I started watching Critical Role during the early days of the Vox Machina campaign. Back then, I was a fresh college graduate working in an office here in Manila, Philippines, and becoming an internationally published author was a dream so distant it wasn’t even a “Maybe someday” for me. I was already familiar with the concept of tabletop roleplaying games, but CritRole was *the* stream that inspired me to put a group together. No one wanted to be the Dungeon Master, so—because it was my idea in the first place—I had to buy the manuals and modules and study the mechanics like my life depended on it. I’ve been DM-ing ever since, although the real world got in the way for all of us and my players have been trapped inside the Tomb of Annihilation for six years (😎).
Gaming provided a much-needed creative outlet in a time when I had to spend every weekday battling traffic and desk work. It honed my storytelling, my imagination, my ear for dialogue, my ability to improvise on the fly if a narrative direction wasn’t going well. Because of tabletop, I became a better writer, and eventually my first romantasy trilogy sold at auction and even hit the bestseller lists. Office worker no more! I will always credit CritRole for introducing me to this hobby which, in tandem with fanfic, helped change the course of my life.
So… this photo is very surreal and it is very much a full circle moment for me. If you had told me back then—back when I was squeeing over every Percy/Vex interaction, or begrudgingly letting the bard roll dexterity to remove the barbarian’s loincloth as he plunges to his doom (instead of, y’know, saving him), or racing home because I wanted to catch the first Mighty Nein episode—if you had told me that I would one day write a book for Critical Role, I wouldn’t have believed you, of course.
But this is a real thing that has actually happened, and I’m grateful beyond words. Thank you to Dani Carr for choosing me. Thank you to Matt, Laura, Ashley, Travis, Liam, Taliesin, Marisha, and Sam for trusting me with… this (ESPECIALLY Laura 😂✌🏼). Thank you to Sarah Peed, my editor extraordinaire, and the rest of the team at Del Rey for getting this book over the finish line.
Last but definitely not least, thank you to the readers!!! From the Critters who have never read a romance before but gave it a shot because they love the show, to my romantasy girlies who have never rolled a D20 in their lives and were just happy to vibe—and every possible overlap and variant in between—the enthusiastic response to this saucy little union between a half-orc and a traveling merchant’s daughter (my third novel and first standalone) has been simply incredible. I am so, so happy that you guys are enjoying TUSK LOVE!!!
