Hi guys, Karenna Colcroft pops in today with her upcoming release Dawn Over Dayfield, Karenna chats about writing Dawn Over Dayfield, so check out this great book! <3 ~Pixie~

Dawn Over Dayfield

Karenna Colcroft

After the death of his adoptive mother, Andy Forrest decides to track down his biological family. The search leads him to the struggling central Massachusetts town of Dayfield—and local historian Weston Thibeault, the town’s only other openly gay man. With the help of Weston, Andy uncovers secrets about his birth father, the youngest son of the Chaffees, the family that once owned Dayfield’s largest employer, a furniture factory that closed thirty years earlier.

As Andy and Weston work together, they find a connection to a scandal that rocked the Chaffee family over 125 years ago. But small towns like to bury their secrets, and many of the older residents of Dayfield will do anything to stop Andy and Weston from discovering the truth about the town and its inhabitants.

A Whole New Town

Not to mention a whole new genre for me.

In late 2014, I sat down to write a male/male romance for Dreamspinner Press. A friend who was into genealogy had spawned the plot bunny of an adopted man visiting a historical society to check out records on his biological family, and I was excited to see what happened with the story.

What happened was not what I expected. First, I couldn’t set the story in Boston, as I often do with my books, because Boston is not a place where one is likely to find a small town historical society. Fortunately, the friend who planted the story seed grew up in central Massachusetts and had visited libraries and historical societies like the one I wanted for the story, so he helped me create the town of Dayfield.

Dayfield doesn’t exist in real life, but the area, mindset, and economic devastation do. The town is located in central Massachusetts, surrounded by other towns with “field” in the name, along the line of towns that were partially destroyed by a tornado in 2011. The furniture factory that was once the primary employer in Dayfield resembles similar real-life factories that have gone out of business over the past few decades, leaving unemployment and economic downfalls in their wake. While the real-life towns might be in better shape, Dayfield is not anyone’s idea of a pleasant place.

Small towns sometimes bury their secrets, and Dayfield certainly does that. Which is why the novel turned out not to be a romance. Dealing with decades of family connections, cover-ups, and murders, and almost being murdered themselves, made it difficult for my main characters Andy and Weston to do much more than survive. And since the story takes place over the course of only a few days, and I wanted to avoid the so-called “Insta-love” trope, there was no way to develop a relationship between the men. So instead, I ended up with my first suspense novel.

Despite the danger, the negativity of Dayfield, and some of the events of the novel, I enjoyed writing it, and Andy and Weston are among my favorites of my characters. Hopefully readers will like them as well.

~Karenna~

About Karenna

Karenna Colcroft is the alter ego of a shy, sedate wife and mother. She began writing at age five, and since 2009 has had numerous romances published, as well as a number of young adult novels under the pen name Jo Ramsey. Karenna lives in the northeastern United States with her real-life romance hero husband, two offspring, and three cats. Dawn Over Dayfield is her first suspense novel.

Find out more about Karenna and her books on her website, Website | Facebook | Twitter