She felt renewed fear curl in her belly. But she did not comply. She tightened her hand around the blade’s hilt, ignoring the sting in her injured palm.
Carrying one of the candles, he moved even closer to light a second candelabra. Avril held her ground—and, in the growing brightness, felt surprised to see that she was not in a bedchamber after all.
There were cook pots, copper utensils, and a cauldron beside the hearth. A table for eating in one corner. Shelves that held linens and soaps for washing, next to a rain barrel. This odd dwelling seemed to be some sort of long, one-room home.
Finished with his task, her abductor glanced toward her, mouth open as if he meant to issue another command. But then his gaze fastened on the revealing silk kirtle and skimmed down her body, taking in every inch of skin illuminated by the light.
Those pale azure eyes suddenly darkened in a blaze of heat. Avril inhaled sharply, filled with feminine alarm at the obvious direction of his thoughts. Every instinct urged her to flee, yet she could not move. And could not understand the tingle that coursed through her limbs, holding her fast.
“I left a tunic for you.” His voice sounded even deeper than before. A muscle flexed in his lean jaw. “Did you not see it?” He nodded toward the foot of the bed, where a garment of black velvet lay draped over a trunk.
“I-I was more interested in finding a way out!” She tried to keep her voice from wavering, looked at the distant door. Wondered if she dared try to run past him. “Where am I?” she demanded, deciding boldness was her only choice at the moment. “Who the devil are you and what do you—”
“Put down the blade,” he repeated with measured patience, “and we will discuss this”—he seemed to search for the appropriate word— “situation calmly.”
“Calmly?” she sputtered. “I have been attacked by brigands, kidnapped, carried off to sweet Mary knows where, locked in a room, and now—”
“Milady,” he said in soft warning. Without another word, he advanced toward her, his patience apparently at an end. She retreated only a step.
Then she retreated three more.
As he kept coming, she decided that discretion might be better than valor at the moment. She dashed toward the bed, snatching up the black velvet tunic on the way and clutching it in front of her. She tossed the weapon into the center of the rumpled sheets.
“There. There, are you satisfied?” She kept moving, maneuvering around until the huge bed was between them. The sword was still within reach if she chose to lunge for it.
But he seemed placated for now. He kept his distance, reaching out to close his fingers around one of the dragon-headed posts.
“If I had meant you any harm,” he grated out, pronouncing each word distinctly, as if she were a slow-witted child, “if I had intended to kill you, or do aught else”—his gaze flicked over her body again—“I already had ample opportunity. You will have to trust me.”
Trust him? Trust him! Avril choked back a biting retort and quickly pulled the tunic over her head. It was obviously one of his, the sleeves much too long, the hem falling to her ankles. But at least she no longer felt as exposed as she did wearing only the ridiculous scrap of silk.
“Where am I?” she repeated more calmly once she was dressed, trying not to provoke him again. “How far are we from Antwerp? How long was I asleep?”
“You were asleep...” He paused, clearly choosing his words carefully. “A short time. I brought you here early this morn. That gown was the only female garment I had at the time. I have brought you some others, along with some additional female trappings you might require.” He nodded toward a pair of sacks he had left on the far side of the room. “As for where you are, this is Asgard Island. I bid you...” He paused again, sighing tiredly. “Welcome.”
Despite the greeting, his attitude was hardly hospitable. Naught that he was saying made any sense. The man had kidnapped her, yet he did not seem to want her here.
“Asgard Island?” she echoed, searching her memory for all the names of places she had read about, all the places Gerard used to describe when he spoke of his travels. “I have never heard of it.”
Those blue eyes met hers again. “I know.”
