Inspiration comes from many sources. Some sources are so inspiring, you feel compelled to create. Of course, nothing compels me to write books more than other books.

Why I felt compelled to write this series.

I’d read a book by a renowned author, deceased in 1961, named Ernest Hemingway. (I’m about to give away all the details of The Sun Also Rises so if you plan to read this book, stop reading this post here.) The book had a huge impact on me. It was so huge in fact, I was compelled to write its complete opposite.

The Sun Also Rises is a story about a man attached to a woman, whom he can never be with because… well… she likes sex and he can’t perform. He’s impotent. Hemingway takes you on an enchanted journey through Europe set in a time that makes history seem both eloquent and chaotic, which is a reflection of the hero’s life. The hero is a good man but he resides in chaos like most heroes, caught in a neverending battle of injustice that ends tragically. He can never be with the woman he loves.

I hated the ending. And when I say I hated the ending, I really mean I hated the power this book had over me, which really means I absolutely loved the book.

But I could not get over the devastation. I could not accept how love could not conquer all… and so Elliot Crowe was born.

Elliot was very similar to Hemingway’s hero in that he was bright, charming, loyal, and appreciative of both the small as well as finer things in life. In terms of physicality, however, I made Elliot exactly the opposite of Hemingway’s character. Except, Elliot would be forced to face the same problem since childhood-wanting a woman he couldn’t have. And instead of being impotent, I made Elliot well endowed and libidinous.

My mind was still not appeased. Elliot was still not enough to get over the tragedy of Hemingway’s book! And so, the other NIM Lords were also born. I made four of them. It took four smart and stubborn fellas to counteract the impact that Hemingway’s book had on me.

Of course, our characters are different and I could never presume to write like a Pulitzer Prize winner, but I did want to keep some similarities. Jaxon is the embodiment of Hemingway himself-an author at the mercy of physical ailments beyond his control. Don is a true hero, the type of character Hemingway’s heroine would’ve tripped over her own heels for.

And then there’s Nick. He’s the opposite of everything. Nick is exactly what Hemingway’s hero is not. He isn’t pleasant. He isn’t sweet. He’s not the type you fall in love with until it’s too late and you realize you’ve loved him all along. There are just those bastards you fall for. Hard. He’s the type of guy you wish would notice you-see you through the band of beautiful women blocking your view. The guy who’s so bad, you wonder what it might be like to experience him and all that bad attitude. He knows what he wants. He gets what he wants and rather than allowing some women to tease and toy with him, he beats them at their own game before the game clock even starts.

Instead of having Nick’s story ending tragically, however, I decided to write the opposite of Hemingway and begin Nick’s tale, along with the entire Bang Lords series, in devastation – a fire.

And the women? Truthfully, I don’t know much about what it means to be popular or the prom queen. I had to do a lot of research on that, watching reruns of Sixteen Candles and Can’t Hardly Wait, which added to the fun.

You might be also wondering how the little white pill came into the picture. The Bang? I’m ashamed to say, I named the geeks NIM first, but it didn’t sound like a good name for a series. So, I named them Bang Lords. Unlike the honorable Hemingway, I’m a lady with a lascivious mind and I like the word Bang. It’s explosively naughty like the Lords of NIM. I created the pill just so I could keep Bang in the title and wrote the story in hopes I’d fulfill the meaning of the word in more ways than one.

ADDED: I forgot to mention that when I think of tragic stories, I always think of Romeo and Juliet. Instead of poison being the reason for the couple’s end (death), I also decided to write the opposite, making the Bang the reason for each Lord to get to exactly where he wanted to go…

Check out Up Her

Book 1 of Bang Lords

by Dani Stowe