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Behind the book

Where the Wild Claims You

Every now and then, a story surprises me because it turns out to be so much bigger than I ever imagined.

That's exactly what happened with Where the Wild Claims You.

Like all my books, it started in the quiet moments just before I fell asleep. A scene appeared in my mind, followed by another the next evening. I found myself standing in the middle of a dense forest, surrounded by towering trees and ancient borders. Somewhere in the distance, I could hear wolves. At that point, I had no idea what the story was about. I simply followed where it wanted to take me.

Night after night, the world became clearer. The forests grew larger. The pack territories started to take shape. Characters appeared one after another, each bringing their own history, personality and place within the pack. Before I realised it, I wasn't discovering a single story anymore. I was discovering an entire world.That was both exciting and slightly overwhelming.

With most of my books, I can sense roughly where the story will end. As I get to know the characters, I gradually discover the path they need to follow. This time, that feeling never came. Instead, every answer uncovered another question. Every new character seemed to carry a story of their own. Every conversation hinted at events that had happened long before Lydia ever entered the pack.

It quickly became obvious that I couldn't possibly fit everything into one novel. The world simply refused to stay inside a single book. The moment I accepted that, something remarkable happened.

Instead of trying to make the story smaller, I allowed it to become exactly what it wanted to be, a series.

Suddenly everything fell into place.

Lydia and Eric were no longer the beginning and the end of the story. They became the heart of a much larger world, one where every future book could introduce new couples, new conflicts and new adventures while remaining connected to the same pack.

That realisation completely changed the way I wrote.

Normally, I spend quite some time discovering my characters before the words begin to flow onto the page. With Where the Wild Claims You, it felt as though the story had already been waiting for me.

Every evening, new scenes appeared before I fell asleep. The following day, I would sit on the sofa with my laptop and write almost everything I had experienced the night before. By the next evening, the story had already continued without me. It became a rhythm I looked forward to every single day.

For the first time, I wasn't wondering what would happen next. I couldn't wait to find out. The words came faster than they ever had before. Conversations barely needed rewriting. New chapters connected almost effortlessly, and before I realised how much I had written, the manuscript was finished.

Just one month after I had typed the first chapter, the first draft of Where the Wild Claims You was complete. That had never happened before. It still surprises me when I think about it. I don't believe it happened because I wrote faster. I believe it happened because, by the time I opened my laptop each morning, I had already lived the story the night before.

Finishing the manuscript didn't feel like saying goodbye.

It felt like closing the first chapter of a much bigger journey. The world was still there. The pack was still living their lives. There were still stories waiting to be told.

Today, I'm writing the next books in the series, and every time I return to that forest, it feels strangely familiar. Almost as though I'm visiting old friends. That's probably the greatest gift a writer can receive. Creating a world that always feels like coming home.