Guest Post & Giveaway by Author Jack L. Pyke: Breakdown Behind the Scene

Please help me in welcoming the brilliantly talented Jack L. Pyke, whose latest erotic thriller, Breakdown, is released today! Breakdown is the third novel in the Don’t series and part of the Society of Masters shared world project. Disclaimer: My character, Trace, from Deliver Us, appears in Breakdown but I receive no financial gain from its sale, I just get to have a whole lot of fun seeing how Ms. Pyke handles him… Scroll down for giveaway information!

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Breakdown_CvrPDF-260x400Hi, Lynn, thank you for allowing me to borrow your blog and for allowing me to look at a little insight behind Breakdown.

Hand on heart, I honestly didn’t think much could top the psychological stresses of Antidote: all the isolation from society, torture, and attempts to ‘cure’ a disability, along with a harsh look at the very brutal corrective-rape culture. The level of mental deconstruction that Jack Harrison went through wasn’t something that could have an easy fix, and Antidote (even Don’t… in a way) looked very much into the cause and effect of psychological reconditioning, or more how Jan’s, Gray’s, and Jack’s lives were slowly broken down through it. Those two novels dealt largely with mind games, but the settings weren’t fixed, allowing room for Jack to walk away when life became too much.

The one issue that really niggled, and that needed further explanation in my eyes, was the rehabilitation of someone who has been through such physical, sexual, and mental levels of abuse, and in a place where they couldn’t run and hide. With how Gray knew he needed distance for Jack to heal, it didn’t seem right that the reader missed that important part of Jack’s life, where Jack’s darkness is at its worst when he’s forced to face the fallout.

I’ve got to admit here, though, I almost—almost—bit off more than I could chew with Breakdown.

The setting in Breakdown shifts to Jack’s time in a psychiatric unit. Even without the complication of being attached to the Master’s Circle and hidden behind government walls, a psychiatric unit isn’t an easy location to pin down. Here the old “Write what you know, research what you don’t” comes firmly into play. Looking into treatments, recreational plans, and just the general day-to-day living inside a psychiatric unit took so much research, and generally pushed me outside of my comfort zones as a writer. But every author has their private sources, and the ones I came into contact with (from both the staff and patient side of those in a psychiatric unit), they’ll forever hold my sanity in their hands. I’ve never been more humbled than when I was given real insight into a working psychiatric unit.

Added to this, Jack’s BDSM lifestyle plays a very important part in the portrayal of state of mind, with Breakdown going back to the origins of an eighteen-year-old Switch who’s trying very much to fight a rising submissive side. Antidote looked at twisting Jack’s reality of BDSM, but Breakdown looks into how Jack runs with the idea that he has to be forced into submission in order to justify his enjoyment in submission. This then allowed Gray’s hard influence on Jack to come in, and at a time when Jack is going down very dark paths in his youth, it’s the one part I’ve really loved, and I mean loved, tackling.

This in no way leaves Jan out of the picture. This series is written in a way that looks into how healing occurs at different times with different people, and also how sometimes people get missed and lost in the crossfire. But for Breakdown itself, I wanted to give a sense of pure isolation for both Jack and Jan at this point, how that isolation is needed to help bridge the distance that Vince has forced between them. Which is why Jack’s point of view comes in purely with Breakdown. Don’t and Antidote used a mix of Jan’s and Jack’s, but that didn’t give me the isolated feel that was needed to help the healing process.

Throughout this series, it’s been hard not to play favourites with these three men. They all bring such a different flavour to the series, with the dynamics of each one revealed at different bursts through each novel. Gray will always intrigue me the most. He’s such an easily drawn man in one hand: he gets the job done despite the technique used, but there’s a deeper and very dark element that almost depicts how he revels in a side that twists Jack’s nightmares, only Gray has the control and will to feed and control it. I like to play with flaws, and Gray comes with so many when it comes to Jack. Knowing how words get spoken to hurt in the heat of the moment, I wanted that coldness, just that downright drive to take someone down when someone gets too close, regardless of who it was. But with Gray, there’s that deep history with Jack that Breakdown brings to light, and, hopefully, his motivations, drives, and intensity are understood a little more.

As for where the end of Breakdown leaves Jan, Jack, and Gray as it moves into the final novel…. it’s not going to be an easy finish for them. There’s an element at work throughout the series that still wants to see them struggle and fall, and they’re pushing for it at every turn. Strong international help from Lynn Kelling’s Trace, Gabe, and Dare from the Deliver Us series helps to pull them to their feet, but Gray Matters will get to see just how dark Jan, Jack, and Gray are when it comes to the final threats against them as a triad.

Or, and not forgetting Martin, how all the mind games have been mere foreplay.

Thanks very much for having me today, Lynn. It’s been really good getting to talk about Breakdown.

CLICK HERE FOR LINKS TO BUY, READ AN EXCERPT & MORE

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GIVEAWAY

Jack L. Pyke is giving away a FREE ebook copy of Breakdown! For your chance to win, just leave a comment below. A winner will be randomly selected on Saturday, August 23, 2014.

