This post was originally published on Audible.com.
Note: Text below is from a live conversation and has been edited lightly for clarity.
Patty K Rivera: Hi listeners. I'm Audible Editor Patty K Rivera, and today I have the pleasure of welcoming Amazon bestselling author TL Swan to talk about her latest, The Heart You Kept. Welcome, TL!
T L Swan: Hi, thanks for having me.
Oh, thank you so much for being here. Now, I want to dive right into The Heart You Kept. You open up the story at a kink club in Switzerland, and it is such a bold way to introduce Edward and Alora. What made you choose the setting as the spark for their story?
Well, the story starts with a list, I would say a bucket list from her girlfriend who is dying. So, Alora is filling out her best friend's wishes, last wishes. She does what her girlfriend wanted her to do, and she goes to this club in Switzerland and she meets him.
She meets him, and I will say that from the start, this relationship was just so intense. We can tell there's an attraction between them. They have this amazing weekend, and I won't ruin anything for anyone, but then they have to separate. They come back together a few years later. And from that moment, you can definitely tell that Edward is a man who needs control. Quickly after meeting, he has a security detail on Alora. He has an awareness of her whereabouts. And then he also, in the midst of that control, you do see his devotion to her.
How did you balance making him feel intense and compelling without losing the sympathy that listeners have for him? Because I will admit that I was rooting for them to end up together.
I know. So, my favorite type of hero is a misunderstood grumpy man. I just love that coming-of-age kind of thing. For Edward, it's funny, I tried to write his story three or four years ago. And honestly, I mustn't have been in the right head space to do it, because I kept getting to a certain eight or nine chapters and I'd be like, "This is wrong. This doesn't feel right for him."
"I got to about halfway through the book, and I was like, 'This is a series, this isn't a book.' I can't explain it. It felt too good and too strong to be one book."
So, I put it to the side and just left it for a while. And then when I came back, he was just so strong and vital in my head that I was like, "Wow, here we go. This is him." I don't actually purposely make characters the way they are. They sort of come to me fully formed. It's like a download, if that makes sense.
It does. It does actually make sense.
It's very weird.
No, it makes perfect sense.
Quite often I get to the end of the book and I'll read it back and I'll think, "God, where did that come from? How did I think of that?" But, actually, it's like a download.
As I was listening, at first, I was like, "Okay, he's controlling. Do I like him? Do I not?" But then you see Alora chip away at some of those things, at some of the control. She understands him in a way. You begin to see that devotion. You begin to see that love. I really do especially when they meet his family. That was a scene that really just gave me so much more insight on him. I cannot wait just to see how much more of him we're going to get to know.
Oh, so much more.
I have a feeling he is a huge softie.
Yeah, so much more. He is one of my favorite male characters I've ever written. I just love him.
Oh, my goodness. Okay. So, now I had to switch over to something just a bit more dark. The darkness interludes were so fascinating because they clearly point to a history that surrounds Edward that we listeners don't exactly know yet.
So, why do you say it comes from Edward's side?
Ooh! Oh no, how could you do this to me? Okay. Hold on.
How do you know that?
Oh!
Both sides have a history. Both families have a history and you're not sure which side it comes from. Have you not wondered?
Oh, my goodness!
Go back to the story and think about things, where she lives. Why is that house like that?
What a plot! What a plot. Oh, my goodness, I'm just shocked right now.
Just think about it. What is the warehouse of antiques? Where did that come from? Why is that there?
Wait, wait, wait, oh, my God! How could you do this to me? I wasn't going to ask.
I know. Everybody's saying the same thing and I keep thinking, why are they all assuming that? Has anyone listened to the clues? Read it again.
I am going to have to listen again, read again. I'm going to have to just read and listen at the same time. Carpet pulled out from under me right now, in the best way. How did you decide how much to reveal versus how much to withhold as part of Edward's history?
Well, it's actually funny because this story, it started off as just a standalone, a simple standalone, and it was like every chapter more secrets would unravel and unravel. In the end, I got to about halfway through the book and I was like, "This is a series, this isn't a book." I can't explain it. It felt too good and too strong to be one book. I just thought, "I'm just going to go with it. It's not what I've done in years of late, but I'm just going to run with it."
I will admit that everyone that's in the story—I'm thinking about Thomas. Oh, Thomas, you've got something to tell us. Yes? No?
It's a really great series. So, if you know my Stanton series, you all know Nicholas Anastas.
Yes.
So, yeah, there's cameos. Thomas is from another story of mine. Nicholas is from another story. There's four other male characters.
Every single one of them, I'm just like, "Ooh, who's next? Who's involved?" I really thought that I knew the darkness interludes especially. I'm thinking at first, "Ooh, it might be..." Then I'm like, "No, wait, or it might be the king. Hmm, wait." And then I'm like, "But it might be the best friend."
