Lex.Btw.TheLines...
Lex.Btw.TheLines...
Unveiling "City of Wind and Lies": Mafia Romance, Character Inspirations, and Creative Journeys with Darma Day
This episode delves into the captivating world of writing within the mafia romance genre, featuring author Darma Day, who shares her inspiring journey of character development and storytelling. Throughout the discussion, we explore various tropes, the creative process behind writing, and the vibrant community supporting indie authors.
• Exploration of inspirations behind writing and character creation
• Discussion on the accidental pregnancy trope and its significance
• Insight into the transitional journey from paranormal to mafia romance
• Importance of feedback and editing within the writing community
• Conversations about the darker themes in literature and their impact
• Dharma's visions for future projects and character stories
outro
Hey y'all. Hey, you are watching and listening to Licks Between the Lines and I am your host, lex. Of course I'm Lex. So let's go ahead and get into these trigger warnings, because I'm so excited about the guest, the host that we have today, because I love Mafia. It's one of my faves. Really all of them are my faves, but anyway, let's get into this. So, for the most part, I try to stay between the lines. I only cross them sometimes. So, with that being said, there will be adult content discussed, there will be adult language talked, and this is your trigger warning. Without further ado, I'm going to let my co-host introduce herself hi, I am darma jay um.
Speaker 2:Most of you, or if any of you would know me, it's from City of Wind and Lies a mafia meets office romance with a very pierced male MMC that isn't afraid to show his female lead how much he loves her in many, many places.
Speaker 1:Was that a Jacob's Ladder? Yeah, how many wrong. That's so nasty I'm, so my my stay in the gutter. How many Ten?
Speaker 2:My Google search history is wild man, I was just about to say where, where did this come from? I mean, why not?
Speaker 1:and dorm. I'm so nosy. Have you ever experienced a jacob's?
Speaker 2:ladder, not a jacob's ladder, just just a single, just a single little one-off, one-off barbell I'm just trying to picture like, because I don't think you.
Speaker 1:You gave us like when he went and got this done nope, he's had it like was he going through a phase when he got this?
Speaker 2:I mean probably. I mean like piercings are like tattoos, I mean you don't always have to have a reason for it, you just like feel the feel, the urge I'm so like I said I'm so.
Speaker 1:Did he like? Because my, I know and I know these are characters, but I get so like in their backstories. I'll be. Like I said I'm so nosy, I'd be wanting to know, like, are we gonna'm so nosy? I be wanting to know, like, are we gonna get an ex? Cause I wanna know like, was this done at one time? Cause, oh yeah, all at once, and I'm just gonna say it, I'm um, I haven't really. I really hope my wife don't be, I hope my wife don't be, I hope my wife don't watch these. Are my family, are my mama with a nosy ass? Cause the question I wanna what I wanna say Like I'm trying to think of, like how I can say it when, if they do watch it? Cause, so I have a wife, but not saying that I haven't been with guys, but I haven't been with like a lot and like, is it like? I'm just trying to see, like it's not, you know, is it on the bottom of the bottom or the?
Speaker 2:top. Traditional bowies and most traditional jacob's ladders are on the underside and they start up um about the base where it connects and run up towards the tip. And then there's other piercings that go through the tip and then they can be on the front as well, and there's a difference some people have barbells and some people have hoops um along the shaft as well. And again uh, my google search history is wild there's an entire reddit thread dedicated to piercings of that nature. What are you married, norma?
Speaker 1:I am I don't know what, because I'm just thinking some of the things in the book. I was like what? What? Wait a minute, are you blushing? Are you blushing? What is somebody like? Did it just come off the top of your head, or I'm?
Speaker 2:kind of both, because it's like, I mean, like some of the scenes, like when you're you're writing a character and you're like in the moment and you know like there's like tension and like steam building, it's just like, well, why not here? Or like in your mind you're like, well, if it was here, like what could happen or what would happen or what would be like a fantasy to have happen, kind of thing, and then it just kind of comes out so this was all from your mind, like this wasn't no experience, or?
Speaker 1:most of it I'm trying to remember, like all of them, like I don't remember, like let's talk about the first meetup and I know I'm jumping on in, but first of all I just wanted to say and I'm so used to when I read things I'm a very violent little thing when it comes to the book world not me in real life, even though there have been situations. But we're not talking about that. We're talking about when she walked in and the neighbor uh yeah, dorma, I wanted her to knock everything off the fucking counter in the shelves, like what were? Like what was your mindset when you wrote that part? Did you want her to be like this? Like how, how, what was? Like, like I said, I wanted her to shake something.
