Meet the Characters, part 3

Mason and Gia from Could've Been Something, TAC Veil Falls, TAC The Warrior Returns, & TAC The Healer

Welcome to part 3 of my character introduction! If you missed the first two, you can find part 1 here and part 2 here.

February is celebrated as the month of 💘love!💝 But I say every day has the opportunity to be Valentine’s Day so why save it for just one day? 🥰

Despite how you feel about the actual day itself or whether you intend to celebrate it, this week I will continue posting about the characters I’ve created -- The couples within my stories. If you’ve read my books, you’ll recognize them and you can comment on your own views and revelations about them. If you haven’t, I hope these intrigue you to read their stories to get to know their situation.

Now, I should remind everyone that I write closed-door romance. My reasonings were discussed in a post last year (Feb 03 2025, titled “Where’s the Romance?“) but you can expect PDA and flirting at most in my books. Insinuations and innuendoes as well. Zero smut. Zero explicit descriptions or talk. But does that make for a crappy romance book? Nope. In fact, I doubt you’ll even miss the “spicy” scenes.

(NOTE: All photos are AI representations of the characters created using various AI apps on Canva.)

So let’s get started!

Mason Beaudrie and Gia Bennington were first introduced to you in “One Hell of a Best Seller” of my short story collection Could’ve Been Something but are main characters of The Allegheny Chronicles: Veil Falls, The Allegheny Chronicles: The Warrior Returns, and The Allegheny Chronicles: The Healer. They also have more works in progress. You can find the whole series by clicking here.

In your first introduction to Gia in the short story, she is working in the family café with Lexi, one of her two best friends. Gia is an author. She writes murder-mysteries and her main character is a detective. She does okay selling them, never having had a ‘best seller’ but has managed to reach the top 25 a few times. But she sees all of the other books in other genres seeming to out perform murder-mysteries. She figures ‘how hard can it be?’ to write one of the ever popular smut romances, even though she’d never read one herself. However, that brings with it research, knowing the genre, and penning a novel that would be an instant success. She is single because she had her heart broken years ago in her first relationship, the man she tells everyone was the ‘love of her life.’ She hadn’t dated since. She also has had her head stuck in her fictional world, doing nothing but writing, researching murders, and having her background in forensics help her make the mysteries seem real. She also relies heavily on her other best friend, Mason, to bounce ideas off, since he sees life differently than her.

When we meet Mason in “One Hell of a Best Seller” (Could’ve Been Something), he’s seen through Gia’s eyes as that story is told from her perspective. Mason is a deputy sheriff, working for Gia’s uncle. He’s in a relationship with a woman that is gone all the time. He’s a veteran of the Marine Corps who had been off to war, coming home only two years earlier. In fact he’s still the new guy at the Sheriff’s Office. But he’s always there for Gia no matter what, the ever supportive platonic best friend. While parts of the short story run concurrent with The Allegheny Chronicles: Veil Falls, Veil Falls tells it from Mason’s point of view. And from his point of view we learn Mason has the worst luck in the world. He’s home not on his own terms, he worked in law enforcement because Gia got him the job, his girlfriend seems to hate him, and he is hopelessly in love with Gia but has been banished to the ‘friendzone.’ He lives with his elderly grandparents on the family ranch and works the ranch when he’s not on patrol. He definitely isn’t popular with women in general, half of Cooper County hates him, and he primarily sticks to himself. But none of that matters to him because he’s got Gia and Lexi. But Mason is keeping secrets — the first being the survivor of a horrific firefight in the Marines involving an internal cover up of friendly fire. His other secret is he fears he’s a mutant as he has the ability of telekinesis.

And in the midst of all of this, Gia decides that in order to write romance, she has to start dating again and asks Mason to help her make a online dating profile on a dating app. Well aware that dating from an app isn’t what it’s cracked up, Mason is hopeful Gia will strike out in her dating endeavors. But then Gia’s first match happens to be the man who had broken her heart, the man Gia calls ‘the love of her life.’

What could go wrong?

This series is closed-door romantic suspense with thriller, magical realism, fantasy, alternate reality, secret military, mythology, action & adventure, and high stakes. This is my ‘boldest’ series because it was developed so that I could have my characters of Embers to Ashes discuss the TV show it represents and have it be consistent. The first book I put out was TAC: Eden & the Alchemist and I had written that in less than a week. The characters are different than my other books and are more as you would see if you were watching a TV show. So sensitivities for this series includes insinuations/innuendos/PDA, swearing (but not gratuitous or overdone), some military/LE violence, drama, PTSD, bad guys vs. good guys, and situations that could be intense for some readers. There are zero spicy scenes.

Author Q&A: ⚠️May contain spoilers!⚠️

Q: How did you come up with Mason and Gia?

