Devon Ashley
Oh, boy. This might be a little longwinded.
At the time, I was actually trying to write Catacombs (again.) Problem was, I was on a romance-writing binge and Catacombs was more about the urban fantasy than the little romance that flowed through it. I was frustrated and whining (yes, whining) to a writer buddy of mine that I wasn’t getting anything done. (I won’t name drop, but I will abbreviate drop – lol) JAR suggested I shove the story aside again and just write what my head wants to write. Said Catacombs would suck if my head wasn’t in it anyways.
I agreed. But what the hell did my head want me to write then? After soaking in a thirty minute bath, I came out with the basics for Nearly Broken, and I was so eager to get started I wrote 5K that first day. I knew I wanted to write about a girl on the run. But what inspired me to take the sex trafficking angle? I had recently watched a movie based on true accounts about that very same thing. The Whistleblower. It was one of those movies that stuck with you, you know? And I just couldn’t get that awful world of sex trafficking out of my head and the pain of those girls suffering through it. I’m not naïve. I know it goes on in the US right under our noses, so I wanted that to be Megan’s background story.
Originally, I had planned to make Nearly Broken a standalone about a girl trying to lose the need to hide as she slowly made her way through recovery. But nothing I ever write goes as planned - that’s why I don’t bother with outlines anymore. The story kept changing with me as I wrote. I had always intended on having flashbacks of her slavery and being physically damaged by her efforts to escape, but I had no idea I’d write what I did with the last 30%. That wasn’t the kind of story I typically wrote, but hell if it didn’t come out. And my body seriously ached after writing those scenes.
Yep, this was totally me at times coming to terms with what I had written...
And sometimes even...
When I finished Nearly Broken, I realized I wasn’t done with Megan yet. I could’ve let it end there like I had planned, but I wanted to bring a little more awareness to the sex trafficking world. Even though we occasionally have something pop up in the news, as a country, we’re pretty naïve when it comes to human trafficking, especially when it occurs on our own soil. There are scenes in Nearly Mended that focus on that sick world of organized trafficking, and Nearly Undone will take you in even deeper. A lot of people won’t be able to stomach it – probably because they realize it’s happening somewhere right now, maybe even right down the road. Maybe even in your neighbor’s basement. Or maybe they just can’t stomach the way I let Megan’s emotions spill off the page, making them feel like they’re right there with her, experiencing every horrible act right along beside her.
This trilogy isn’t easy to read, but beneath the harshness lies stories of love and determination and the strength to keep moving forward that makes it worth pushing through for.
At the time, I was actually trying to write Catacombs (again.) Problem was, I was on a romance-writing binge and Catacombs was more about the urban fantasy than the little romance that flowed through it. I was frustrated and whining (yes, whining) to a writer buddy of mine that I wasn’t getting anything done. (I won’t name drop, but I will abbreviate drop – lol) JAR suggested I shove the story aside again and just write what my head wants to write. Said Catacombs would suck if my head wasn’t in it anyways.
I agreed. But what the hell did my head want me to write then? After soaking in a thirty minute bath, I came out with the basics for Nearly Broken, and I was so eager to get started I wrote 5K that first day. I knew I wanted to write about a girl on the run. But what inspired me to take the sex trafficking angle? I had recently watched a movie based on true accounts about that very same thing. The Whistleblower. It was one of those movies that stuck with you, you know? And I just couldn’t get that awful world of sex trafficking out of my head and the pain of those girls suffering through it. I’m not naïve. I know it goes on in the US right under our noses, so I wanted that to be Megan’s background story.
Originally, I had planned to make Nearly Broken a standalone about a girl trying to lose the need to hide as she slowly made her way through recovery. But nothing I ever write goes as planned - that’s why I don’t bother with outlines anymore. The story kept changing with me as I wrote. I had always intended on having flashbacks of her slavery and being physically damaged by her efforts to escape, but I had no idea I’d write what I did with the last 30%. That wasn’t the kind of story I typically wrote, but hell if it didn’t come out. And my body seriously ached after writing those scenes.
Yep, this was totally me at times coming to terms with what I had written...
And sometimes even...
When I finished Nearly Broken, I realized I wasn’t done with Megan yet. I could’ve let it end there like I had planned, but I wanted to bring a little more awareness to the sex trafficking world. Even though we occasionally have something pop up in the news, as a country, we’re pretty naïve when it comes to human trafficking, especially when it occurs on our own soil. There are scenes in Nearly Mended that focus on that sick world of organized trafficking, and Nearly Undone will take you in even deeper. A lot of people won’t be able to stomach it – probably because they realize it’s happening somewhere right now, maybe even right down the road. Maybe even in your neighbor’s basement. Or maybe they just can’t stomach the way I let Megan’s emotions spill off the page, making them feel like they’re right there with her, experiencing every horrible act right along beside her.
This trilogy isn’t easy to read, but beneath the harshness lies stories of love and determination and the strength to keep moving forward that makes it worth pushing through for.
More Answered Questions
A Goodreads user
asked
Devon Ashley:
Will you ever write something like the Nearly series again? It's a great series. I love when the heroine can't resist the villain.
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Aug 24, 2015 05:50PM