Speaker 2:She rin was obviously upset, but like she was like tired of. She was like tired of caring about not caring, Because her and Trey's relationship had not been great for a long time and she just felt like over it. And like so she was. She was hurt by it, but she was also just just over it. Like so she was, she was hurt by it, but she was also just just over it. And you know, um, like me personally, when I'm over something like I just want out and so like, even if I'm in a fight or something, sometimes I'm just like you know what, fuck it, fuck you, fuck everybody. I'm out right now, Like I'll deal with this another time, Because right now I just don't have the emotional capacity to deal with it. And that's what Rin did. She was just like fuck both of you, I'm going to pack my shit and I'm out and I'm going to go to my best friend's house and we're going to drink and it's going to go to my best friend's house and we're going to drink and it's going to be great.
Speaker 1:And she did. I was like I was in the whole while reading. I had to go back because I was like, maybe because I like to read at night. So I was like, ok, maybe. So that next day I was like, maybe I skipped, like I skimmed, because she was too, she was too calm, like she packed her stuff up, she was upset, but like for the neighbor to still be in the house while you was getting your stuff together, that was insane to me. Okay, so the characters were they based on anyone or they just kind of came to you? How did we develop these characters?
Speaker 2:So I get story ideas and like I call them like fever dreams. So I'll just like have like a moment where all of a sudden this like thought enters my head and I'm just like what if there's this and this and this happens and they do this? And I'm just like, and then it just like starts like spiraling in my head and that's kind of what happened. Um the accident accidental pregnancy trope, I know like there's a lot of people don't like it and a lot of people do love it I love it I do too, and so it was just one of those things and I was just like, um, what if?
Speaker 2:like what if this girl got knocked up on a one-night stand and he turned out to be some mafia boss? And she had no clue about it? And then I was like, and then how funny would it be if they ran into each other later and like they had like a weird situational impact. And I was like, oh, what if he's her boss? And then it just kind of just kept going from there.
Speaker 1:You literally put like a. I said this is like a melting pot of all the good tropes. We had mafia, we had billionaire, we had secret baby. We had one night stand, first kind of love. It was almost kind of love at first sight, which is it was.
Speaker 2:There was a lot of insta love there. There was a definitely um.
Speaker 1:It was a falling fast kind of thing the fact that he didn't realize who she was, but she knew from his tattoos and stuff. I ate that up let's be clear guys are usually kind of oblivious to things, so and I kept saying, like, I kept waiting for, like the, like the, for it to click, and I kept on wait and I was like, okay, you don't find out now. Okay, he don't find out now. Okay, this is the girl from that. Like you didn't recognize her curves, like again.
Speaker 1:Men are typically oblivious to some things and then I said even though Ran, you gave us a little back story on her towards the end, when she ended up being the law, and I said that I can't like, well, I'm not going, I can't tell y'all because I need y'all to go and watch it. So you know what I'm not going to say, what I was going to say. How do you connect, like disconnect from the characters, like once, because you say you get these fever dreams. So how do you disconnect?
Speaker 2:it's kind of hard. It's like the characters Bowie and Wren were really alive in my head for like a really long time and I still think about to this day like I've had. I had a hard time starting in on new projects because their voices were still so alive in my mind and like writing a new character, which I know has different personalities and things like that, but like still I would have like bleeding thoughts of like what would Bowie do? And it's just like, but this isn't Bowie and so he can't. This new character isn't going to be like Bowie. They're not anywhere near the same and the same thing like Ren, like they're not going to react the same.
Speaker 2:And so it's been really kind of hard to like step away from it. Because when you're writing especially me I kind of fall in love with the characters, like not just like from, like a, like a character, as like their love story, but like I fall in love with them as like I know them, like they seem very real to me, and so it's really hard to like shut the door on them completely, because I can still like feel their like emotions and like what they would do, and so it's. I don't have a good answer on how to shut them off, because I haven't been able to fully shut them off. So does that mean we're gonna have more?
Speaker 2:of them, no, and unfortunately not. Their story is done, but um, it's just really hard to like forget about a character. I guess. Like it'd be the same way like when you're reading a book and like that character just kind of lives rent-free in your head later on. It's just the same way with writers, except their voices are just a little bit more deep so like, so they just don't shut up.
Speaker 1:So do you channel that and, kind of like, change it up into like a new character, into something else that you're writing?