Mason and Gia first appeared in a story called “One Hell of a Best Seller” in my short story collection “Could’ve Been Something.” It is about an established mystery author deciding to try her hand at writing a smutty romance novel because that’s what is popular and she wants a best selling novel. Of course, it doesn’t go as she hopes it would go. I never intended for them to go beyond that short story, let alone become part of the Allegheny Chronicles. Their story just kept going so I kept writing and they have developed into at least three more books.

Q: How are Mason and Gia different from your other characters? How are they similar?

Mason and Gia. Let’s start off with their similarities. The male characters in my books are all military or veterans. They have all been through things. They are all strong, fiercely loyal, focused, and masculine. My female characters are all strong, loyal, loving, and smart as well. They hold everything together and are the anchors for their men. They are equals. But Mason and Gia are more “complicated.” Now for Mason, he’s got so much going on within him that having it all “together” is a façade he shows. He doesn’t want to be noticed. He wants to go with the flow. He just wants to live a quiet life and have the comfort of being average. He wants to just do his job. He has a difficult time being appreciated by women in his dating pool. He feels very deeply. He has a lot of heavy secrets he is keeping to himself, including the events he went through in his past which have unfortunately led to PTSD, panic attacks, and suicidal thoughts. He’s fighting an invisible battle that no one in his life seems to know about...Except for his father because he can’t hide it from his father. And then, he’s got a secret he’s held for what seems like his whole life, one that he feels makes him less-than-desirable, a mutant, and even more alone.

And then there’s Gia. Gia has her mind in the clouds, constantly writing about life instead of living it. She seems oblivious to Mason, who has been one of her best friends for over 20 years. She leans on him, depends on him, and is very close to him. She seems to use her heartbreak of her one past relationship as a prison, an excuse, so she doesn’t have to lose her heart again. It’s almost like she is keeping herself from becoming attached to anyone. Unlike Ryan and Angelina in Along the Way, the friendship between Mason and Gia isn’t mutual flirting, at least in her opinion. Unlike Brian, Mason knows how relationships are supposed to go. Unlike Avonlea, Gia isn’t entirely confident in herself because she views her one true love as being an ex that she broke up with. Like Eden & Barrett, they have an instant connection but unlike Eden and Barrett, there is no leap of faith and it isn’t mutual. In all appearances, Mason is alone in having lost his heart....Until things move very rapidly. I don’t want to give too much away for those who haven’t read their story yet.

Q: Mason has incredible bad luck with girlfriends, people, and life (it seems.) Gia seems stuck on her ex and has put him in the friendzone. Should Mason have spoken up about his love for Gia?

One of the ‘turn offs’ for some women will be Mason’s insecurity about telling Gia how he feels. He’s known her for twenty years, he’s been in love with her, and he’s aware she doesn’t seem to share his feelings, but at the same time, he wants to tell her. One of the beautiful things about Mason is that he truly cares. He doesn’t want to cause their friendship to end and he doesn’t want to cause Gia to run away from him. He claims that the song, “You Don’t Know Me” is his theme song with Gia. The story of Mason and Gia is still ongoing so only time will tell if his pain of a seemingly unrequited love is going to pay off in the end.

(above: An AI rendering of the Healer and the Warrior.)

Q: What is an alternate direction you considered taking their romance?

I don’t wish to give away spoilers here because their story is still a work in progress, but I did consider some different directions in “One Hell of a Best Seller” such as having Gia get back together with the ex that she pined after, only to realize her own feelings for Mason. I wasn’t sure what or how it would go. That story is seen from her point of view. In that story, I also considered introducing another strong, likeable female character who understood Mason and have instant chemistry but have her be a “red herring” that makes Gia jealous. I just went with the direction that flowed better, but once their story became part of the Allegheny Chronicles, it went off on it’s own direction. It’s still going and even I’m not sure where it will end up. It’ll be a fun surprise for all of us!

Q: It’s Valentine’s Day. What songs are Mason and Gia going to dance to?

Music has always seemed to be more of something Mason pays attention to than Gia. Songs have meaning for Mason. So, he’s going to be the one to ask Gia to dance at Jim’s Bar on Friday night (if he’s not working) to “Under My Skin” by Nate Smith or “Fall Into Me” by Forest Blakk. Both songs are about being “saved” by meeting the other person.

------

If you have read “One Hell of a Best Seller”, TAC Veil Falls, TAC: The Warrior Returns, or TAC: The Healer, what sticks out to you about Mason and Gia? Who are your favorite characters and why? What surprised you about their story? Where do you think their story is going?

Please subscribe to my Substack to be notified of my next article! Also, please follow/like me on Facebook, Amazon, GoodReads, Instagram, and YouTube!

There is always an adventure in an Em Brooks book -- Get started today! You can find Could’ve Been Something, The Allegheny Chronicles: Veil Falls, The Allegheny Chronicles: The Warrior Returns, and The Allegheny Chronicles: The Healer at Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Audible, and Kindle, as well as on Kindle Unlimited.

Thanks for stopping by!! Click on the graphic below to be taken to Amazon!