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Turnthe page for Behind The Scenes on Blowing Things Up…
BEHIND THE SCENES WITH KITTY
Hello my little Fourth of July Corn Dog,
The Behind-The-Scenes section is basically: ”So, let me, the author, tell you about my favorite parts.” And I don’t have to worry about spoilers because you just read it. It would be supremely strange if you skipped the book to read the author’s note first. But if you did that, you’re on your own!
So first I want to preface this with letting you know that there MAY be a spin-off series in the future involving Aidan. However, that is not what THIS series is about. So the next book in Brian and Mina’s Holiday Hits will be “The Massacre Ball,” the Halloween one. And we’ll be back in the normal timeline just a few months after the events of Blowing Things Up. So, no, this story is not jumping thirteen years into the future. I wanted to dispel that idea right out of the gate.
The epilogue for this one was to give a bit of closure about the little boy and a taste of what’s to come later in another book world. Also it breaks the tension a little. There have been books in my very early years where I did “open endings” or endings that most people wouldn’t consider “happy”, so I didn’t want readers to feel that there was a real threat I’d kill these two off in this series or something else equally dramatic and awful. You can let out a bit of a breath as we go forward knowing that they’re still alive and together 13 years from now, so no matter how hairy it gets, I’m going to give you a good ending to this series. It might help with the panic attacks. You’re welcome!
If you had told me back when I wrote the first book of The Pleasure House series (Guilty Pleasures), that Brian would not only get his own book, but become a recurring staple in that series and then get his own side series with a love interest, I would have been concerned for you.
I absolutely never thought Brian would become what he has and that he would be such a fan favorite. Or such a favorite of mine. But I love this little psychopath. And I’m glad he harassed me for his own book (Broken Dolls) for 3 years, and even more glad that I finally caved.
If you somehow just picked this book up and started here I imagine you’re pretty confused right now. In that case, I recommend you go read Broken Dolls (It’s the 2ndbook in the Pleasure House world, but it can easily be read as a standalone.) OR if you want to start with Brian’s first appearance, start with Guilty Pleasures.
So it’s Guilty Pleasures, Broken Dolls, then jump over to The Easter Hunt and Blowing Things up (because you might need to read this again in context.)
The Brian and Mina cameos in Surrender (the third book in the Pleasure House world), crossover with the next novella in Brian and Mina’s Holiday Hits, The Massacre Ball. So stay tuned for that!
Okay so now that that’s out of the way… here’s the Blowing Things Up Director Commentary…
There is so much I love about this story. Normally my plot twists come to me in the course of writing, but I knew from the beginning before I even started writing this story that the pivotal moment was going to be the discovery of a small boy at the top of the Stryker Building. (The building wasn’t yet named at this point.)
We’re starting to see more of how Brian and Mina are the same, but this gives readers a chance to see how they’re still very different. And how even when Brian is the hero, he’s still the villain. Even while he’s being the hero there is some other agenda going on in the background.
I wasn’t sure how this one was going to fly with the Beta and ARC teams because it has this big action sequence with a lot of fighting and shooting. And I wasn’t sure if it was going to bore readers because it’s a bit different from some of my other work. But the early readers loved it and stayed “in” the story. And I was really happy they were surprised by the boy. I was afraid I’d shown a tell somewhere.
This is why I prefer for my twists to surprise even me because if I didn’t see it coming, you surely won’t.
I love how Mina is starting to step into her own power and Brian isn’t trying to hold her back. He likes this new version of her. And I love how their intimacy is growing. Brian totally loves her, and we can see it and feel it, but HE just doesn’t know it yet. He hasn’t fully processed through all his feelings.
The roses for their first “kill date” cracks me up. And I love their banter throughout. The “Bingo Card” line is one of my favorites because they know each other so well that Brian isn’t like “Huh?”
He knows exactly what she’s asking and just answers the question. I also love the simultaneous shooting of their captives. And then the moment where they hold hands on the elevator.
The biggest challenge for this story was… how was I going to get them to take out 18 people in close range and make that even remotely believable since Mina is still quite new. I felt like the training scene as well as Brian’s later commentary about the training helped some. And of course he carries most of the heavy lifting in the fight with her acting as support in critical moments.
I watched a LOT of John Wick in order to get into the mindset of how to choreograph these fight scenes. After you’ve seen Wick take out about three hundred people over the course of four movies you start to pick up on things like… how the bad guys typically pour in about 2 or 3 at a time. Conveniently!
But I mean, otherwise he’d be dead. And so would Brian and Mina.
Oh and here’s a fun fact… you don’t actually have to cut a wire to deactivate a bomb. But that’s how they do it on TV. It’s a fictional trope and adds to the drama. So, that’s how we do it. In case any military people are like “That’s not how C4 works!” Yeah, my dude, I know. But this is fiction and if every movie in the world still gets to do it, so do I. I’m probably on a list from the research I had to do for this book. Sometimes you find out something doesn’t really work that way in real life but like every movie in the world is doing it and you need it for the plot so you shrug and roll with it.
I mean spoiler alert, most of the BDSM world isn’t rich hot dudes with $50,000 outfitted sex dungeons, either. Manage your expectations, people!
A timer is probably also a bit of unnecessary drama but without triggering a timer Brian would have just pushed a button, the bomb would have exploded, nobody would know the kid was there, and that would have been the most anticlimactic first murder date in the history of assassins in love.
Anyway...
I front-loaded all the sex into chapters two and three for this one because once we got into the plot and action I didn’t want to distract from that. It’s a good opportunity early on to set the stage of where these two are with each other. I love this sort of “switchy” relationship they’ve got going on in the bedroom, and that it’s their secret. As far as the house knows, the power only flows one way with these two.
I love Brian’s growing trust in her, that he will allow himself to be vulnerable with her… and the moment she says: “It doesn’t matter. I’m inside you, Brian.” And then, like a queen, casually goes up for lunch. Like she didn’t just basically tell him she owns his soul.
It’s interesting to me that even though Brian pushes her farther and officially breaks the contract from Broken Dolls, that this is juxtaposed against her growing power, both in the outer world and within the relationship. It makes their “partners in crime” relationship flow both in and out of the bedroom.