Speaker 2:well, again, I just get like a new idea and I start with that. But, like all um, when I'm writing in that voice, I might think of, I might start to say something that, uh, maybe the male main character that I'm writing now is he's like more unhinged. And I have to remember that this character is more unhinged until I settle into his voice because, like some of Bowie's, like nicer things want to seep in. I'm just like, okay, this character is not at that stage yet, he's still unhinged. And so while I'm settling into his voice, I have to ignore how Bowie was. But it took me, I was writing that story for like six months, and so I with with Bowie and Wren for like six months, um, from when I first got the idea of their story and to the time it was published, and so they were very much a part of my life for six months.
Speaker 1:So how was the publishing part? Like, how was that process? Because we're an indie author, did you do India, are you Andy or we're Andy, so, author, did you do indie, are you indie? We're indie. So how was that? Did you have to go out and get an editor? Did you have friends to help edit?
Speaker 2:I have two really amazing friends. One of them is the grammar police and she loves it. She finds it very therapeutic to read and and like edit and like do that kind of thing. And then the other one, um, is really great at like pointing out you know issues or plot holes or thoughts um on like well, maybe this action would be better here, like can you give me more here? Like more like the dealt, the developmental kind of thing. And so I trade chapters with them and we read each other's chapters and offer feedback and editing and do that. And so I did that with the book and then I had I had somebody proofread it as well, and then I proofread it as well. Also, of course, I miss things that arc readers found, like little typos here or there, because you can only stare at something so long before it looks.
Speaker 1:Everything looks the same, or you're just glancing over it. So the people who helped with your proofread are they authors too? Or what did you find? Are they people?
Speaker 2:you know they are authors. I met them on Instagram.
Speaker 1:I met them on Instagram. Listen, I asked that because I love how the book community on Instagram and TikTok you meet so many different amazing people, and this is the aspects that I love about it.
Speaker 2:I was like I wonder where she met these? Or did she meet them on like Instagram or TikTok? Yep, they were actually. They're authors. They've been authors longer than I have and I'm a big fan of their books, read their books and I did some beta reading for one of them and when I was beta reading for her, we kind of started talking a little bit more about books and things like that and so the friendship kind of developed there and she was already friends with this other author. She recommended her books. So I read her books, loved them. I'm intrusive by nature so I slid into her DMs and told her how much I loved her books and then we just started chatting also and then it just kind of evolved into a group chat. What man, so have you taken any writing classes or anything?
Speaker 1:before writing your, and then it just kind of evolved into a group chat. What man so have you taken any writing classes or anything before writing your books?
Speaker 2:Or are you just kind of Just high school?
Speaker 1:English. Wait, so you mean to tell me you have not taken any writing classes and you came out with this masterpiece?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I went to school to be a hairstylist like I'm licensed in cosmetology.
Speaker 1:shut up I'm an institution. See, I knew we were. But they say birds of a feather flock together exactly so we are going to go to a quick commercial break, but when we get back I want to know about Cousin. And when is book two coming out? So make sure you guys stay tuned, don't go anywhere so we can ask more about her business and her business.
Speaker 3:It's about tradition, value and community. We're Creed and Creed and we're proud to call Northeast Louisiana home. Catherine and I raised our family here, we worship here and we serve here. It's an honor to support the community that has given us so much Tradition, value and community. That's Creed and Creed. If you've been injured in an accident, call Creed and Creed today, proudly serving this great community for over 25 years.
Speaker 1:Thank you guys for sticking with us and staying tuned. Now, ms Dharma, book two Cousin Dewey.
Speaker 2:I don't know Rocco. Everybody loved Rocco. Well, for the most part, everybody loved Rocco and his little tell. But if anybody's getting a story next, it would be Dallas, andrea or Bowie's sister Nikki. But the characters got to talk to me.
Speaker 1:I'd like to write those stories and I've had some ideas on them, but neither none of the characters have started talking to me enough yet to get going oh my god, I just knew I was gonna hear about Rocco and his wife who, like I, like the dynamic between him and his wife and then like the change that he's doesn't season him, that he's married god damn it. Like I was just playing this out, like I just knew what was gonna be next. I do that a lot just be playing people books and they'd be like no, that's just that. Next, alexis, that is not what we doing. Went well. It's hard to choose between the sister and then Dallas, andrea, who the sister thought was going with Rin. She was excellent. Uh, wasn't that sister at the front desk? The secretary? Uh.
Speaker 1:Cammie, yes, she thought that they were going to. Dallas's sister yes, okay then. So now is it have you started writing already? Do we have like a projected?
Speaker 2:I haven't. I've got. I've just got loose ideas on their stories of um, some ideas of what would happen um with it and like some dynamics, but I haven't oh my god.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm glad it didn't land on the cliffhanger that you didn't leave was.
