By Cora Carmack on April 29, And if he just so happens to also be a sexy athlete with a wee bit of a dominant edge? For you! Just follow these three easy stepsβ¦. My US publisher is covering the cost of this promotion, so they decide the restrictions. I debated for awhile about how to share this, and an open letter seemed like the best wayβ¦so here we are! The first person who read one of my Rusk University books was my older sister.
At the time, I told her no. I had plans for both of them that included their own storylines. I thought they were too much alike. So I actually rewrote some of their scenes trying to make that aspect of their connection more obvious. I denied it again and again and again. But sometimes in writing, the stars align and a character will become bigger and more real than you could have possibly imagined.
While I was writing All Broke Down, the news was inundated with information about the Steubenville rape trial and other tragedies and injustices like it. Tragedies where women have been violated first by an attacker, then by judgmental and hateful people, and finally by a justice system that repeatedly fails survivors of sexual assault. Having grown up in Texas, where too often football stars are treated like gods and can get away with just about anything, it hit particularly close to home.
And since All Broke Down featured a passionate activist heroine, I felt compelled to reference this chronic dark underbelly of elite sports. I can remember vividly sitting on my couch, brainstorming how I would incorporate such an event into the book. I had thought the assault would happen to an unknown character, and maybe I would focus on the way it divided the team and the school and the town.
But like I said⦠Sometimes a character will become bigger and more human than I anticipated. This is my story. Sob, really. Because I loved her as a character. Even as I cried, my brain began to tell me that it made sense. Stella is vibrant and enjoys a wild party. The kind of girl who could be heinously and violently taken advantage of, and people would STILL blame her. Because she was in the wrong place, wearing the wrong clothes, behaving in the wrong way. Let me. And Stella needs Ryan to help her hold on to that vibrant and strong girl she was before.
