us. And when faced with some of the hardest decisions and heartbreaking loss, we see Jaxon and Natalie cling to each other for support, sometimes clawing out of the darkest of holes an inch at a time. Their love, “right, wrong, or insane,” teaches us to love passionately and completely, while appreciating every moment we are given.
Catalyst, and Ignite are the first two published installments of this incendiary series, and leave readers anxiously awaiting what lies ahead in Flash Point and Embers (both due spring of 2022). These four books are the canon for the incredible mafiaverse of colorful characters, dark twists and turns, and swoon-worthy thriller-romance that will span fourteen total books.
And while to many a fourteen-book series may seem daunting, this writer knew exactly where the story was going from the moment she wrote the first line.
…Because she loves it when a plan comes together.
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