Speaker 2:I couldn't do that. I, I don't think I could. I won't say never because, like I can't say that, uh, but I don't think I could ever end a book on a cliffhanger and not immediately know what was coming next and start right into it, because I hate that. I hate reading a book and not knowing and like ending on a cliffhanger, which I will hold off reading a series if so, if it's like a trilogy and only like one book's out, I won't read it until all the books are out, so I can just go all the way through. Because that happened to me once.
Speaker 2:I was reading a book, went in blind, didn't know that it continued, and the next book wasn't out, and I was so flustered that I was just I was like absolutely, not, never again. So now I like research the books, make sure they are all out, and I will wait until they are all out and then I will just go straight through them all it's like what it like you, the cliffhanger, and like I already know they're feeling, oh, it'd be pissing me off so bad.
Speaker 2:I will be sitting and I'm like clicking my Kindle and it just like pops up and it's just like asking me for my rating and I'm just like, absolute fuck, not, I want more pages now. And I'm just like, and I just get so frustrated and, like I said, that happened once. After happening I was like never again I will research the books before I started, because I I can't do that. I don't have the emotional capacity for it.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad I'm not the only one in that type of boat or situation, honey. So city of wind and lies was actually not your first work, correct? We were on a paper chapter. Can you tell us about go ahead?
Speaker 2:one of the first books I wrote was alpha's blessed mate on a paper chapter app, and it's a paranormal slow burn, wolf shifters kind of thing, less smutty, but that's where I started reading paranormal and so like a paranormal story was the first that came to my head. But I also read a lot of things, and so then I developed from there. But city of women lives was the first book that I released on kindle unlimited. Oh, so it was my first mafia book too, so so you went from shifter to mafia.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep. Which one did you enjoy writing like was it easier to write one than the other one.
Speaker 2:Uh, not necessarily, um, because they were. They're both. They were both different, but I read so many different things also that it was just it's just a story, like I just like connect with the story and the characters and I thought, if I can read in multiple genres, why can't I write in multiple genres? Because if the story's talking to me, I'm going to write the story.
Speaker 1:Is there another app that we can read the alphas?
Speaker 2:Your ships are bookowing one. It's available on amazon on kindle. You can buy the ebook on kindle direct. Oh, you can buy the ebook on kindle?
Speaker 1:mm-hmm, I did not know that. So I do have to ask, because when I started reading in the paper chapter things, when I started reading about the shifters and omega verse and stuff about that by wolves and stuff, they were not talking about knotting and all of this um, other stuff do you have not?
Speaker 2:in your book. I don't um, so I um from what I've learned, knotting kind of came more like the omega verse. So I um and I could be completely wrong, but just like from what I read and what I saw available in apps when I was reading on apps is that like the like shifters kind of shifters was like one thing, but then there was more like deeper levels of shifter and that's where like the nodding aspects and that kind of Omega verse and the rankings, like a deeper level. So there's just like basic shifters and then there's like it's levels to this.
Speaker 1:Did not know that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I stumbled into a book that had nodding and I read the scene and I was like and I had to reread it again. I was like I had a.
Speaker 1:I reread it again I was like okay, what, what book was it?
Speaker 2:I don't even remember. It was on one of those apps and I crossed the scene and I was, and then he gave me full pause and I was like and then I reread it again, I was like okay, I wasn't expecting that, but here we go, okay it's fine, mine's what.
Speaker 1:And I did it. It may have been a couple of months ago. It was called made for the alphas and it was like made like m-a-i-d. Because she ended up being like a maid for this group of alphas and she kind of left her um community or her pack because she had never been able to shift or she wasn't. Uh, what did I call him a lunar aluna or um, I can't think of the name of it, but she wasn't. She didn't have any like wolf capabilities or anything until she got and started working around these. But she didn't know they were um alphas or wolves at first until she started working for them and stuff. And then it started falling forward. But in the beginning of the book they had all of these vocabularies but I had never heard of that out of all the books that I was reading at first and stuff I that was my first interaction with like not in in a rut and like. It had a whole glossary, and so now I'm like so now.
Speaker 1:So when you said that I was, like I wonder did, did she have a glossary? And so now I'm like so now. So when you said that I was like I wonder, did she have a glossary? Is she?
Speaker 2:did she write like no cuz, my shifter book was pretty pretty your average shifter kind of world basic rules did you do any world building? There's a little bit because it's said in obviously not like the United States or something like that sentence. It's a world. It's not mentioned like a name, but there's like a little bit of world building and like territories and there's a king and dynamics of how the packs are run and how they in our work with each other so there gonna.
Speaker 1:Are you gonna do a series of that one, or are we just a standalone? Why do I want?
