Guest Blogger Lynda Aicher - Controlling Characters

This is my first time here and I’d like to thank all of the Nine Naught Novelists for hosting me today. It’s a pleasure to be here. Plus, I get to celebrate the release of the second book in my Wicked Play series, Bonds of Need.

So I’m going to let you in on a little secret, I never planned on writing a BDSM series. Seriously. When I wrote book one, Bonds of Trust, my plan was to write a series around the condo complex where the heroine lives. I have an entire building laid out with people and stories to tell. Each one was going to be about the secrets people hide. But then in came the men and The Den and a big old curve ball in my plans.

When my beta readers and critique partners read the first book, they all said this was a series about the men from The Den. So there I was with a series I hadn’t planned and a publisher who wanted more. What was I to do but go with it? Some frantic brainstorming and copious amounts of research later I had new stories to fit this new series and off I went.

It just goes to prove that as much as I think I know what’s going on in my books, it’s the characters who have the real control. They bop into a story and suddenly one runs away with a scene or another is demanding their own book. I can plot and plan and think I know what’s going to happen, but way too often, I’m proven wrong. Maybe that’s why character driven stories are so fun to write. I just never know where the characters are going to lead me.

This is currently a contracted six book series, but I’m pretty sure there will be at least one or two more (stinking characters that won’t stay quiet). Everybody has a story, figuring them out is what makes writing so much fun.

Contest time! I will give away a digital copy of the winner’s choice in the Wicked Play series to TWO lucky commenters if they answer this question: Do you prefer character or plot driven stories? 

Bonds of Need, book two of Wicked Play

When Kendra Morgan attends a party at an exclusive sex club, she's not driven by mere curiosity. Hoping to prove she's put the past behind her, Kendra must instead face up to needs she's denied for too long. Despite her lingering fears, she can't resist the temptation to play…

Deklan Winters has had his eye on his attractive neighbor for months, but only senses Kendra is no stranger to the BDSM scene when she walks into his club. And he can tell that's not her only secret. What surprises him is his own overwhelming desire to give her what she craves—and to show her a side to the Dom/sub relationship she's never known.

With Deklan's guidance, Kendra begins to accept her forbidden needs and to recognize the fine line between pleasure and pain. But when her former Master returns to reclaim her, it will take all her courage—and all of Deklan's love—to defy her past.

Find Bonds of Need at: Amazon | B&N | Carina Press | Audible