No Home Without You follows a woman living in solitude with her cats after an asteroid struck Earth, who encounters a man who shows up at her refuge with an injured ankle, leading to feelings she wasn’t expecting. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The inspiration for the story was to continue the Love and Survival series with two people who had opposite experiences in the post-apocalyptic world. Cam grew up in the shelter of xTerra, the bunker complex in South Dakota. His family were preppers who had been there before the asteroid. Lissa had lived in the outside world, but grew frustrated with her lonely existence at a refugee center. Both were intended to be quite different from the couples in the previous two books (The Edge of Life: Love and Survival During the Apocalypse and Aftermath: Into the Unknown).

I wanted to have a love story between two fiercely independent people who weren’t used to relying on anyone else. Cam comes from a community but feels apart from it. Lissa has chosen to be alone for six years before Cam arrives.

I also wanted the political aspects and questions about refugees and the right to have safety to simmer throughout the story. Several characters from earlier in the series continue, even if the main characters, Cam and Lissa, are new.

xTerra represents safety, but also control and exclusion. What drew you to that kind of community dynamic?

The refugees that flooded xTerra immediately after the asteroid would have changed the quiet prepper community that lived there already. There were hints of this in The Edge of Life (Book 1). It continued when we see xTerra when Robin and Kory arrive in Aftermath (Book 2), so No Home Without You was the logical next step.

I can see many of the original inhabitants feeling like they’d been invaded or taken over, as this influx of people would have changed their community. When resources are scarce, including safety, those who have it would be reluctant to share.

Cam’s mother, the mayor, represents those people. She was modeled on someone I know in a position of power who seemed kind and positive on the outside, but was actually rage-filled, insecure, and petty. I saw through her from the beginning, and over time, my co-workers saw the real her, too. She reminded me of Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter, which came up in the story.

The romance grows from trust and shared labor rather than instant attraction. Was that always your intention, and how do you define love in a world where survival is the first priority?

From the beginning, I wanted Cam and Lissa to build trust, friendship, and attraction before it became about love. Neither of them trusted easily and had been self-contained for years, not admitting that they were lonely or needed anyone else. It didn’t seem realistic to have them open to love and instant attraction in a world where everything is hard-won.

In a world where survival is the priority, love can only occur if you trust someone to have your back and work with you to secure survival. Neither Cam nor Lissa is someone who is casual about anything. Their lives are planned and deliberate, and I felt like love would develop this way, too.

Where do you see your characters after the book ends?

After the book ends, I see my characters living out their lives together, choosing to work together to survive. They’ll live in xTerra for the winters and on their own the rest of the year.

I hope No Home Without You ties up the Slains and xTerra arc with the three books in this series. While there are many spin-off tales I plan to write, the community of xTerra is safe for now. I imagine them rebuilding community and society, mostly from within their walls, while people like Cam and Lissa choose to come and go, living their lives with a degree of independence and self-sufficiency.

Author Links: GoodReads | Lena Gibson | Facebook | Website | Amazon