Sometimes romantic partnerships are perfect from day one and never need to change. Or so we’re told. In real life, stuff changes, and partnerships that last will change along the way. That’s what happens in UNDERTOW, where Vicky and her wife Sharon discover that ‘happily married’ leaves room for one more person. Click the image below for product link!
Cover image by Engin Akyurt @enginakyurt unsplash.com
Three key things about UNDERTOW:
it’s a F/F/M polyamorous romance. This book is about the negotiations (in and out of bed) between spouses and the third consenting adult who joins their relationship.
it’s a Hollywood story. Vicky and Sharon are part of a community of creatives; over the years, they’ve been involved to varying degrees in different projects, including a movie. Vicky has her second movie role in this book. Marco, their third, is a full-time professional actor.
it’s set 2019-2021, which means a good bit of the action takes place during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One might assume that a book with three main characters would have lots more sex than a book with two. There is definitely sex (in several combinations) in UNDERTOW. It’s not erotica, however, so the sex is part of the increasingly-complex relationship.
Another thing to know: UNDERTOW is a continuation of pre-existing relationship arcs, including one that begins with my novella GETTING OFF (now available free for download at Prolific Works!). It can be read without reference to the earlier work, though you might enjoy reading that too.
In April 2020, I (like many people) was seriously stressed out by the pandemic and desperate to feel like I had some control over something. My characters are very present for me: I have complete life stories laid out for most of them. When the world changes, I think: what would so-and-so be doing in response to this. The result was a series of vignettes - 33 of them! - compiled as ‘a day in the life,’ all set on March 23, 2020.
The ‘day in the life’ vignettes for Vicky & Sharon and for Marco made it into UNDERTOW with only minor revisions, because a surprising thing happened as I wrote the vignettes: Marco and his wife Cameron broke up. And then Marco began a relationship with Vicky and Sharon.
It was a wacky idea, or it would’ve been if I hadn’t already written a polyamorous romance (A BRAID OF LOVE). The thing is, Vicky is a lot. I mean a lot a lot. It was very easy for me to imagine that Sharon (also bisexual) would at some point be more concerned with how else Vicky could be satisfied in life than with the degree to which she, herself, is the source of satisfaction. Sharon’s motivation is long-term happiness and stability together, not conventional notions of fidelity. She’s the one who first suggests finding a third.
So what can I promise you with UNDERTOW? Alternating first-person chapters from Vicky and Marco; a home life that’s pretty darned normal (for the women: married with a child, living in a rental, working full-time at law firms); an acting career that’s still in the building phase (Marco is not a superstar and probably will never be; he has to go where the work is); plenty of support from friends and family; low angst; and a happy ending.
P.S. this book actually started in 2019 as something completely different, something more about the movie-inside-the-book; it wasn’t a romance. But obviously I’m all about the love connections, so it wasn’t progressing. After the day-in-the-life revelation I finally had somewhere to go with it. Happy reading!