Listening to my Characters – The Story Behind the Story: Trevor’s Redemption

Shea O’Bannon and Trevor Madero co-star in Trevor’s Redemption, a steamy romantic suspense novella in Amber Daulton’s Arresting Onyx series. Onyx is an underground crime organization with a foothold in several American cities, and Trevor is a reluctant, guilt-ridden enforcer among their ranks. Shea is a graphics designer with no clue about her new boyfriend’s gang affiliations, but she knows he’s hiding something from her. The return of his manipulative ex puts their relationship—and their lives—in jeopardy. When his secrets come to light, Trevor and Shea will have to find a way to work together, or kiss their love goodbye.

Hi, everyone. I’m Amber Daulton. Of all the books in the Arresting Onyx series, Trevor’s Redemption is one of my favorites, but it almost didn’t happen. As I was revising the final novel in the series, a little voice in the back of my mind kept telling me to go back and write this novella. I’d introduced Shea as a minor character in book one and developed her further as the series went on. Before long, I was having daydreams about Shea and what kind of man she would go for, but my writing schedule was already mapped out for the foreseeable future. I just didn’t have time to write her story. Well, Shea wasn’t having any of that. She kept pestering me, and soon I couldn’t sleep because I needed to write this story. Eventually, I gave up and jotted down the plot, and slept like a baby that night. I had a wonderful time bringing Shea’s romance to life, so I’m grateful I let her have her way.

As for my writing process, I use paper, pens, and colored pencils to outline each chapter, but sometimes I take the easy road and plot in a Word doc. I try to follow my notes exactly, but more often than not, my characters steer the story in another direction (Trevor did this in spades!). I spent about six weeks writing the first draft of Trevor’s Redemption, and after a few months of editing, tearing the story apart, rewriting, and more editing, I finally created a story I could be proud of.

Trevor’s Redemption is now available for preorder and can be read as a standalone, so if you haven’t read the previous books in the series, you can jump right in with this one and follow along without any problems. However, the couples from the other books return as secondary characters, so you might get a few spoilers. For the sake of enjoyment and fully immersing yourself in my fictional world, I do suggest you start at the beginning with Arresting Mason, but it’s not necessary.

Amber Daulton is the author of the romantic-suspense series Arresting Onyx and several standalone novellas. Her books are published through Daulton Publishing, The Wild Rose Press, and Books to Go Now, and are available in ebook, print on demand, audio, and foreign language formats. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and demanding cats. Follow Amber on your preferred social platform here: https://linktr.ee/AmberDaulton

The danger and lies are more than she can handle.

Shea O’Bannon feels like a fifth wheel around her romantically paired-off friends, but there’s too much slime in the dating pool for her to bother with it. Then she sees her two-timing ex, Trevor Madero, serenading the mostly female crowd at a live-music bar. God knows trouble follows him around, but her desire for him rushes back in anyway. After he rescues her from a handsy drunk, temptation takes over.

Determined to prove he never stepped out on Shea, Trevor slides back into her life—and her heart—with forever in mind. Even with the wall he keeps up to protect her, his secret criminal life weighs heavy on his soul and drives a wedge between them.

When the truth comes out and his enemies target them both, they’ll have to fight for their love, or kiss it goodbye.

Trevor’s Redemption releases August 22, 2023 and can be pre-ordered here: https://books.amberdaulton.com/trevorsredemption