Speaker 2:series. I just I just write standalones but I write there's side characters in all my standalones that could always end up having their own stories. People want one of the side characters in that shifter story. Um, people have asked for his uh, the side character story and if it comes to me, it comes to me. I'll write it, but I can't force it. I mean I could, but I can't promise it'd be a good book if I try to force it and we wouldn't want you to force it because we already know what you're capable of.
Speaker 1:And you're a bit because when I tell you city of wind and lies was so freaking good and I'm a, I'm like like I and I like to say I'm paying tropes because I love all the tropes, especially the tropes who are like the cheating trope that was on there and I'm like it wasn't between, like the main character, so I wasn't really worried about trey with the cheating and stuff like, and I've read books where it was with the main character but still, like I say, he pan-tropical. Oh, I know what I wanted to say. I kind of, I kind of do, but I don't because it's it gets the way trey met his demise.
Speaker 1:I felt so played because I wanted him his kneecaps, like when stuff started coming to the forefront, I wanted, like I said but don't go judging me, al, because I already told you, I already said that I was a little violent thing when it comes to the book world like I wanted his kneecaps and toes, but like it was quick, I was like what the fuck. Like when it, I was like what the fuck.
Speaker 2:I mean he had, he had, like he had some redeeming qualities at the end.
Speaker 1:He did. He did. Okay, look, now that you say that I'm still side-eyeing it, dorma, it's just I don't know. Look, I need to go pray because I can see, see my, I can see my family. Not like something is wrong with you. People always think something be wrong with us when we be like, when we like dark books. But I read a lot of dark, a lot of dark books. So what's the darkest book you've?
Speaker 2:read um. I can't remember the exact name of it, but the author's name is AA Dark.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, you don't have to say anything else. Was it the Mad Girl?
Speaker 2:series. No, it was one of the Garden of Gods novellas. It was one of the shorter books and did not have a happy uh ever after, and so, um, that was probably one of the darkest books I've read in regard in regards to like not having like a happy ever after. Um, but other than that I've. I just I read like I haven't found anything to be a trigger yet. Maybe, so, I just keep going and I'm not trying to find a trigger, but nothing has stopped me.
Speaker 1:I always say I feel like I've been desensitized, because like stuff that I know should probably be like girl. What's her? Oh my God. I just recently read and I was just like girl. There's like not really happy ending and it's like so cringe, but I can't put it down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just read not too long ago I read Pet Motel by Kitty King and MA Cobb and it's also not a. It does not have, it's a novella, doesn't have a happy ever after and there was like a moment in there when I was like and it's dark, it's dark, it's great. Quick read, loved it. I actually like creepy smile like for it because like there was like a part that made me laugh and like I felt unhinged for laughing in the middle of this like super creepy book. But was it a paranormal? Nope, it is an erotic horror thriller.
Speaker 1:Was this a book? Is it? Has it been a circulate? Why do I still feel like I've seen this circulating on TikTok?
Speaker 2:It released maybe a week ago, two weeks ago, okay, but it's a short little read, great read. It's on Kindle Unlimited. Did you post about it? I posted my stories when I read it, maybe that's where I've seen it.
Speaker 1:I've seen it like recently, but now that you say that I'm going to have to go edit on my Everlasting TBR I know a TBR hate to see me comment.
Speaker 2:Don't they all?
Speaker 1:Well, I thank you so much for joining us today. Can you let us know?
Speaker 2:where we can follow you at. Well, I thank you so much for joining us today. Can you let us know where we can follow you at? You can follow me on Instagram at Dharma underscore day, and from there you can find links to my Facebook that I'm not very active on. You can follow me on Amazon my author account there. You can also follow me on Goodreads and see what I read as well, and you can also follow me on goodreads and see what I read as well and I. You can also follow me on tiktok, but, again, I'm not very active there. I haven't figured it out, so I just stick to the.
Speaker 1:I just stick to instagram tiktok is like a learning curve and that's why I stick to tiktok and sometimes I feel be forgetting. I have like a book, a bookstagram or instagram and I'm like, oh, shoot to go check that and then. But I'm more active on tiktok. So, but my, I actually found you from a book bestie that I met on tiktok um toyah is reading smut. Yep, she was like, oh, my god, you gotta go and read this book. I know you love mafia, I know you love billionaire and I know you love all the tropes and stuff. She was like she literally put all of them into one. You gotta go read this. And I went and scooped it up and fell in love with it so thank you, toya I appreciate toys.
Speaker 1:She have all good rings, I'm good. So again, thank you and until next time, you guys. Episode.