The Black Dagger Brotherhood_An Insider's Guide

by J. R. Ward

  As he passed out while throwing up, he realized he’d been cheated. Instead of killing the wizard, he was left only with the wasteland and its master.

  Good job, mate . . . excellent job.

  —LOVER ENSHRINED, p. 431

  It was a wonder Phury lived through it, and I shudder to think what would have happened if Blay hadn’t come to stay at the mansion and he and Qhuinn and John hadn’t walked into that spare bedroom.

  So that was Phury’s bottom, and to his credit he didn’t stay there. The first significant step he took in his recovery was the choice he made the following day. He goes to complete the Primale ceremony with Layla, but instead of laying with her, he sits on the steps in the vestibule of the Primale Temple and makes a personal resolve to stop drugging:

  As the wizard started to get pissed and Phury’s body milk-shaked it something fierce, he stretched out his legs, lay down on the vestibule’s cool marble floor, and got ready for a whole lot of going-nowhere.

  “Shit,” he said as he gave himself over to the withdrawal. “This is going to suck.”

  —LOVER ENSHRINED, p. 459

  This in turn led to what was for me the most significant scene between Cormia and Phury as a couple—the one where she helps him through his detox hallucinations. By taking him around his parents’ overgrown garden and directing him to clean it up (the scenes start on page 468), Cormia is a hero in her own right, being strong when her male can’t be and providing him with leadership when he needs to be led.

  The symbolic nature of the ivy, when Phury’s either remembering how it covered the statues in his parents’ garden or using it to do away with one of his drawings, is obvious. The past has been choking him all along, and I loved the fact that during those hallucinations, not only does he free the statues, but he frees himself—and gets to see his parents in a happier place.

  As a result of the detox, Phury then has the lucidity and the gumption to re-haul the whole construct of the Chosen—which was about fricking time. I love this part when he becomes resolved:

  After a lifetime of watching history unfold in a bowl of water, Cormia realized as she measured the medallion being held aloft that for the first time she was seeing history made right in front of her, in live time.

  Nothing was ever going to be the same after this.

  With that emblem of his exalted station waving back and forth under his fisted grip, Phury proclaimed in a hard, deep voice, “I am the strength of the race. I am the Primale. And so shall I rule!”

  —LOVER ENSHRINED, p. 484

  That is Phury’s inner heroic nature being truly realized—and man, does he go to town with it when he goes to see the Scribe Virgin.

  About that confrontation. During his conversation with the Scribe Virgin, I think he hits on what is her essential failing when it comes to the race she created and loves. She’s too overprotective and has to, as Phury says, have faith in her creation. The traditions of the vampire race are hindering their survival as much as the war with the Lessening Society is, and things must change: The pool of candidates for the Brotherhood must be opened up so that more warriors can be brought on, and the Chosen need and deserve to be liberated.

  A note on all the social and religious restrictions within the vampire race. There were those at the beginning of the series who criticized the books for being too male-dominated and chauvinistic. But that was the point.

  Rule four: Plotlines Are Like Sharks. They must move or die.

  The series needed to start at a place where there were things to be fixed, otherwise there would be no struggles, no conflict, no evolution and resolution. And even with the improvements made in Lover Enshrined, the world remains ripe with strictures that need changing or areas where conflict is going to breed—Rehvenge’s Lover Avenged is going to have a lot of that.

  A symphath working with the Brotherhood? Pow.der.keg.

  The thing is, plotlines must advance across a credible playing field of people. Always. For example, to me, the most powerful scene in Phury’s book comes when he leaves the Scribe Virgin’s private quarters after having freed the Chosen. Here, he returns to Chosen’s sanctuary:

  He froze as he threw open the door.

  The grass was green.

  The grass was green and the sky was blue . . . and the daffodils were yellow and the roses were a Crayola rainbow of colors . . . and the buildings were red and cream and dark blue. . . .

  Down below, the Chosen were spilling out of their living quarters, holding their now colorful robes and looking around in excitement and wonder.

  Cormia emerged from the Primale temple, her lovely face stunned as she looked around. When she saw him, her hands clamped to her mouth and her eyes started to blink fast.

  With a cry, she gathered her gorgeous pale lavender robe and ran toward him, tears streaming down her cheeks.

  He caught her as she leaped up to him and held her warm body to his.

  “I love you,” she choked out. “I love you, I love you . . . I love you.”

  In that moment, with the world that was his in transformation, and his shellan safely in his arms, he felt something he never would have imagined.

  He finally felt like the hero he had always wanted to be.

  —LOVER ENSHRINED, pp. 492-493

  I’ll be honest: I bawled like a baby right there. It was just the most perfect moment for Phury—and it couldn’t have happened if there hadn’t been something huge to fix in the world.