Somehow that simple comment was more terrifying than aught else he could have said. “Who are you?” she whispered. “And what do you want with me?”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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Bonus Content:
“The Making of RUN WILD: The Story Behind the Story”
—
SPOILER ALERT
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Dear Reader,
I always love those “Behind the Scenes” bonus features on DVDs. I enjoy learning what inspired the stories, characters, and settings of my favorite movies. I love getting a peek at how the costumes were made, how the sets were built, and what changes were made in the editing room. When I first set out on this digital publishing adventure, I knew I wanted to include a “Behind the Scenes” bonus feature in each of my ebooks.
But I realize that some people dislike “Behind the Scenes” features. For them, hearing the nuts-and-bolts of the creative process ruins their enjoyment of the story. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s enjoyment of my books, so if you’re someone who typically skips “Making of” features on DVDs, it’s probably best to skip this section.
Also, if you haven’t finished the whole book yet, you’ll want to finish before returning to this page. I’m about to give you an inside peek at the creative decisions that went into writing this story—so plot twists may be revealed and characters’ secrets spilled.
So... if you’ve skipped ahead to this feature, please click back and finish the book. I totally understand the skipping-ahead impulse, because I’m a chronic skipper-aheader myself. But really, now is the best time to skip back. Before you see any spoilers. When you’re all done, return to this page. I’ll be waiting right here for you.
Ready? Here we go.
Inspirations
As readers of previous “Making of” features know, I usually get my inspiration from movies, and Run Wild is no exception. The initial spark came from the 1993 Harrison Ford thriller “The Fugitive.” I even remember which scene started it all: Harrison’s character, Dr. Richard Kimball, is on a bus being hauled off to prison, but the bus is hit by a train and he escapes. Watching that scene in the theater, I’ll bet 99% of the audience was thinking, “Wow, cool movie!” One person—me—was thinking, “Wow, what would it be like to be shackled to Harrison Ford on the run from the law?”
Writers. We’re not like everyone else.
I always keep a pen and paper handy for just such occasions, and when the lights came up in the theater, I hurried to jot down the key points. Two outlaws. Shackled together. Running for their lives.
I thought it was an exciting concept for a historical romance, a fresh and unique way to create what’s known in our genre as “enforced togetherness.” In a romance novel, some external device usually forces the hero and heroine to spend time together, even though they don’t particularly like each other at first. We authors use all sorts of beloved tropes to figuratively “shackle” our couples: a marriage of convenience, a kidnapping, a business contract, a deceased relative with an eccentric will, etc.
But I had never seen a hero and heroine literally shackled together. I thought it would be tremendous fun if I could pull it off.
In “The Fugitive,” the marshal played by Tommy Lee Jones gets equal screen time as he hunts Kimball, but I chose not to include a detective character in my story. I felt that would take things too far into the realm of mystery/thriller. What I wanted was an emotional, sexy romance, so I kept the focus on my hero and heroine and their developing relationship. The lawmen trying to bring my fugitives to justice remain unseen for most of the book.
I did include one small homage to “The Fugitive,” however: I made my hero’s nemesis a one-armed man. Just couldn�
�t resist.
Another source of inspiration came from 1992’s “Last of the Mohicans.” The gorgeous settings in that movie, one of my all-time favorites, inspired the waterfall and cave scenes in Run Wild.
And of course, research provides one of the richest sources of inspiration for my books. While researching my second Avon Romance, Midnight Raider, I created a binder five inches thick filled with details about life in Georgian England. I frequently run across fascinating tidbits that I can’t use in the current book I’m working on, so I flag them with sticky notes for future reference. Three of those sticky notes helped inspire Run Wild: details about 18th century prison hulks, the end of the era of piracy, and the horrifying punishments meted out on men, women, and children during this period in the name of “justice.”
I also had a sticky note on this little tidbit:
“Cannock Chase in Staffordshire… [was] said to be filled with poachers and malcontents, coiners, deer-stealers, fugitive criminals, highwaymen, rough country folk and pests of society abandoned to idleness, vice and profligacy.” (The English: A Social History 1066-1945, Christopher Hibbert, W.W. Norton, NY, 1987)
Now that sounded like an ideal setting for a romance novel!
