Arla Dahl asked Arla Dahl:

What are you currently working on?

Arla Dahl I am currently working on Book 3 in the Immoral Virtue Trilogy. The novella is titled, The Watchman, and it has been haunting me for nearly a year.

I am a sucker for wounded heroes. And he – The Watchman, Giles Scott – is one.

Before I sat down to plot The Watchman, I knew what pleasures and torments I would inflict on his character. I knew how Governor Jameson Foster would treat Giles while the two men were in the privacy of the governor’s chambers. I heard the sighs, I felt the fear and smelled the lust.

I was unsure, however, of Giles’ responses to all of that. His past, after all, was of a rather painful nature. I did not want to harm him further but, perhaps, help heal him instead.

Giles, as a quietly strong and powerfully protective sort, has been quite the challenge. Over these months, he has spoken to me, as characters often do... though his voice has been hushed, his secrets still so.

It has only been after some, well, deep probing, if you will, that I’ve managed to wrench bits of his past – and its effects – from him. It seems, despite his resistance, his secrets still ache to be heard.

I have listened, revising his tale as he begins to tell it. I suppose I have finally earned his trust, much as you will see the governor do.

I have felt both pleasure and awe as I breach this wounded man’s pride. And I have fallen in love with him in the process. My hope is others will fall in love with him, too.

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