While Starling and Doves are under lock and key as we go into the editorial process with our publisher, there was one person beyond the first readers that helped us through our initial process who we’ve let read the books.

It’s Erin’s mom.

And she’s really into them and can’t wait for the next installment. Although she tells us she skips over the sex.

Which didn’t stop me from getting this hilarious email from Erin five minutes ago because her mom has just finished Doves:

I just talked to my mom.

Who was like “YOU NEVER ANSWERED MY QUESTION WHAT DID VICTOR DO TO THEM?”

I was like “Oh, that was a specific question? I thought that was like just, rhetorical, oh my god.”

“NO. NO WHAT DID HE DO?”

So now I get to write an email explaining, among other things, subspace to my mother!

Neither Starling nor Doves are BDSM novels, and BDSM isn’t a particularly overt part of any of the characters lives. But circumstances, often non-sexual ones, do crop up that are very much informed by power exchange. These circumstances tend to center around Victor, the creator and showrunner of a popular TV political thriller, who is for some of our characters very much a villain and for others, anything but.

I’m writing this blog post because Erin has to go face her mom. And also because I can’t stop laughing.

P.S. — Victor’s Twitter handle is @TheShowYouHate. Maybe you want to start following it now, so you don’t miss anything when we start letting him out to play.