Welcome to pattioshea.com

I realized that it’s been a week since In the Darkest Night came out (yea! go buy your copy!) and I hadn’t done a post about where the idea for this book came from.

I’ve talked before about how different books are born in different ways. Darkest Night was all Kel, the hero. When I was writing Edge of Dawn, the first scene I saw for that book (which isn’t in the book at all, but that’s another story) was Logan (EOD’s hero) with his brother. Logan was worried about Kel standing off by himself at a family barbeque and brought a can of pop over to him. Kel was suspicious and taciturn. Hmm.

Boom! Right then and there I knew something bad had happened to Kel and I knew he had a story. I didn’t know much more than that, but as EOD progressed and Kel had more scenes with Logan and Logan thought or talked about Kel, I learned more. There was a lot I still didn’t know, like who had captured him and why he’d closed himself off from his family. And his heroine? I had no clue who she was either.

And then I reached the end of EOD and I learned who is heroine was and I was like, no, really? Farran? Call me dense, but I hadn’t seen that match up coming.

So what did I know going into Darkest Night besides who the hero and heroine were? Not all that much. I knew Seth was going to return because the Gineal are most definitely not done with him yet. But I couldn’t figure out why he cared about Kel or Farran when he had bigger issues to deal with like being pursued by Horus and reclaiming the power he’d lost. I also knew that Farran had a scar on her face from the end of EOD and that it was significant in some way.

You can see there was a lot I didn’t know. This is pretty typical. But I put together a synopsis and figured out the framework of the story, then it was a matter of writing it, of getting to know my hero and heroine through their thoughts and actions.

The theme song for this book is Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls and it’s because one line in that song fits Kel and Farran completely. “I don’t want the world to see me.” This ended up being a driving force for me as I wrote the book. It helped form the beginning of the story and it stayed a theme pretty much to the end.

I love all my books and all my heroes and heroines, but In the Darkest Night ended up being a little bit extra special to me. I hope you love it as much as I do.

A reviewer who read In the Darkest Night is having a contest on her blog to give away a copy of the book. You can check out her website here and enter the contest if you’d like. And while you’re over there, you can read Riley’s review of Darkest Night.

I have another awesome review in for In the Darkest Night! This one is from Riley’s Reviews. She says:

I love the Light Warriors series. In a market saturated with vampires and were-beasties, Ms. O’Shea’s world of magic-users who eat solid food and don’t turn furry is a wonderful breath of fresh air.

I loved everything about this book. The action was fast-paced, the plotting intricate and well-written, and the characterization and dialogue spot-on. Their chemistry , both sexual and emotional, absolutely sizzles off the pages.

How cool is this? (The “their” in the last sentence refers to Kel and Farran, BTW.)

Seeing positive reactions is one of the fun things about release date drawing closer–In the Darkest Night comes out March 30th. I love it when people love my books.

BTW, tomorrow it will be 25 days until In the Darkest Night releases. Not that I’m counting or anything.

Romantic Times Book Reviews says about In the Darkest Night:

O’Shea has another winner. Equal parts passion and horror blend to create one great read.

This is on the heels of my starred Publishers Weekly review where this book was called “a riveting thrill ride.”

I’m excited that this book is being so well received! Kel is very special to me and he just grabbed me hard and wouldn’t let go.

And I’m sick right now, so I hope you’ll forgive the short blog post. I can’t focus well enough to write much of anything.

Over the weekend, I felt a driving urge to read In the Darkest Night, my April 2010 book, and revisit Kel and his heroine. I don’t know why since since I’ve had the Advanced Reading Copies (ARCs) of this book for a couple of weeks now, but I couldn’t resist. So Friday night while I was doing laundry, I went through and read all my favorite parts.

And then I had an after-the-book moment come in. I’ve mentioned this before on the blog, but I almost always get scenes that happen after each of my stories is finished. I wish I’d written these down, but I never have and now I can only remember some of them in a vague way. This makes me sad.

My Light Warrior stories have had a lot of after the book moments pop into my head, probably because there are four of them all set in the same world, but most of it has either been big series overview stuff that probably no one except me would be interested in or X-Rated. Or if not that explicit, at least private and not something I felt like my characters wanted me to write down and share with the world.

But the scene I received this weekend is one I could write–and I still can’t post it because Kel’s story isn’t out yet and it all takes place about eight months after the epilogue of his story.

Honestly, though, I probably wouldn’t be writing it down anyway even if I did know I could share it. I’m on deadline right now for a short story and my time and attention needs to be focused that direction. When I turn this story in, I have three ideas for series that I need to work on and one of them has kept me obsessed for more than 2 weeks now. I’m dying to get back to it and figure out how I’m going to tell these stories.

That’s the problem for me–time. I have so many stories in my head, so many characters vying for attention, that I had to stop and go back to write a scene with characters that already have their happy ending. And yet in a few years when this scene I got has faded from my memory, I’m going to be really sad that I didn’t take the time to write it down. It’s a constant struggle, or so it seems, between the future, the present, and the past. It doesn’t help either that I’m a slow writer, especially at the start of a book. Or that my last project, the one my agent has now, required cutting and rewriting the first three chapters more times than I have ever had to cut and rewrite before. That’s not even counting the minor changes.

It’s too bad–in a way–that I can’t hook my brain up to the computer and dump these scenes out without needing to take the time to work it all out through my fingers on the keyboard. I’m betting that someday we do, but right now, that doesn’t help me.

I’m preempting the usual blog post to share my cover for In the Darkest Night! This is an April 2010 release from Tor and is the 4th book in my Light Warriors series.

Kel Andrews has spent the last year living with nightmares and flashbacks. Unwilling to share what happened, he’s withdrawn from his family and the Gineal council has removed him from his position as a troubleshooter. But when a woman shows up asking for protection from a demon, Kel reluctantly agrees to help—and finds himself facing an unexpected adversary, one he doesn’t know how to fight.