I'm just like, "Man, everyone did it. Everyone did it." At the end, I am sitting here and I'm like, "Everyone got together and they all did it because I cannot figure out what the darkness is."
Good. Then it worked.
It did.
My plan worked.
"I'm kind of writing for the art of it again and just so in love with it. So, wherever it takes me, I'll go. I'm not putting boundaries on myself."
I will have to say that listening to the audio is a really special treat because you really do feel these scenes pop, like when they are fighting.
I know.
When they are fighting, it is so intense that even I was like, "Oh, let me put the volume down." Because it is intense.
Yep. They're amazing. They do such an amazing job.
They truly are. Shane East and Victoria Connolly deliver a performance that I can only summarize as intense, as I just said, and hot. Oh, it was hot.
When I first listened to it, I had to turn it off. I was like, "Oh, no. This is just too much."
I was just going to ask, what did it feel like to hear them perform?
Crazy. Whenever I hear one of my books read back to me from my own narrator, I always put my hands over my ears. I'm like, "Oh, my God, that's so rude." It just seems so much ruder coming from someone else. When I write it out of my head, it's fine.
What made Shane East and Victoria Connolly feel like the perfect voices for Alora and Edward?
For an English voice, I cannot go past Shane. He has done all of my English voices. He's amazing. And Victoria, as soon as we listened to her tape, she was it. She just had this vibe. She was Alora from the beginning.
She has this cool edge to her.
She just had this edge to a voice that we just really loved. We knew we had to get this right. We listened to a lot of audition tapes for the female lead, and we just kept going back to her.
Fantastic casting. I really cannot stress enough how much I loved the audio for this. Their intensity, their chemistry. I've been sitting here and when I heard the end, I was just like, "Book 2."
I know. I know.
Now, speaking of the end, that ending left us with a serious cliffhanger, and I will do all of our friends a favor here and I won't ruin anything, but how could you?
You know what? I have been getting this question. The arcs have gone out and everyone is obviously freaking out. And I'm like, if you're reading a really great book and the author rushes the ending, you're infuriated because you didn't get that continuation and the answers and the depth of the story that it deserves. So, I've done what people don't know they want yet, but in the end, it's going to be so much better. We haven't even just tipped the iceberg of the story yet.
It gets more intense?
Yeah.
Oh, so I'm in for a ride.
Yeah.
Oh, fantastic. First of all, threaten me with a good time. 100 percent threaten me with a good time. I was going to say, how do you approach writing the end of a series opener and knowing listeners will have to sit with that anxiety until the next book?
Look, I think when I first started writing, I wrote series because I loved the depth that it gave me. And then I went through a stage where I wanted to do standalones because I realized people didn't want to wait for series.
Everything's fast on demand now. Netflix, Prime, everything's bang, bang, bang, you get the whole story. But I had an accident last year and I broke my back. So I had a year off writing, and I'm back to writing for love again. It's not about what fits into a standalone or what ties up in a neat and happy bow. I'm kind of writing for the art of it again and just so in love with it. So, wherever it takes me, I'll go. I'm not putting boundaries on myself like I have.
I love that. I love hearing that. And I am so glad you're here with me today recovered from the accident.
I'm recovered. I'm doing great. So, yeah, it's not about my back. It's more about the taking time off. I actually just was like, "Okay, why do I do this? I do this because I love storytelling." So whatever that story is is how many books it's going to take, and everyone's just going to have to wait.
Oh, I will wait. I will wait because I just have to know what's going to happen next. Now, speaking of waiting, I have a question that I love to ask authors and it usually ends up with a book recommendation, which is great for me. If Alora and Edward could recommend an Audible listen to me, what would it be?
Well, of course, it would be Mr. Masters, one of my books. Shane's in it again.
Oh, Shane.
And that's my most popular Audible book. It has been for years and years. It's an Australian young nanny and a judge, wealthy judge.
Okay, time to give it a re-listen. Now, is there anything that you're listening to or reading that you want to share with us?
I don't listen or read while I'm in the writing mode because I feel like it just takes me out of my story. So I can't wait until I can. The Nightingale is on my list to read next.
Oh, what a fantastic book.
That's the book that I want to read. I know it's going to break me, so I'm just waiting to get through my happy books until I can get to it. But I've got it, I've bought it, so I'm just waiting to read it.
Get your tissues and your tears ready. It will truly be a tearjerker.
Every time I read a Kristin Hannah book, I say, "I'm done. That's it. I am done with that. I'm not going there again." And then the next book comes out and I'm like, "Oh."
Well, thank you for the recommendation. And with that, TL, it has been a pleasure speaking with you about The Heart You Kept. Listeners, you can pick up The Heart You Kept and the rest of TL Swan's catalog here on Audible now. Happy listening!
