The Rutherford Series

Losing Faith will be released in August and the girls and I are extremely excited. This novel, my first erotic romance, has been in the works for at least four years if not five. I’d begin working on it and would then become sidetracked with another project. Then, of course, there was always Life that would crop up and need to be dealt with, taking me away from my writing desk.

In 2011, the girls convinced me to make the move to writing full time, to at least alleviate the 9 to 5 obstacle. It took several months before I finally surrendered and shed myself of the distraction of a normal job. It also shed us of a normal paycheck, but no one seemed concerned, except me.

At the time, my fantasy novella, Reaping the Harvest, was the project closest to completion, so I threw my energy into that piece. I continued working on Losing Faith but it was a back burner project at best for when I needed a break from Reaping. It progressed, but not nearly as fast as I wanted it to.

The problem with not working a manuscript straight through is that you tend to forget things in the interim. Or you tend to add things or change directions from where you originally planned on winding up. Losing Faith had become a hodge podge of story ideas. When I was finally able to publish Reaping the Harvest in 2012, I devoted myself to Losing Faith and fleshing out the jumbled and mangled manuscript. The story itself was still a strong, powerful idea. It was the subplots that required more attention. So, I started from the beginning and rewrote the entire manuscript. Several scenes were cut and twice as many were added, but in the end I think it made for a very strong story.

Losing Faith is also the first in the Rutherford Series and will set the tone for the entire series. It could not be wishy washy. While writing the book, several characters stood out as great possibilities for their own stories, like Morgan Brewer, one of the side character in Losing Faith. While not having a major role in the first novel, he does play a key part and we are left wanting to know more about this man and what makes him tick. His adventures will be next in the novel, Roll the Dice. We’ll also be returning to the main characters, Faith and Selby Greer, and seeing how they are faring in their new adventures. So far there are four novels in the series, but that’s only the beginning.

So, why call it the Rutherford Series? I haven’t named anyone Rutherford yet. However, a major portion of the story takes place at Rutherford Construction, Inc. and all the main characters of each novel are connected to the construction company. We even meet the founder, Neal Rutherford, in a future book. The thread seemed an obvious tie and I like it when things are simple.

The theme behind the Rutherford Series is change, the ability to break free of traditional thought and embrace your passions. The characters open themselves up to things that they would never have considered before and therefore stretch beyond what would be classified as normal relationships. That is really what I wanted to explore in this first series. I wanted to look at the variety of relationships that are out there and see how people handle them. How do they overcome jealousy or self-doubt? How do they survive in their journey of self-discovery? Furthermore, I wanted to explore both the emotional and physical side of relationships, which meant I wanted to write about the sex these people had within their relationships and how they felt about it afterwards. The Rutherford Series opens the door for me to be able to explore those boundaries with my characters that perhaps people dabble with in real life, but are leery of crossing. So far, it’s been an exciting journey. I look forward to seeing what you think of it in August.

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