Dark Mercy: Hadrian and Angeline and Recurring Themes

I’ve finally gotten back into Dark Mercy. Apologies for the delay. It should have already been out in all honesty but I got scared of fucking it up and fell into procrastination. But I’m back on track now. I’m not sure when the novella will release but hopefully not too terribly far from now.

You might notice a couple of strong recurring themes in my work: redemption and perspective.

Perspective: everybody is the hero of their own story. With the exception of the villain in Kept (and he didn’t survive long in my world), I try to make 3-dimensional villains who have their own motivations and goals. If the story were told from their perspective, you would see their side and root for them. Because, in general, their goal isn’t to “destroy humanity” or “take over the world”. It’s much more nuanced than that. Nobody thinks they’re the bad guy, and in your own story you aren’t. But while you’re the hero of your own story, you may be the villain of somebody else’s. I find this concept fascinating, and it’s a theme I repeat. It’s why good guys will become villains and villains will become good guys because it’s all about whose head we are in at any given moment.

Redemption: another theme I visit a lot. The idea that redemption is an ongoing process and evolution for a person and that we save ourselves and we save each other. It’s a collaborative act of co-creation. i.e. I don’t see people as victims waiting for a rescuer. In Save My Soul mutual redemption is a theme and it’s a theme I’ll re-visit probably many times in many ways.

Dark Mercy: Dark Mercy is not a romance. However, Hadrian and Angeline WILL end up together. I say this as the author, not to be spoilery, but to tell you that I write romance. Romance involves happily ever afters. The question isn’t IF a couple will end up together but how that will happen. Sometimes the road isn’t completely linear, but that’s okay. I feel, and I hope more sophisticated readers agree, that it’s a far bigger payoff when the route isn’t a straight line.

Dark Mercy is the story of how Hadrian and Angeline meet and it isn’t a fluffy story. There is pain for both of them, and they each have a complicated history. The ending isn’t fluffy happyverse but it’s their backstory. It’s the thing that will make their novel together work. (Book 5 in the full-length books).

Similarly, just like I might use a novella to give a set-up story that isn’t the actual HEA, I might create a “happily for now” that might require something bad to happen to bring the couple to a full HEA. For example, Jane and Cole. Something will happen in book 3 (The Catalyst) that some might not like but it will be resolved by the end of the book. The point isn’t to “take something away from you” but to give you an “actual” HEA. Right now Cole and Jane do not have an HEA. Cole has a lifespan of hundreds of years and Jane has a normal human lifespan. That’s not happy except in the most short-sighted way. But, that will be addressed.

So, Hadrian and Angeline ARE a future couple. Don’t worry, all will be well. But THIS story in Dark Mercy is the story I have to tell first. The payoff will be bigger for you later. Though I hope readers will be able to appreciate the story for what it is, now.