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Visit Jack L. Pyke’s website | Like her page on Facebook

Threshold – A Lynn Kelling Anthology

SoMThreshold_CvrPRTI’m thrilled to announce that Threshold, a collection of short stories within the Society of Masters, will be released September 9! It will contain these short stories (featuring characters from Deliver Us and Whatever the Cost):

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY OF THRESHOLD, NOW!

Though they may be short, these stories are dark, dirty and not for the faint of heart. Before Liam and Jacen struggle to break free of life as prostitutes working for their employer, The Company, in Whatever the Cost, they had different names and sinister enemies. Jacen was Travis Saxon, a farm boy with a devil living next door. Liam was Avery Williams, a near homeless teenager aged out of the foster care system, trying to survive the challenges of poverty.

Expected Lies, Divine Surrender and Never Happened all take place before the events of Deliver Us. It’s prom night for high school seniors, Darrek and Kyle, in Expected Lies. Ben meets a troubled teen named Kyle Roth looking for just the right Master to tame him in Divine Surrender. Gabriel and Ben’s relationship is not without its complications in Never Happened. Pleasures of Paradise takes place after Deliver Us but before From Temptation. Gabriel and Darrek celebrate their two year anniversary with a months-long trip to a tropical island in the Florida Keys catering to the Masters and slaves of the BDSM community.

Escape blurb: Marriage, new names and a fresh start have helped Liam and Jacen Timothy leave their old lives behind. Now safer and deeply in love, Liam persuades Jacen to share part of his past he never has been able to before. Many years earlier and while home on break from college, Jacen, formerly Travis Saxon, was in a car accident which broke both of his legs. Travis thought he had finally escaped the man who preyed upon him since he was a young boy. Recovering at his family’s farm from his injuries, caring for Dennis, his seriously injured younger brother, Travis is unable to run when his predator, a neighbor named Brian Andrews, comes and seeks him out. Blackmail and threats move Travis to cooperate, for the sake of helpless, beloved Dennis. As Travis is consumed by a truly terrible, horribly familiar nightmare, it’s his instincts and knack for survival against all odds that reveals to him, at long last, the way out. (M/M)

Trick and Truth blurb: Avery Williams needs to be someone else. Anyone else would be an escape from the harsh reality facing him. Tonight, that someone is Jimmy, his roommate, who goes dancing at the gay clubs in the city. As Jimmy, Avery finds what he needs—sex with a stranger who pays handsomely for the privilege. But once the fantasy has ended, all that’s left is the painful, unavoidable truth waiting at home. (M/M)

Between Here and There blurb: Ever the tease, Avery Williams leads his lover, Timothy, on a chase that brings them to Ben Franklin bridge spanning the Delaware River. Behind them is Camden and their daily struggle to stay off the streets. Before them is the vibrant, elusive promise of the future. Trapped between, Avery lets himself be caught by the boy who owns his heart. Dreams and demons alike lie in wait as Avery gives Timothy yet another piece of himself in the hopes that it will somehow save them both. (M/M)

Expected Lies blurb: As Darrek reluctantly prepares for prom night, Kyle watches on with amusement. Darrek is frustrated with Kyle’s lack of interest in bringing a girl to the prom and staying by his side, but Kyle is unphased by his best friend’s increasingly strange emotional responses. Kyle has plans of his own that involve far less fancy clothing—far less clothing at all, really. Little does he know the extent of Darrek’s determination to get what he wants. (M/M)

Divine Surrender blurb: When Ben Knox discovers a clean-cut, blond, apparently-straight teenager named Kyle Roth in his office, looking for a professional Dominant, instinct draws him in. Since the exceedingly particular Kyle has already passed on fellow Dominants-for-hire, Gabriel and Trace, Ben digs down beneath first impressions to expose Kyle’s true motivations. Reassured by Ben’s straightforward approach, Kyle demonstrates his willingness to obey and, quickly, their contract is signed. But, skillful as Kyle is at masquerading as the person the world expects him to be out of self-preservation, Ben has plenty of experience dealing with bruised souls. Kyle’s bruises, though, go deep and the vulnerable darkness that Kyle tries to hide lures Ben in and takes them both farther than either is prepared to go.  (M/M)

Never Happened blurb: For Gabriel Hunter, a professional Dominant, avoiding real intimacy is paramount. Even the cautious love he has for his closest friend—fellow Dominant Ben Knox—is a potential source of further pain. Ben knows all about the shadows in Gabriel’s past. Every once in a while, when the opportunity presents itself, Ben can’t resist giving Gabriel a sample of what he’s been missing. (M/M)

Pleasures of Paradise blurb: To celebrate their two year anniversary, Gabriel Hunter and Darrek Grealey escape to a tropical island in the Florida Keys catering only to Masters and slaves of the BDSM community. The types of gifts Darrek and Gabriel give each other during the trip are vastly different, testing them both even as they fall deeper in love, rediscovering the pleasures of the power dynamic which first caused them to fall in love. As the end of their trip draws near, Gabriel plans a surprise for Darrek unlike anything he’s previously faced. Darrek is forced to choose between his instinct to doubt himself and the chance to trust Gabriel in ways he’s never dreamed possible. (M/M)