  And speaking of things that needed to be fixed, a word on Phury and Z. The relationship between the twins had to be addressed in the course of the book, and there was some serious stuff to deal with. Phury had a lot of pent-up frustration and anger, and it eventually came out (I’m thinking of that scene in front of the mansion that starts on page 277, where the two of them go at it). I will say that I think Z’s lack of gratitude was more about the current suffering he was dealing with—namely the concern about Bella and her pregnancy—than a fundamental resentment over the fact that he had been saved. After all, it’s hard sometimes to be grateful that you’re walking the planet when the very foundation of your life is unstable.

  Phury needed the acknowledgment from his twin, and needed the thank-you, though. Hands down for me, one of the most moving scenes in the series—and the one I absolutely wept at when I wrote it—was the reunion of the twins following the birth of Nalla. By this point, Phury’s on the road to recovery and has redefined his role as the Primale—and Bella and Nalla have lived through the birth, so Z’s in a much better place as well. The twins, however, remain estranged. At least until Zsadist comes up to Rehv’s house in the Adirondacks and approaches his brother while singing Puccini:

  Phury got to his feet as if his twin’s voice, not his own legs, had lifted him from the chair. This was the thanks that had not been spoken. This was the gratitude for the rescue and the appreciation for the life that was lived. This was the wide-open throat of an astounded father, who was lacking the words to express what he felt to his brother and needed the music to show something of all he wished he could say.

  “Ah, hell . . . Z,” Phury whispered in the midst of the glory.

  —LOVER ENSHRINED, p. 531

  If you look throughout the book, you’ll see that here and there I put in a line about things not needing to be said to be understood. We’re talking about scenes between John and Cormia, Phury and Wrath, Phury and Cormia. I wanted it all to lead up to this moment, when Z’s emotions are too complex and overwhelming for him to explain, so he must sing to get his point across. And his message is received in exactly the manner it is given: The grand thank-you voiced in song is lovingly embraced by the one being thanked. Perfect.

  The theme of silent communication also comes into play in the last line of the book. Here Phury is holding Cormia close to his heart after suggesting they get mated back at the Brotherhood mansion:

  The hooting and hollering and backslapping of the Brotherhood cut off the rest of what he was going to s
ay. But Cormia got the gist. He’d never seen any female smile as beautifully and broadly as she did then while looking up at him.

  So she must have known what he meant.

  I love you forever didn’t always need to be spoken to be understood.

  —LOVER ENSHRINED, pp. 533-534

  And that just about sums up Phury and Cormia.

  Some thoughts about John Matthew and Lash.

  One of the great things about John Matthew (who is Darius reincarnated) is that in the earlier books I could introduce parts of the world to the reader through his eyes. As he is unfamiliar on all levels with the vampire thing, what was new to the reader was new to him. John has also lent great continuity from book to book: On balance, the POVs change with each story, and thus far, once I’ve done a hero and heroine, except for in Slices of Life outside the books, I do not return to them (although I think in Rehv’s story that might change—I can see where Wrath might come back in a huge way). John, however, has been a constant—as well as constantly evolving as he goes through his life.

  As I begin to prepare for John’s book (which might well be coming after Rehvenge, I’m not sure), I wanted to show readers how the whole time thing works with respect to the Omega and the Scribe Virgin—as a way of anticipating the Darius reincarnation issue. To this end, Lash as the Evil’s son, which I knew about much earlier, was the perfect way to do this. At the end of Lover Revealed, when the Omega says to Butch: “Lo, how you inspire me, my son. And may I say you would be wise to search for your blood. Families should congregate.” (p. 427), the Omega is making a reference to his defensive reaction to Butch’s changing the dynamic of the war. Having “spawned” Butch, in a sense, and being at the cop’s mercy, the Omega realizes that he needs to do something to counteract the threat to his survival. What he does is this. After Lover Revealed, the Omega went back in time, impregnated a female vampire, and created Lash. Lash was not in existence prior to the time between Lover Revealed and Lover Enshrined (the lapse of a matter of months reflected the Evil’s failed attempts at procreation, which were not detailed), but was created when the Omega went back to the early eighties at the start of Phury’s book.

  This, of course, created a problem. For me as the author, bringing in a major character like Lash and having to explain why all of a sudden everyone knew him was just not going to work—it would have involved way too much exposition. So I had to work off of absolute time—which is different from the fungible time the Scribe Virgin and the Omega can manipulate at will. Absolute time is the absolute destiny that is the sole province of the Scribe Virgin and the Omega’s father. This absolute truth and time in the vampire world reflects the culmination of all the choices ever made by all actors in that universe, and the books have to run on that absolute—otherwise it’s a mess (or, more accurately, a boring stretch of explaining and flashbacks).

  Lash is therefore shown from the day John Matthew first meets him on the bus. Which is, in absolute time, exactly what happens.

