I confess, I stumbled off the beaten path, and my characters punished me for it.

When I first started writing, there were 2 characters who were my driving force. Rayne and Demetri—my dark angels, my beautiful muses.

Sure, I created other stories. One novel was even published before the Dragon Queen Series was brought to the public, but Rayne and Demetri were the beginning of it all. They sparked my gift of writing and compelled me to reach for my pen and connect it to paper, and later they were the reason my fingers stroked the keys.

Before I continue, I have to say I have the greatest readers in the world. I may not get a chance to always reply back to the messages sent due to my tight writing schedule, but I read them and I appreciate them. You guys will not hesitate to give me feedback and let me know how much you love my writing and my characters. That means a lot to me.

When the Carnal Diaries series came about, the readers loved it and they begged for more. You know me, I aim to please. I received more feedback from that series than the Dragon Queen series. As a result, Carnal Diaries gained all of my attention.

Now the feedback wasn’t the only reason I committed to the series. As most of you know, the Carnal Diaries series are short stories. Therefore, it takes me less time to write them. In addition to that, they generate more sales.

Those facts alone hindered my focus. I became wrapped up in making more money than satisfying the nagging within. And there was definitely a nagging.

In short, The Dragon Queen Series fell by my waist side. It wasn’t pulling in bigger bank and I wasn’t getting a lot of reviews on it, so I figured it wouldn’t be missed if I set it aside for a while and concentrated on what the readers desired.

Well, I was sorely mistaken.

It’s been a looong time since I’ve had a character visit me in my dreams. Sometimes I remember them coming to me, sometimes I don’t. However, when it started to happen again, I was forced to pay attention.

Let me tell you why.

At first, it was random sightings.

I was on this terrifying roller-coaster ride with Chris Pratt. I couldn’t get off of it and the ride wouldn’t stop. It had these crazy, steep drops and insane loop de-loops that scared the crap out of me. While Chris was having a great time, laughing and shouting, I was screaming for my life and holding my pee. Every time the roller-coaster car approached the platform where we were supposed to get off and let others on, it would slow down, but not stop.

Demetri would appear, looking overwhelmingly beautiful as he is. He wouldn’t say anything, or give me an expression of anger or contempt. No, he would just stand there, staring at me. It gave me such an eerie feeling. Although, he wasn’t near the controls, I knew he was the reason the car wouldn’t stop. He was the reason I couldn’t get off.

That was night #1 I woke up in a cold sweat. But I didn’t think nothing of it. I just looked at it as a bad dream…

Until it happened again.

About a week later, I was at a party with Jason Statham. (Yes, celebrities often visit me in my dreams. Don’t judge.) He introduced me to different people, but none of them had faces. What was weird is, seeing the people without faces didn’t seem like anything out of the norm, which was strange in itself. Jason stepped away to get drinks. I started dancing, even though there wasn’t any music playing. The scene changed and lights dimmed. I was still surrounded by people, but they were just shadows now. Demetri appeared out of thin air, like he always does.

I asked him, “What are you doing here?” I’m not sure if it’s something I self-consciously wanted to ask him, but that’s what came out of my mouth.

Without saying a word, he took my hand and pulled me close. He played in my hair, just ran his fingers from the root to the tips in a seductive manner. I’m thinking, damn, D is about to get sexy with me. Truth is, I have absolutely no problem with that. It’s not like he hasn’t gotten sexy with me before. In the heat of the moment, he suddenly gripped my hair and yanked my head back, HARD. And then, HE BIT ME! And it hurt, like really hurt.

Muthafucka got me bleeding…! He knows I’m anemic. Why would he do that? Was he trying to kill me?

I woke up, holding my neck, sweating like crazy. Like, what the eff? The thing about Demetri is, his bite is not painful, unless, he wants it to be painful. That’s when I knew he was super pissed at me. Uh-ohh…

It was almost 4 o’clock in the morning. I ran downstairs to my office and flipped open my laptop. I wrote a chapter in the current WIP for the Dragon Queen Series. Then I hopped over to my WIP in the Carnal Diaries Series since it was almost done. Might as well finish it since I’m wide awake, right? I stayed up until it was time to send my oldest son off to school. After I got him on the bus, I laid back down to catch up on the sleep I missed out on.

Why the hell did I do that? I should’ve been afraid to sleep after that last unexpected visit, but I was soo tired.

Anywho, I closed my eyes and found myself in the Walking Dead world. *sigh* This time, my hubby was in the dream, with me, Daryl and Rick. We were trapped in a stranger’s house, surrounded by walkers. It was a pretty big house, almost like a mansion. We had it boarded up and fenced in, but considering the walkers’ increasing numbers, we wouldn’t be able to stay there for long. The men were locked in a debate on our next course of action. My hubby thought we should make a run for it. Rick wanted to hold down the fort and buy our time until we had no other choice but to run. And Daryl wanted fight off as many walkers as we could to lessen their numbers.

Outside the house, I heard the sound of blades slicing through flesh. I thought it was Michonne, or at least I hoped it was her. I looked through the window, and nope, it wasn’t her.

It was Demetri, and Rayne. They were plowing the field, chopping up walkers left, right and center. Body parts and blood was everywhere. I got scared ‘cause I already know I’m on Demetri’s shit list and if he’s pissed at me, I was 100% sure Rayne was pissed at me too.

I tried to get the guys attention to let them know a bigger threat was in our front lawn, but they were too engrossed in their argument. I kept thinking, when Rayne and Demetri were done with the walkers, who are they going to turn their blades on next? With that being the case, I knew they were coming in to kill us all, and they were most likely going to start with me. It was like some weird nightmarish Dragon Queen series/the Walking Dead crossover. I wanted out of it! I forced myself to wake up before things could get worse. Well, in truth, my full bladder forced me to wake up.

So, from that day on, I’ve been giving the Dragon Queen Series my full attention. Mainly because I don’t want my characters to murder me in my sleep. 😉

This series is close to my heart, so I’ve been busting my ass trying to make it perfect. I’ve even neglected my blog, as many of you have noticed. That’s how hard I’ve been grinding. I refuse to serve microwaved novels. That’s something you will never get from me. I rather take my time and do it right or not do it at all.

With that said… to those of you who are wondering the fate of the DQ series, and for those of you who have been sending me messages begging for the next book, I promise you, it’s coming like a wild firestorm.

The question is, are you ready for it?

I’m introducing new characters, and fleshing out old ones for the readers who desire to know more about the guardians and all of the characters that make the Dragon Queen Series so dynamic and diverse.

Thank you for your patience, and thank you for your support. Stay tuned!

“Without faith, we are nothing.” ~ Demetri Bithanos