Soundtrack
One of the first things I do when starting a new project is choose a theme song for my hero and heroine. With all the action and adventure in Run Wild, you may not be surprised to learn that my theme for this book was Tina Turner’s “Goldeneye,” from the 1995 James Bond movie of the same name.
I listen to a lot of movie soundtracks when I write, and as I revised Run Wild for this new digital edition, I found myself listening to nautical-themed soundtracks like “The Perfect Storm,” especially the track “There’s No Goodbye… Only Love.” I also found a love theme that I like much better than the one I picked back in 1995: Charlotte Church’s gorgeous “All Love Can Be” from the 2001 movie “A Beautiful Mind.” It perfectly captures the powerful emotional connection between Samantha and Nicholas.
The Title
During my ten years writing for New York publishers, I had some epic fights over titles, and this was one of them.
My working title on this book was Heaven and Earth, which I knew wouldn’t fly because it wasn’t “sexy enough” for Avon. By the time I submitted the finished manuscript, I had changed the title to Never Love a Rogue, which they rejected as “too negative.” I offered more than a dozen alternatives, including Wild Midnight, Embrace the Night, Prisoner of His Desire, Chase the Night and Branded.
My editor rejected them all. She wanted to call the book Inseparable. Then she came up with something she liked even better. One of her all-time favorite titles was a 1988 Avon Romance called A Flame Run Wild. So at 3 a.m. one morning, she decided to call my book...
Hearts Run Wild.
I hated it. Unfortunately, my opinion didn’t matter.
I asked if we could simply call it Run Wild. My editor nixed that. We couldn’t use Run Wild, she insisted, because that was two “suspense” words and no “romance” words. This particular editor had lots of rules about how one “should” write a romance novel, and one of her rules was that every title must include at least one pretty “romance” word. Because how would readers know that it was a romance novel without at least one pretty “romance” word in the title?
Yes, she had a fairly low opinion of the IQ of the average romance reader, an attitude that’s distressingly common among people who work in New York publishing—even those who work in New York romance publishing. These executives don’t leave their Manhattan offices nearly often enough, and they rarely rub elbows with, you know, actual readers.
She insisted on using the title she loved, which included one of the prettiest of all romance words, Hearts. So the 1996 paperback edition was published as Hearts Run Wild.
Avon took my sexy, adventurous, emotional book and made it sound bland and insipid.
Publishers Weekly agreed. When the Avon edition was published, PW opened their review with: “Despite an uninspired title...” and then went on to say very nice things about the book.
They were absolutely right about that title. It was silly. And now it’s gone. One of the great things about being an indie author is that you’re never—never—stuck with a title (or an editor) you hate.
I trust that readers are smart enough to grasp that Run Wild is a romance novel. The cover should offer a pretty big clue.
The Cover
You’ll find full-color photos of the original paperback cover and the new digital cover on my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorShellyThacker
When Avon published the first edition of this book, I had one request: please, for the love of royalties, show the shackles on the cover. The shackles are the whole point of this book. The shackles are what set this book apart. The shackles will make people pick up this book and read the description.
As usual, Avon tossed my suggestion in the nearest shredder. They were not about to put shackles—shackles!—on the cover of one of their romance novels. Too shocking? Not pretty enough? I have no idea what they were thinking, because they never bothered to explain their reasoning to me.
They decided to put a pistol on the cover. A pretty foil pistol that’s pointed at a rather... ah... erect angle. Sitting on a bed of roses. Because, you know, that’s where pistols usually hang out. In roses. Oh, and they made the whole cover bright pink. A nauseating fuchsia pink, which seemed to be one of Avon’s favorite colors in the mid-1990s.
Since this was published as an Avon Romantic Treasure, there’s also a painting of the couple on the back cover. See any shackles there? No you do not. Perfect opportunity for some shackle action, but no. You see a couple in a forest, the heroine enthralled with her hairdo rather than her hero. They’re standing in grass that’s shin-deep, so their ankles—and more importantly, their shackles—are fully covered.
