I was a girl who was born as someone different and then vanished without a trace.
My name is Keegan Ross, and this is the story of finding me.
*Due to the voices in my head this may or may not be the next release, but rest assured something good is coming soon!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This was probably the hardest book in the Take It Off series I’ve had to write to date. My husband would say I say that about every book I’m writing at the time, but this one really was the hardest. Up until this point, I would have said Tempt was the hardest—if you read my author’s note in the back of it, you will know why.
So what made Trashy so hard?
Well, first off let me just say (oh boy, I think I’m about to get longwinded… grab onto your hat) that I always said I was going to write a trashy novel. Ha-ha-ha. I think the book itself isn’t really a trashy read. It’s not one of those books you have to, like, put inside another book when you’re out in public so people don’t know what you’re really reading (at least I hope not!), but I suppose it’s my version of a trashy novel, which is basically a guilty pleasure.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it forever probably, but I write to entertain. I write to give readers a place to escape to from everyday life and reality. That’s what I hope you get most out of my books—escapism. Yes, I try to put some underlying emotion in them, but I think all good books need that.
Anyway, even writing to entertain is hard. Some people think writing is easy. I don’t agree with that. The only thing easy about my job is that I can do it in my pajamas. That isn’t to say I don’t love my job, because I do, but some days are really hard.
Trashy is the most requested book in this series. Readers fell in love with Roxie and Adam in Tease, which was my second Take It Off novel. This book is number ten in the series, so clearly, it took a while for me to get to it, and people have been asking for it for eight books now.
You’d think that would make it easy to write. Wrong. That’s one of the reasons it was so challenging. Because Adam and Roxie are so loved, I felt intense pressure to get their story right. I felt intense pressure to deliver Adam the way I know everyone wanted him. He’s truly book boyfriend material, isn’t he? I had to make him live up to that.
I sort of psyched myself out. I went round and round with the plot on this one, trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I changed my mind several times. I had conflicting thoughts. Usually, I get a plot and run with it. Not so with this one. I worried over this one so much that, as many of you know, I pushed it back a couple times and wrote something else first. Then I got to the point where I was like, Enough already! People wanted Adam and I wanted to write him.
It was a struggle to get started. I still wasn’t sure where I was going, and I felt like Roxie was somewhat a mystery to me. Her voice was fairly quiet in my loud mind. But I started anyway, and a few chapters in, I decided I needed Adam’s point of view. So I started to add him in. And then I realized I didn’t know that much about Adam either. I think the biggest question that plagued me about Adam is why? Why did he feel the need to get married four times? What makes a guy do that? I didn’t want to go the usual his parents had a bad marriage and it affected him. I felt like, for Adam, that was a copout. I didn’t want to give him commitment issues, because Adam isn’t the type to shy away from hard work or being loyal to the woman he loves. Plus, what man with commitment issues would get married four times? Clearly, he doesn’t have commitment issues; he just has problems holding on to his relationships. I was convinced I needed a reason for his marriages, but the more I wrote, the more I wondered if having a reason was really even necessary. Maybe he’s just been trying to make that part of his life work, maybe the right girl hadn’t come along (until Roxie of course!), and maybe that’s all it was. Maybe I was trying to create a big back-story where there wasn’t one.
That was hard to accept because part of me is all like, “There needs to be drama!” Maybe Adam is just a drama-free dude. I think we can all appreciate that. Besides, Roxie has enough drama for three people.
I also worried about the plot on this one. I know many of my Take It Off novels are action packed, and they start from page one and go, go, go, but like Tryst, this one is a little different. Yes, Roxie is struggling against Craig and breaking free of that relationship, but really, Trashy isn’t about the suspense of what Craig is going to do to her, because he’s already been doing crap to her for years. It’s more about her internal struggle with it all, how to get away from him, how to accept she can’t save everyone. About how to let herself love someone again.
I don’t expect everyone to get this book—and trust me; that’s hard to say because I want everyone to love Adam and Roxie. But I think when we are dealing with this kind of abuse, not everyone understands the reasons a woman stays. I hope with Roxie, I evoked that kind of understanding of the kind of struggle she went through. She knew it wasn’t right, but she just couldn’t get out.
Breaking that kind of cycle is hard, especially at that young of an age. And yeah, I’m speaking from experience. More experience than I planned to put into this book, but out it came, and I realized I related to Roxie on a very deep level.
On that note, I really hope people don’t criticize her, because I will likely take it personally. On another note, NO, no one ever tried to make me do a porn. LOL! That part is made up. Ha-ha-ha. Drama, people, drama. (Oh, and I’ve never been a stripper either.)
But the more I wrote, the more poured out of me. Along about thirty thousand words in, I started to become obsessed with this book. I walked around with bloodshot eyes (my kids thought I was sick) because I was so in my head that being in the outside world was too hard. It’s a juggling act, trying to live in two different worlds at once. I started worrying less about the plot and just wrote it the way Adam and Roxie told me.
Still, I’m a little nervous to put this baby out into the world. Adam and Roxie… they’re my favorite Take It Off couple besides Nathan and Honor in Text. Adam (to me) is so swoon worthy, and I really, really hope I did him justice for you guys. I hope I gave you everything you wanted in this book, because Lord knows y’all have been asking for it, and I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself to get it right.
Oh, and by the way, is the cover not absolute perfection?
My kids might disagree with that only because they wanted me to put LSP from Adventure Time (it’s a TV show) on the cover. LSP stands for Lumpy Space Princess (I’m so serious right now, lol) and she is basically a purple cloud with arms and she talks like a Valley girl (no offense to all you Valley girls!). LSP likes to say she is going to “write a trashy novel” and it’s going to be “like soo trashy.” So in my children’s minds, LSP would have been the perfect candidate. Ha-ha-ha.
But seriously. This cover is like epic (even without LSP). Thanks to Regina at Mae I Design for creating the beauty.
And thanks to my editor Cassie for making it read good. :-)
I gotta tell you, it feels good to get this book off my list. I really hope you all get where I was going with this story. And I hope you keep reading my books.
I’ll see you next book!
XOXO — Cambria
Cambria Hebert is a bestselling novelist of more than twenty books. She went to college for a bachelor’s degree, couldn’t pick a major, and ended up with a degree in cosmetology. So rest assured her characters will always have good hair. She currently resides in North Carolina with her children (human and furry) and her husband, who is a United States Marine.
Besides writing, Cambria loves a caramel latte, staying up late, sleeping in, and watching movies. She considers math human torture and has an irrational fear of chickens (yes, chickens). You can often find her running on the treadmill (she’d rather be eating a donut), painting her toenails (because she bites her fingernails), or walking her chorkie (the real boss of the house).
Cambria has written within the young adult and new adult genres, penning many p
aranormal and contemporary titles. Her favorite genre to read and write is romantic suspense. A few of her most recognized titles are: Text, Torch, Tryst, Masquerade, and Recalled.
Cambria Hebert owns and operates Cambria Hebert Books, LLC.
You can find out more about Cambria and her titles by visiting her website: http://www.cambriahebert.com.
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: http://smarturl.co/CambriaHebertFanpage
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cambriahebert
Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/cambriahebert/pins/
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