The Hell You Say!
Some people have asked me why I write about a succubus who becomes a human stripper. “You’re such a nice girl,” one reader (hi, Mom!) told me, “so why do you have to write about such things?” I don’t have to, of course. But it’s a hell of a lot of fun. And irritating my mother in the process is a bonus is not at all my intent.
When I first started writing HELL’S BELLES, Jezebel was supposed to quit Hell after a change in infernal management, become a call girl on Earth, and find herself torn between a cop who’d lost his faith and a sexy dance instructor with wicked intentions (no, I don’t know what I had been thinking. Maybe this was after seeing one too many ads for Shall We Dance). But as I wrote the draft, I realized a few things: one, I liked the idea of dancing, but not of a dance instructor (sorry, J.Lo); two, researching call girls was tough due to the illegality of the profession; and three, walking away from Hell was not nearly as much fun as running away from Hell. So Jezebel went AWOL. And Hell really doesn’t forgive that sort of thing.
Now demons were after her, which meant that she had to get off of Hell’s radar, pronto. And that meant she had to become a human. So I ditched everything I had written, started over, and opened the story with Jezebel knocking on a witch’s door to ask for a favor. Welcome to HELL’S BELLES. There’s still a romantic tangle, of sorts: there’s Paul, a man who’s haunted by his past, and Daun, an incubus who may be helping Jezebel or may be trying to bring her back to the Abyss. And given that Jezebel is a former succubus, there’s a lot of sexxin’ going on. (Yes, Jezebel likes sex. A lot. Four thousand years as a succubus will do that to a demon-turned-human.)
The story continues in THE ROAD TO HELL. Jezebel, now the mortal Jesse, is happy with her lot in her new life: she’s working at a gentlemen’s club (she prefers to be called an “exotic dancer”), she’s living with her boyfriend Paul, and she’s more accustomed to her non-demonic status. But she’s got a Hell of a past, one that she can’t share with Paul…and one that won’t let her go. Daun returns, and he does his best (er, worst) to lure Jesse back to the fold. He’s not the only one with a vested interest in the former succubus, though, and soon Jesse is forced to go back to the Pit to save the lives of those she loves. If she’d known love was this tough, she never would have turned her back on lust…
The Hell on Earth series will continue in 2008, first in the ETERNAL LOVER Kensington anthology in April, with a novella called A HELL OF A TIME, and then in August, with Daun’s book: HOTTER THAN HELL. Sex, strippers, demons—what’s not to like? (Er, Mom, don’t answer that…) For excerpts from HELL’S BELLES and THE ROAD TO HELL, please visit my website. And remember: love your inner demon!
