Dark Wild Night . . . take two

Hi sweeties!

We hope everyone is gearing up for a fantastic summer (or winter, if you’re down under!). We can’t wait to see some of you at San Diego Comic Con, or in Montreal, or at the Readers and ‘Ritas event!

We’re just finishing up the copyedits on Dark Wild Night, which is the third book in the Wild Seasons series, and is Oliver and Lola’s story. The summary is up on all retail sites, but I’ll drop it here, because it’s what this post is all about…

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
But what didn’t happen in Vegas seems to follow them everywhere.

Lola and Oliver like to congratulate themselves on having the good sense to not consummate their drunken Las Vegas wedding. If they’d doubled-down on that mistake, their Just Friends situation might not be half as great as it is now.

. . . Or so goes the official line.

In reality, Lola’s wanted Oliver since day one—and over time has only fallen harder for his sexy Aussie accent and easygoing ability to take her as she comes. More at home in her studio than in baring herself to people, Lola’s instinctive comfort around Oliver nearly seems too good to be true. So why ruin a good thing?

Even as geek girls fawn over him, Oliver can’t get his mind off what he didn’t do with Lola when he had the chance. He knows what he wants with her now . . . and it’s far outside the friend zone. When Lola’s graphic novel starts getting national acclaim—and is then fast-tracked for a major motion picture—Oliver steps up to be there for her whenever she needs him. After all, she’s not the kind of girl who likes all that attention, but maybe she’s the kind who’ll eventually like him.

Sometimes seeing what’s right in front of us takes a great leap of faith. And sometimes a dark wild night in Vegas isn’t just the end of a day, but the beginning of a bright new life . . .

Pretty sweet, right? In fact, this book has easily jumped ahead to become one our all-time favorites. We absolutely adore the easy dynamic between Oliver and Lola as friends, and the much, much hotter dynamic between them once they become lovers. Be warned at parts it can get pretty heated at times and you might end up on sites such as videoshd in a blink of an eye!

But real talk time: some of you probably realize that this wasn’t the original summary. In fact, the original summary went a little more like this:

When three besties meet three hot guys in Vegas, anything could—and does—happen. Moving from college into the real world has never been so crazy . . . or fun. Let the Wild Seasons begin.

In Dark Wild Night, now that they’re only friends, kissing Lola is all Oliver can think about. Trying to forget her with a wild, anonymous hookup, he’s simultaneously thrilled and torn: Is this his chance to get over her? Or will this new stranger only pull him in deeper?

Remember that old one? There were quite a few readers who flipped out when they read this, understandably thinking that Oliver was hooking up with someone other than Lola. Well, we can tell you now that wasn’t the case at all. Oliver and Lola each went to a wild new club called Dark where the only way to identify someone was through black-light sensitive body paint. These two friends unknowingly hooked up with each other by night, and were Just Friends by day . . . before realizing what was happening.

The reason I’m writing that in past tense is that we wrote that book, sent it to Captain Editorpants Adam, and he told us what we already suspected: it was a great book, but it wasn’t Oliver and Lola’s story. They wouldn’t go to a club like that. The conflict, as it unfolded, wouldn’t happen that way between them. We had outlined it so long ago, that by the time we wrote their parts in Sweet Filthy Boy and Dirty Rowdy Thing, and finally got to their story, they had evolved into completely different people. It just didn’t work anymore.

So what did we do? Well, back in March we stopped drafting Wicked Sexy Liar for 5 weeks and entirely rewrote Dark Wild Night. When we started the rewrite, the prospect was a little overwhelming. The book comes out September 15th and we were starting it all over again in March? Insanity. Bring on the wine/chocolate/Gosling gifs. But it turned out to be easier the second time—way easier. We knew Loliver better. We understood their feelings, hesitations, limitations and strengths. And what came out was a book that we can honestly say is soooooooo much better than the first one. It’s true to them; it’s sweet, and angsty, and sexy. We are so proud.

But what I really want to emphasize is this: we’ve written fifteen books together and we still don’t always get it right the first time. The end of Sweet Filthy Boy was completely redone after our first draft. Many parts of Beautiful Secret were entirely rewritten as late as January of 2015. We have other things people may never see that have been revised and revised and revised x infinity. This was the first time we went back to a blank page, and honestly? It felt amazing. So don’t be afraid of writing a book and cutting most of it. There is no wasted effort. It will always make you a stronger writer in the end. We still struggle and fail and get it wrong. We still write scenes that have no business in a book. It’s a testament—to all you writers out there—that sometimes the only way to find the right path is to go down the wrong one.

Loliver ended up exactly where they should be. We can’t wait for you guys to read their story!

All our kisses & hugs,