Previously posted to lovebytes.com

While Submit for Redemption: Book One – Submission isn’t my first novel, it’s my first go at Romance and M/m romance in particular, so I’ll always consider it a cherry popping experience in many ways. And this was one big mo-fo cherry, ya’ll.

If you don’t know the story by now, Submit for Redemption was originally conceived as one 550 page epic, and was subsequently split into two when Kathryn and I sold it. It takes some time to write, rewrite, and rewrite again (not to mention read and edit until you become physically ill) a work that large. As an author you tend to grasp at something to keep your sanity during this time period --- we call them milestones for lack of a less profane term.

It was early on in the process, but I remember vividly when Kathryn and I realized that if Phineas “Finny” Bainbridge, His Grace, the Duke of Stratham, was a contract torturer with a high-rolling cartel (Stratham Group) he would need to be in league with other equally-warped like-minded men. And since we’re already in the realm of the fantastical mixed with the real, why not make those other men Doms, as well (with their own subs, of course, but that’s another blog for another time)? This idea also meshed with Finny’s stifled upbringing by a homophobic father --- Finny’s not really closeted, as he won’t deny he is gay. But he’s not really Out and Proud, either --- at least for the moment. It made sense that he’d want strength in numbers, and a group of friendly faces to hang with on his private island while thinking up new ways to melt unwilling subjects into submissive quivering pools of agony… well, it just seemed right.

So, I drafted up a list of names and broad stroke personality traits to match them, including physical descriptions. I wanted Finny’s “Dom Squad” --- the men who helm the fearsome Stratham Group --- to have a nice mix of flaws and virtues, and most importantly to compose a sort of King Lear’s court dynamic. You know --- a real Machiavellian back-biting bunch that you could never trust for sure were being straight (no pun intended) when they smile into Finny’s face and jockey for favor with him. Some of these guys are easier to read than others. After digesting Book One, you might think you know them. But be careful --- underestimating some of these masculine predators is akin to stepping into what looks like a puddle and discovering, too late, that it’s an ocean.

August Hansen – Kathryn and I are both geeks – Comp Sci majors. We met at a local tech company… our offices were down the hall from each other. We knew our Dom team needed one of our own and August fits that bill nicely. It’s a simple fact that in today’s world that if you’re playing in the realms of international espionage, global sabotage, and criminal torture, a tech is as optional as gull-wings on James Bond’s Benz. But August is more than the guy Finny calls when he runs out of server space. No, August is the brawn behind Finny’s diabolical brain. After all, Finny didn’t get to the top of the interrogatory food chain by busting out some rusty thumbscrews. August’s toys range from monstrous pieces of mechanical equipment that take automated torture to new levels of evil, to the purely technological tools of terror, such as virtual reality programs that lock you inside a nightmare audio/visual experience you can’t avoid, unless you go completely insane. And sometimes, as in our upcoming Book Two, they combine the mechanical and the tech to achieve levels that would make the Jigsaw guy from Saw blush. Given all this, you’d expect August to be some mutant drooling maniacally-cackling monster, but he’s really just an engineer with a checked-out moral conscience. He carries a strange allegiance to Finny that at first seems purely sycophantic until you learn his back story --- that Finny saved him from suicide as a young man when the two were still at Oxford, while August was coming to terms with his sexual preference. But as you’ll see, August has plenty of personal issues still, namely a wife and son he can’t bear to come out to, and a sub named Julian who’s constantly on the verge of leaving him in utter frustration from his neglect and lack of emotional engagement. But August compartmentalizes. He’s a guy and an engineer… and all that goes with it.

Cornelius (Neal) Woolridge – Neal’s all about the money and consumption in general --- he has the waist size to prove it. He’s Stratham’s CFO and a damn savvy one. For years, he ran a wildly successful global investment banking firm which used mob laundered money as its highly fertile seed. Neil is a southern gentleman, quite genteel on the surface, but as one of the subs, Blair, describes him in Book Two, he can turn from “crusty lovable Mark Twain to psycho Boss Hogg on a dime.” Cornelius is a control freak and has a bad habit of burning through subs as a result of his smothering dom’ing behavior. Clark is his linebacker-like sub who actually has a great deal of fondness for Neil (via daddy-issues, of course). I like to think of Neil as a “dark mirror” to Finny, in that both had similarly abusive childhoods, but where Finny was actually beaten by his father, Neil was simply ignored. Neil alternately idolizes and passionately envies Finny, mostly for his royal position and all the respect and fear it entails. Whereas Finny once had a great deal of compassion and empathy, Neil has struggled to find semblances of those emotions all his life. This moral vacancy and touch of southern-fried madness makes him a dom who could conceivably take over the world one day, if his chauffeur could only find his car keys for him.

Albert (Al) Prescott – From down under, we bring you Al Prescott, the only dom in our squad who manages to spend more than he makes (that’s hard to do). He’s a gregarious Aussie lawyer with a passion for gambling and who has been saved more than once from the Underworld’s grasp by Neil’s mob connections. As Finny says in the prequel I am currently writing: “I’m positive the only reason Al’s still not a quadriplegic is due to my… substantial trust that Neil manages and Al administers as chief counsel.” Al’s sub is Blair, who Al actually rescued from a life as a male prostitute. While Blair feels he owes his life to Al, who spoils him quite a bit, Blair’s eye is wandering more in Clark’s direction lately, a fact only Neil is vaguely aware of. But Al isn’t faithful either, as readers will learn in Book Two. Kathryn and I are still working to flesh out Al more fully, but as readers of Book One know, he already plays a key role in Ev’s “signing” quandary to the Stratham Group at the climax of that volume.

Eiichi Kanagawa – Eiichi is our cypher from the far East --- he’s Japanese and somewhat of a wild card and an enigma. He’s the only dom in the bunch who is actually hetero (hey, Kathryn and I are all about diversity). He doesn’t say much but he’s obviously not in Stratham for the kicks. Like Cornelius, he’s more business-oriented and always has his eye on his own personal advancement. He’s not pleased with Finny’s discontentment with their star client, the Linked Rings (TLR), and he’s suspected as a possible Judas in Book One.

Helmut Von Kliensdorf – Every group of Alpha males needs their squeaky wheel, but Helmut makes just enough noise that Finny may have him greased eventually. The two get into a physical confrontation in Book One as Helmut openly defies Finny in a group meeting. Helmut thinks Finny’s an irresponsible overgrown brat (and he kind of is, in Book One). And Finny’s patience with dissenters in general is limited, but doubly so in Helmut’s case. As Finny confides to August: “My father would have [just] had him bound head and foot and tossed into the bay for the sharks to consume.” Helmut is a leftover (as are Cornelius and Al) from Finny’s father’s company, the earlier Cold War-era version of Stratham. It won’t be the last time Helmut and Finny lock horns with earth-shaking repercussions for the entire cast of Submit for Redemption.

Thanks for reading. After Kathryn and I get back from vacation, we’re all about Book Two, so stay tuned and hang tight.