🐺 Cookie, the Cliff, and a Writer at War

Ok, if you aren’t aware — I wrote an indie book called Alpha, Undone. Not a hit, but I had a story I wanted to tell, so I did. While I was writing it, I kept picturing two side characters and all the sparks that would fly between them.

Unfortunately, rather than sparks, it may as well have been blood.

Cookie does believe in destiny, magic, and fate. She reads signs, burns sage, trusts the universe... unless it has to do with Weston Securities. Then it’s all conspiracies and evil plots.

That’s where I am right now. I’ve finally gotten Cookie to maybe see past her own issues — and maybe she can move forward — but do I want her to? I’ve written nineteen chapters, broken Kyle’s heart, and they’ve barely had a conversation that didn’t end with Cookie calling him evil or a kidnapper.

Connor and Sara were effortless — two souls who met halfway. Cookie and Kyle? Nope. Kyle holds out his hand, and Cookie might as well spit on it.

Sara actually pegged it when she confronted Cookie:

“I think maybe you just liked the idea of seeing deeper—until the truth didn’t fit the story you’d already decided to tell.”

There are days I think Cookie’s the villain of her own story — self-righteous, fearful, punishing. There are nights I reread chapters and wonder if I even like her anymore… or if I ever did.

Maybe I’m too much like Sara. I thought Cookie would be this wild, free-spirited hippie who could balance Kyle’s logic. Nope. She’s a bigoted, narrow-minded mess who doesn’t deserve him. Kyle’s funny and geeky and steady — he deserves someone who trusts, believes, and loves without turning everything into a fight.

So, yes — I’ve started plotting a new course.
She’d be a friend of Sara’s, maybe a journalist who’d been overseas before the wedding. Maybe she’s hiding out after uncovering a dangerous story. She could stay in Redwood Falls for a while, butting heads with Kyle as she digs into the pack’s secrets. It could even lean more suspense than romance.

And there it is: spinning, spinning, spinning.

Because that means tossing nineteen chapters and rewriting the epilogue of Alpha, Undone.
I can. Maybe I should. Cookie is a bitch.

So that’s where I am — waffling between burning it all down and dragging the story back from the cliff.

And that’s where you come in.

I’m opening beta sign-ups for the messy, half-finished draft so you can tell me if this book should live or if I should let it fall off the cliff with its heroine.

👉 Sign up to beta read Genius, Unleashed

You’ll get the draft as it stands — chaotic, emotional, unfinished — and a short feedback form asking:

• Should I finish this story?

• Does Cookie deserve redemption or reality?

• Is Kyle better off finding peace somewhere else?

• Do you want to see about this Journalist and Kyle?

I don’t know which answer I want—but I know I need to ask.

Thank you for reading, for believing, and for reminding me that even authors don’t get to control fate. 💙