As time drifted by, and I still had nada, I really spiraled. When you’re bringing out two books a year, you’re crashing the schedule, and though I had a little bit of a tailwind thanks to getting a head start on things, that was being eaten up.
Fine, I thought. I’ll go back to the beginning and see if I can reconnect to things. I started my reread, and when I got to the dreaded Chapter Four (always my nemesis, the transition between the opening and the cruising speed of a book), I was like, I don’t fucking care about length, I just need to fucking type something—
Boom!The lights came back on, and I was tooling again. The relief made me dizzy, and it was my first lesson on the books being in charge. They were not interested in my opinion or mypublisher’s word count worry or anything else. My job was to type, not think.
It’s still like that, by the way. And I’ve always found it ironic that me, who’s such a frickin’ control freak, is ruled by these things I am at the mercy of.
On that note, we come to Vishous, son of the Bloodletter.
Lover Unboundwas the next book in the series, and writing it was a complete fucking nightmare. The whole thing, every word, was like pulling teeth. V never wants to talk to me, but that fucking novel was the nail in our coffin. The punch line? Though Zsadist hit the printed list (not extended), V’s book was the first #1New York Timesbestseller I had.
Again, that wasyou. The fandom was forming, and readers were hopping on board at a rate that was stunning.
Thanks to your support, I was getting used to those Wednesday night calls, but I never celebrated. I was just glad I hadn’t fucked it up—and I kept right on going.Lover Enshrinedwas the sixth in the series, and when Phury was finished, I thought then, and believe now, it’s one of the best books I’ve written. Not everyone agrees, and I totally respect that—in fact, I was being interviewed about Phury’s story and when I said this, the woman balked visibly. I guess I like the interplay between the Wizard and him. I thought it was a really interesting way to represent addiction, and it resonated with me.
And there we have it, the first six books. The canon of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. The launching pad for what’s now over forty installments in the world.
After Phury, we jumped into hardcover withLover Avengedwhich is Rehvenge’s book.’Cuz pimps need love too, as Miss Roni would always say at events. You all followed the Brothers into that format, and by that time, in April of 2009, e-books were also starting to gain traction thanks to the growing popularity of Kindles and Nooks. Audible was likewise providing readers withanother option, all those smartphones we were getting lending a platform where you could listen without worrying about lugging around seven hundred CDs.
How books were recommended was changing, too. As we lost more and more independent bookstores and small book chains in our communities, and then Borders closed, online connections for readers were becoming ever more important. Personal blogs and recommendation/review websites surged, and as message boards were replaced by Facebook, communities formed by way of private groups and fan groups there.
Though how folks were hearing about and consuming books shifted, you all stayed with the Brothers, and as the BDB series churned on, there were some huge books includingThe King,The Beast—also,The Shadows, which a lot of readers found just as hard as Z’s to get through.
There was also a watershed moment for me and for publishing in general.
Lover at Lastcame out on March 26, 2013. It’s Blay and Qhuinn’s story, and it took me about eighteen months to convince my publisher that we had to do it. Things were very different back then, and I remember being so grateful that I was able to put the story out there properly, in hardcover, just like the rest of the books. The couple was a fan favorite, to be sure, but male/male love stories were not something that was mainstream.
It was the first book of that kind to sit at the top of theTimeslist.
You did that, too.
I can remember doing a Q&A at a convention shortly after it came out. I was asked how I felt about publishing the book (in a supportive way) and I told the woman she wasn’t going to like my answer. The truth was, it was just the next story in the series, and I couldn’t move on without it. I wasn’t ignorant to how muchit would mean to some folks—and I also wasn’t stupid that I was going to become a target for some others—but at the core of the effort was love is love.
And now here we are in August of 2025, andLover Forbiddencomes out in a little over a month. The book’s got a different cover look, and sprayed edges—whoohooooooo!—and new audiences have found the series thanks to TikTok (which didn’t even exist as an idea or even a concept back in 2005). The new hot thing is romantasy, and it turns out that there’s a lot of it in these books.
I’m still here.
Becauseyou’restill here.
There are many readers who prefer the really romance-centric style of the first six books. The installments that come afterward tilt more toward urban fantasy/romantasy, where the world building and over-arching plots involving power struggles and the war really come forward. There’s still romance in every one, and there always will be, but I think it’s a totally fair critique that the balance is different and reading is subjective.
We’ve also made a time jump afterLassiter, the twenty-first book, because I can’t leave this world without showing where the kids end up. After all these years, and everything we’ve collectively invested into the Brothers and their world, I feel like coming full circle to the young is important. That’s what life is, isn’t it? We want to know that the next generation is going to be okay.
As I said, there are twenty-three books now in the main series—or twenty-four if you count the prequel,Darius—and then plenty of spin-offs like the Training Center and Prison Camp books and then the Wolven stories. There are also shorties that have gone into anthologies, the firstInsider’s Guideand now this one. There are standalones in the world, likeDearest Ivie, Prisoner of NightandFather Mine, and even a Christmasseries of BDB books! Plus the Fallen Angel series, which initially was unconnected to the BDB, has been linked up to Caldwell with Lassiter and Devina hopping onto the big stage.
After all, you gotta love a fallen angel who’s into zebra prints andThe Golden Girls, and a demon who likes her Birkins and Louboutins.
I’ve also gotten to write things that are totally outside of the BDB-verse.The Bourbon Kingsis a trilogy that’s a nod to my love of theDynastyTV series and my adopted state of Kentucky. And then there’sThe St. Ambrose School for Girls, a murder mystery set at a prep school in the nineties.
I also have my first romantasy,Crown of War and Shadow, out this coming February.
I wouldn’t have had the chance to do any of this without you.
Nothing in the last twenty years would have happened without you.
The readers and the fandom were something that came as a complete surprise to me. Back when I was writing my first four Jessica Bird books, I went to a couple of conventions, and every once in a while I’d get a reader by my table. This was even true afterAn Irresistible Bachelorfinaled in the RITAs. It wasn’t until the BDB books started coming out that I found an audience.
My first clue that something was happening, apart from Wrath and then Rhage hitting the extended list, happened at an RWA in like 2006. My mom and I went, and I didn’t think much of it. I mean, I was excited to go, but also a bit starstruck—I mean, I was invited to Nora-frickin’-Roberts’s personal reception in her suite where she greeted everybody in diamonds and bare feet (ICON). As I remember it, onlyDark LoverandLover Eternalwere out at the time, and my publisher decided to do a giveaway and have me sign. I was like, cool. Maybe a couple of people will show up—