Why, Avon, why? If I had a dime for every time I asked that question in the seven years I wrote for them...
As usual, my publisher had taken the elements that made my work unique and done their very best to conceal, erase, and disguise them. They wanted my book to look like every other book in their line. As pink and pretty as possible.
For this new digital edition, I wanted the cover to show the couple on the run, shackled together. I was hoping for a close-up of sexy legs, running, you know, wild. Unfortunately, there’s one small drawback to being an indie author: we have to rely on stock photos for our covers—and apparently no one shoots stock photos of running legs. At least not sexy, bare running legs. The only photos I could find showed legs clad in modern-day athletic clothes and tennis shoes. My cover artist, Kim Killion, is an absolute magician, but Photoshop can only accomplish so much.
So Kim and I went with plan B: this romantic, sexy clinch cover that shows the heroine’s bare legs and the shackles front and center. I wanted the heroine dressed in the lemon-yellow silk gown that she wears in the book, but Kim hates yellow, so her first draft of this cover was... pink.
I said Noooooo! to that (maybe with a few more exclamation points). Bad. Avon. Memories. On the second draft, she gave me this stunning yellow, which I love.
And yes, I know, I hear you: the hero should have a beard, and chest hair, and a brand on his chest, and some scars. Again, when working with stock photos, it’s not always possible to make the picture match the characters exactly without wrecking it. Actually, most male cover models visit a salon for a thorough waxing to remove all their chest hair before photo shoots. It makes their muscles more visible—and muscles sell books. Body hair, apparently, does not.
Facial hair is also a turn-off for many readers. Some won’t even consider buying a book with a bearded hero on the cover—which is why you almost never see a bearded hero on the cover of a romance novel. A little scruff, maybe, but not a full beard. I personally love bearded heroes, and I was hoping this rampant anti-beard prejudice might have changed by now. I mean, did you see Ben Affleck in
“Argo”? Hello, yum.
So while Kim & I were working on this cover, I took an informal poll on my Facebook page.
Sure enough, 50% of my fans said a loud and clear NO to facial hair. Sigh. So my poor Nicholas is beard-free on the cover of Run Wild. Sorry, Nicholas, the tribe has spoken.
Trivia
~ Why do I always have trouble naming my heroines? I have no idea, but Samantha was named after a road sign on a freeway. I was on my way to a speaking engagement in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin (say that five times fast) when we passed a sign for the nearby town of... Delafield.
~ Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that Samantha’s birth surname, Hibbert, is the same as the author of that research book I quoted a few paragraphs ago. I’ve done that a few times: I’ll be writing along, need a name for a character, and just glance up and grab a surname from one of the research books on the shelf above my computer.
~ Is Cannock Chase a real place? Indeed it is. In the Georgian era, it was a haven for rogues and outlaws. Today, it’s a haven for hikers and mountain bikers. There’s even a Cannock Chase tourism and visitors’ bureau! I’ve got photos and links on my Run Wild Pinterest board.
~ Speaking of which, are you a fellow Pinterest addict? I’ve created inspiration boards for each of my books. Visit my Run Wild board at http://pinterest.com/shellythacker/run-wild/ to see photos of what Cannock Chase looks like; take a peek at some real-life pirate gear; and find out which movie stars I would choose to portray Nicholas, Samantha, and other characters from the book. (One of them may or may not be named Affleck. I’m not telling.)
Changes
I made quite a few changes while preparing this new digital edition of Run Wild. Two of them are relatively minor: I expanded the love scene in Chapter 18 and revised the final “big fight” between the hero and heroine in Chapter 25. In the 1996 edition, the hero went way too far with the cold, hurtful things he said to the heroine during that argument—to the point that I couldn’t forgive him by the end of the book. He’s a little better behaved in this new edition.
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