They are both control freaks, also, though the habit manifests itself in different ways. Penny likes to feel in charge, likes to control for every variable. She’s not a fan of risks, and when Pierce’s capacity for attracting trouble starts to catch up with her, she finds it very difficult to deal with. I think most people can sympathize with her.
Pierce also likes to be in control. He bets on his own fights, and picks and chooses when and where he fights. He’s not as risk-averse as Penny, though – not in the slightest. He often feels he can control a situation, even if logically it doesn’t seem he should be able to. Where Penny only tries to control situations she can, Pierce thinks he can control those he can’t.
I liken Pierce to someone I used to know when I was in school. This person’s life always seemed to just work out, no matter how much trouble they found themselves in, and they often found themselves in a great deal of trouble.
Pierce is like that; he can find himself in unavoidable, inescapable straits, and yet still find a way to worm out, much like how he can slip out of an MMA submission hold. He likes to think that he’s responsible for all of this, but really, I think he might just be an extremely lucky person.
It’s a well-worn cliché, and I’m sure you’ve heard or read it a thousand times before, but the truth is that characters really do write themselves, and even I was mildly surprised to learn very little about Pierce’s father. While I have a character outline jotted down, an intent, it was Pierce who prevented me from putting it into the story.
Penny was a much easier character for me to relate to. She was driven, but conflicted, often times appearing a contradiction. Her young mind, while confident in the type of future it wanted for her, was unused to dealing with sudden complications. Pierce ranks top among them.
She took great inspiration from her father, an architect she considered an artist first and foremost, and while, when she gets older, she may regret the resentment she harbors toward her mother, I feel it made her a stronger person. At a young age she took on a sense of responsibility that she needn’t have, and her own precocious nature made her into the person she is, but likely made the journey there a lot tougher.
But all of this is neither here nor there; these are just my idle reflections. After all, Penny and Pierce only really exist in the pages of this book, though they will make cameo appearances in future books.
I’d like to thank you again for reading Uncaged, and for giving an indie author a chance. I’m always eager to listen to feedback, good or bad, so if you’re feeling inclined, do write to me by email or get in touch with me on Facebook.
My next book, Unleashed, will follow the story of Chance Hudson and Cassie Shannon, both of whom made a brief appearance in this book.
Chance is an amateur fighter looking to possibly turn pro, and Cassie is an aspiring political scientist seeking to carve out a career in academia. They find that their paths cross unexpectedly, and when their parents announce a surprise wedding in Las Vegas, everything is thrown into turmoil. You will find a brief excerpt at the end of this book.
If you’d like to be notified of when Unleashed is released, you can sign up for my newsletter. I won’t flood your inbox, and will only be in touch for new releases or opportunities to receive review copies.
Wishing you happiness and health,
Emilia
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Excerpt:
Unleashed
An MMA Stepbrother Romance
“Great speech.”
I look up and am too slow to stop the gasp from leaving my lips.
It’s Chance Hudson. What the hell does he want?
His gorgeous hazel eyes bore straight into mine, and I find it hard to maintain eye-contact. He’s been teasing and tormenting me for a whole year. Somehow, he was in nearly all of my classes.
He wipes his chestnut-brown hair to the side, and his golden-tan seems to shine in the afternoon sunlight. His huge body, all muscle and not an ounce of fat, towers over me. I’m literally sitting in his shadow.
“Oh God,” I groan, looking away.
It’s warm, and I’m tired, and I shook like a wet puppy on the stage. There were hundreds of parents there, and the red lights of camera-phones recording me had done nothing to quell my nerves. My voice had hitched, my lips had trembled.
Really, the speech was anything but great. It wasn’t even good.
I think to my ending:
And so this new generation sets off into the world, wary of the conventions set down by the old. We hope to improve, but betterment so often comes in the form of subversion, of questioning. We hope that you don’t judge us for our life decisions. The world is forever in flux, and so let us be different. Let us look at your methods and adjust them, or strike them out so that we might forge newer, better ways.
Let us change. Support our change.
Because when you were our age, that’s what you would have wanted.
I groan. It sounds so trite in my head, so vague and so boring. All the typical clichés. All samey, no punch.
“No, it wasn’t a good speech,” I say to Chance.
I keep my eyes off his, on a bright red car in the distance, but soon it turns a corner and disappears out of sight.
I’m sitting on a bench waiting for the bus to take me home – Dad left for Las Vegas yesterday – and in my gown the sun is making me feel more than a little warm.
Chance is standing right in front of me, though, so it’s practically impossible for me not to look at him eventually, and when I do, he’s got his hands on his hips, his head cocked to the side, and an amused grin pulling at his lips.
So I look at his body because I don’t want to look into his eyes. He’s wearing a tight t-shirt that fits him too damn well, and a pair of dark jeans. It’s unfair really how good he can look in casual clothing.
I hate that I’m attracted to him. I can easily see the shape of his body through his clothing, from his muscular chest to the way the sleeves wrap around his veiny, defined arms. He’s lean, like an athlete… well, he is an athlete. Well, he was an athlete.
He barely graduated, from what I heard on the grapevine.
But still, school wrestling champ? And from what I hear, a bit of a local legend in the amateur boxing and MMA leagues? I wouldn’t be surprised if he had scholarship offers lining up.