Bad
Company (Bad in Baltimore Book 1)
Some things are sweeter than revenge.
"I need a boyfriend."
Hearing those words from his very straight, very ex-best friend doesn't put Nate in a helpful mood. Not only did Kellan Brooks's father destroy Nate's family in his quest for power, but Kellan broke Nate's heart back in high school. Nate thought he could trust his best friend with the revelation that he might be gay, only to find out he was horribly wrong and become the laughingstock of the whole school. Kellan must be truly desperate if he's turning to Nate now.
Kellan's through letting his father run his life, and he wants to make the man pay for cutting him off. What better way to stick it to the bigot than to come out as gay himself--especially with the son of the very man his father crushed on his quest for money and power. Kellan can't blame Nate for wanting nothing to do with him, though. Kellan will have to convince him to play along, but it's even harder to convince himself that the heat between them is only an act…
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What
inspired you to write this series?
Bad in Baltimore is my longest series to date, but
when I started book one, it was just that: one book. Except for the Ready or
Knot series, which I planned from the beginning because the idea for the third
book hit me first, my series just grow because characters get noisy in my head.
Bad
Company started with characters who were opposites. I
wanted some of what I call trope glue, which are circumstances that keep the
characters interacting. One of my favorite tropes is a marriage of convenience
or fake dating, and then my brain threw in the long-term family feud. I say my
brain threw it in because sometimes it does not feel like a conscious act on my
part. It’s like this stuff pops up, and even if it makes the story harder to
write, I’m stuck with what my brain insists happened.
So, I had Nate and Kellan and a nice fake dating
trope and then Eli showed up as Nate’s friend and ex-lover. And Eli was a very
loud, fully developed character from the minute I saw him in my head. I knew
he’d want his own book. I wasn’t going to stick with the “bad” motif at all.
His book was originally Picture Perfect, because he’s a photographer, but
fortunately, my critique group intervened.
Then Eli’s love interest needed to have a friend
to talk to and there was my short-tempered, opinionated cop Jamie. Eli’s friend
Silver was very mysterious, and when I poked at him, he had to have a book too.
Jamie’s love interest dragged in Beach for book five.
Writing a book for Beach came as the biggest
surprise of the series so far. He was just a plot device in book three. I
wasn’t even sure he would live to make it out of the coma I put him in. I even
gave him the first name of David, which up until then was a placeholder name I
used for characters who didn’t need anything specific. But not only did Beach
live, he got a personality. He swaggered into a scene in Bad Influence, book 4, and after only a few sentences, I knew he’d
be back and demand a book of his own. I made him work for it though.
Book six came about when I brought all the
characters with me in my head to a real-life event and my imagination took
over.
I have plans for books 7 and 8, but they’re very
vague. Mostly just slapping two characters together under interesting
circumstances and seeing what develops.
Not having a plan can be a very hard way to write.
I go down false trails; I have to double check stuff that happened
before—especially with overlapping time lines—and sometimes I write myself into
a corner and curse myself for it. But the spontaneity makes me happy. I love
discovering things along with my characters. I do usually have a plan for where
we’re going, but as long as I let the characters drive, I feel like my stories
are interesting to read and feel different from each other. The problem comes
when I try to take the wheel instead of just navigating from the back seat.
Then no one in the car is happy.
And happy endings are what it’s all about, after
all.
Thanks again for letting me come by to talk about
the reboot of the Bad in Baltimore series. I hope readers enjoy meeting new
friends or revisiting old ones.
AUTHOR
BIO
K.A. Mitchell discovered the magic of
writing at an early age when she learned that a carefully crayoned note of
apology sent to the kitchen in a toy truck would earn her a reprieve from
banishment to her room. Her career as a spin-control artist was cut short when
her family moved to a two-story house and her trucks would not roll safely down
the stairs. Around the same time, she decided that Ken and G.I. Joe made a much
cuter couple than Ken and Barbie and was perplexed when invitations to play
Barbie dropped off. She never stopped making stuff up, though, and was thrilled
to find out that people would pay her to do it. Although the men in her stories
usually carry more emotional baggage than even LAX can lose in a year, she
guarantees they always find their sexy way to a happy ending.
K.A. loves to hear from her readers. You
can email her at ka@kamitchell.com. She is often found talking about her
imaginary friends on Twitter @ka_mitchell.
Email:
ka@kamitchell.com
Twitter:
@ka_mitchell
Website: www.kamitchell.com
Blog: authorkamitchell.wordpress.com
Tumblr: kamitchellplotbunnyfarm
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