From Tattoo to Dragon: Inside the Hidden World - Start the series with a FREE Prequel!

Bound by Fire and Lies and the world of the Hidden started very simply, as most story ideas do. I saw this sexy guy with an elaborate Dragon tattoo down his back.

I thought, “What if the tattoo changed his very cellular structure, turning him into a full-fledged Dragon?” I usually get a character in some situation that begs me to open the writer’s “What if?” box. And this man/dragon was the most intriguing character yet. I had a lot of questions, as you can imagine. Who are you? Why are you? And will you play with me? This is the really fun part of writing for me, exploring all the possibilities. I got tantalizing bits and pieces. I knew he was commanding, controlling, and a warrior. And his name was Cyntag. Cyn for short. 

Then the heroine made an appearance, and she in no way seemed to fit with him. She was, in the early version, a suffer-no-fools server in a rough bar. And very human. I knew her name was Ruby. (I love when their names come easily like that. Normally I have to troll through lists to find just the right one.) The television show, American Restoration, inspired a new profession for Ruby, who was desperately holding onto the resto yard she inherited from her mother. I knew Ruby was raised by her uncle after being orphaned, and he’d created a book about a fairytale world just for her.

But I was still stumped by how these completely different people fit together. Until I got the scene where Ruby finds her uncle pinned to the wall by a supernatural weapon, and the name he utters on his dying breath: Cyntag. 

Ah, that’s how they’re connected. *Hands rubbing together in anticipation.* Then the scene where she confronts him rolled through my mind like a movie. Hot-headed, passionate Ruby and the cool, mysterious Cyn, who reveals that he is part of a Hidden world of Dragons, magick, Elementals, and danger. And so is she. Suddenly, her uncle’s fairytale world, with Dragon princes and evil sorcerers, becomes dangerously… real. As does the chemistry that sparks between Ruby and Cyn.

I loved creating the Hidden, which exists alongside modern-day Miami. Talk about opening the “What if?” box! I found lots of goodies inside: descendents of gods and fallen angels, demons, politics, dissension, and all of the delicious complications that come from having magical humans and other beings trapped within one geographic area. And a ton of questions that needed to be answered. It was quite the undertaking, but all of it a fun challenge.

​We all have an imagination. Mine has always contained murder, mayhem, romance, and magic. Feel free to wander through the madness of my mind anytime via one of my books.

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