The first book in the Dogs, Bats & Monkeys series was supposed to be a short story. After the prologue and the first couple of chapters were written, I realized it would not fit that definition and made a whole book of it.
I wrote You Are the Answer for one contest and it ended up winning another. The contest I created YATA for had the following criteria for entries: short story, LGBT, werewolf. I began writing in a notebook and soon realized the story won't fit Wattpad's idea of a short story, that is, thirty pages. Since I obviously couldn't enter the short story contest and I was updating another book at the time, I didn't plan to post YATA on Wattpad anytime soon.
Then the Wattpad4 girls held a romance contest.
I really wanted to enter and the first story that came to mind was YATA, but there were a few obstacles before me: the contest ran from Friday to Sunday, I was working on both Friday and Saturday, and I had nothing on my laptop. Thus commenced a frantic brainstorming for a title, blurb, cover creation and, of course, typing the story and editing it. I somehow managed to enter before the deadline and Erin Latimer chose it as one of the four winners.
While I was writing YATA, I fell in love with some characters other than Rhys and Riley and decided to give them their own stories. Keri got Sentiments & Reason, Alec got Sweeter than Sweets, and Kennedy will get More than Friends... Maybe. If you've read the Kennedy's Story: Change Announcement I posted here, then you'd know that instead of my original plan for only Kennedy to pursue his mate, Horace will also be going after his in the same book.
As for We Are the Answer: while YATA was still ongoing, people kept asking me to write from Rhys' POV, so once I was done with Riley's POV, I rewrote the book from Rhys' perspective, adding more about his family and pack life.
And that's how the Dogs, Bats & Monkeys series was born.