  It’s on this same absolute time that the John Matthew and Darius thing went down. When Darius is killed in Dark Lover, and he goes to the Scribe Virgin in the Fade, John Matthew does not exist. But after the Scribe Virgin and Darius strike a deal, the Scribe Virgin steps back in time and plants John Matthew/ Darius in that bathroom in the bus station as an infant. John Matthew then develops over the course of those years independently of the vampire world—until his destiny brings him in contact with Bella through Mary in Lover Eternal (after Darius is dead). Technically, therefore, John Matthew and Darius coexist for a period of years, but there is no contact between them.

  A mind-bender for sure. But kind of cool.

  Anyway . . . I could keep going on and on, but I might as well end here. Get me started on the Brothers and their world and I’m a windup toy with no end of enthusiasm.

  So that’s Lover Enshrined . . . and the series so far.

  On some level, I can’t believe I’ve actually written the first six books already. It’s been a blur, a strange, fascinating, terrifying ride that’s taken me to places, both in terms of writing and on a personal level, that I couldn’t possibly have predicted.

  I’m grateful for all of it. Even the really hard parts (and there have been some).

  Next up is Rehvenge.

  And if you thought the first six were humdingers . . . wait’ll you get a load of him.

  For Writers

  Advice and FAQs

  As this section is for writers, I think I’ll start by listing my eight writing rules up front in a nice little group:I. P & R—PERSIST AND REINVENT

  II. WRITE OUT LOUD

  III. OWN YOUR OWN WORK

  IV. PLOTLINES ARE LIKE SHARKS

  V. SWEAT EQUITY IS THE BEST INVESTMENT

  VI. CONFLICT IS KING

  VII. CREDIBLE SURPRISE IS QUEEN

  VIII. LISTEN TO YOUR RICE KRISPIES

  Writing is hard stuff, and publishing is a difficult business to break into and survive, much less thrive, in. But here’s the thing. I don’t really know much in life that isn’t hard. Being a mother is difficult, and so is being a teacher or an accountant or an athlete or a student. My point is, I’m not sure whether writing is any more scary and heartbreaking and exhilarating than anything else. I do know that the eight rules above have taken me this far—and I hope they’ll continue to see me through the ups and downs of my endeavors.

  I’ve had a lot of writers, both prepubbed and published, come to me for advice. I’m always flattered, but also a bit at a loss in describing how I do what I do or why it’s worked thus far (and I never take for granted that it’s going to keep working). Routinely, however, I make a couple of recommendations for each of the various stages of the process, which follow below. I would like to note, however—and this is important—this advice is for people who are trying to get published. You DO NOT have to write solely to get published. I wrote for years just for myself and was perfectly happy doing so. What is laid out hereafter is for folks who are doing something that is quite specific—and it must be said that a published book is a very distinct animal and NOT THE BE-ALL AND END-ALL.

  I’ll try to get off my soapbox now. But I just think it’s important for folks to know that if you write, you are an author. Period. You don’t need a publisher or consumers to validate what you are doing. Getting a book on the retail shelves is just one avenue some people choose to explore—but not the only one. Collecting the oral history of your family for the next generation or writing in journals to record your thoughts for yourself or jotting down descriptions of a thunder-storm for no other reason than you like how the lightning travels across the black sky—that all counts and it all matters.

  Right, advice for those who want to get published:1. Finish a book. Even if you don’t like it, or you don’t think it’s good enough, see one of your projects through to the end. Discipline is mission critical to publication, and no matter how enticing the other ideas in your head may be, get to the final page on at least one of your WIPs (works in progress). If you find yourself getting distracted by the buzz of new characters or concepts, write them down in a notebook or Word document to save for later. But teach yourself to finish what you start. Writing can be a drag. It can be nothing more than a series of tiny, incremental steps that drive you nuts. In every single Brotherhood book, particularly while revising, I’ve wanted to scream from frustration because I’m convinced that what I was working on was the longest book in history and it was NEVER going to be finished. That’s just part of the process.

  2. Find other writers. I joined the Romance Writers of America (www. rwanational.org) after I’d finished my first marketable project, and I’ve met all my writer friends through RWA. There are local chapter meetings across the country, e-mail loops you can participate in, contests you can enter your writing in, regional conferences, and a magazine that comes every month with tons of information in it. Additionally, every year there’s a big national convention, which is great for networking wit
h other writers and which offers opportunities for appointments with editors and agents, as well as classes taught by experts. RWA also has on its Web site incredible resources on craft and business—essentially everything that has to do with romance writing. If you want to get published, I strongly recommend joining, but RWA isn’t the only group available. And if you want to get published in another genre, there are other nonprofits that likewise encourage content-specific networking (like mystery or horror or sci-fi).