Hart & Cole: 5 Questions with the Author
1. What was/is your writing process like for this series?
Honestly, I don’t have one. The main characters have been with me for over 15 years now — glimpses of my characters emerge and haunt me for months on end, and then they go quiet for a year or more.
“my characters emerge and haunt me for months”
Book 1, Climbing The Walls, started its first draft somewhere around 2002… so it’s been largely buried under a rock for over a decade and a half!
Book 3, Pandora’s Price, was mostly written over a couple of months in 2016 — I lent the first book to a friend, and she DEMANDED I finish Darren’s and Luisa’s story (which became Books 2 & 3), so I did.
2. What makes H&C different from other novels in the genre?
I’m not even sure H&C has a specific ‘genre’… fiction, yes, but it’s not really about a swashbuckling romance and doesn’t have the thriller undercurrent, and isn’t too heavy on the drama.
“not really about a swashbuckling romance”
I think there’s a place for novels like H&C that’s entirely unique unto itself: people that feel real, in their day-to-day lives; people that make mistakes; people that are trying to figure things out; and most importantly: people that stumble and fall along the way.
At the heart of it, H&C is about people — a little of me, a little of you, a little of the angel we strive to be and the devil we all know we can be… given the right moment.
3. Who are the women of H&C, and which is your favourite?
My favourite, in case you couldn’t tell from the title, is Nicole. I think there’s a little of her in every modern woman.
“We want it all, but we can’t have it all, and we try to take it anyway”
We want it all, but we can’t have it all, and we try to take it anyway — damn who it hurts in the process. I actually had much more fun writing about her in Book 2 and Book 3 where we experience who she is through Darren.
Luisa, on the other hand, is Nicole’s polar opposite — she’s got the motherhood part down, but she’s spent most of her life in Darren’s shadow. It’s easy to lose track of yourself if you never quite figured it out in the first place, and that’s where Gianni comes in — he sees her in a way Darren never did, and in a way she never saw herself.
Stacey, I’m still figuring out while I work on Book 4, but she is the most mysterious of the three. There’s just no way anyone can be quite as “goody-two-shoes” as she is mentioned to be by others, and I’m intent on proving it in Book 4!
“She’s spunky without the bitch factor”
…And, of course, there’s Vicki, who I simply love, because she’s just the girl you want to be best friends with — whether you’re a guy or a girl. She’s spunky without the bitch factor, and sweet without the annoying factor. I need to do right by her, still. I owe her.
4. And… similarly, who are the men of H&C, and your favourite?
Again, my favourite has to be Darren, who is… well, in essence, the man you love to hate, which is the kind we all need in our lives!
“Maladaptive boys don’t exactly make well-adjusted men”
For him to go from douchebag to dashing in a few hundred pages over the course of Book 2 and Book 3, it’s an evolution I truly enjoyed revealing.
I loved him, from beginning to end, because he’s had a journey to get to where he is today, and it’s always interesting to see what converts us into the people we come. Luisa voices it best — “Maladaptive boys don’t exactly make well-adjusted men” — and you need to take this to heart, and forgive him a little. He’s worth it, I promise you.
Kris is the quintessential good guy — the kind that brightens everything around him. He’s had a little dysfunction in his past, but remained largely unscathed and thinks himself fully capable of being the man he wants to be. The problem is Nicole, who chips away at his best intentions and threatens to break his spirit.
“romanticism and dynamism bleeding from every page”
Gianni is every girl’s dream… and, I admit, I pulled from some personal experience! The foreign flair, the romanticism and dynamism bleeding from every page he’s on — it’s a slow burn, but he’s also worth his weight in gold.
Bryan, I’m still working on, but I like where he’s at so far. He’s been imitating Kris as best he can, thinking he could also be that kind of guy everyone looks up to — but his hero falters, and then so does he… leaving room for his past to come crushing down on him like a brick.
5. What would you like to tell your H&C readers?
“Every writer needs an audience”
Every writer needs an audience, and the last person that nagged me was rewarded with Book 3, so please please PLEASE tell me what you like, what you didn’t like, and who/what you want to see more of. Drop me a line here.
Want to know more?
Check out About Hart & Cole to learn more about the characters.
