Geonn’s answer to “Whatever happened to Natalie, Dale's girlfriend from Underdogs? They seemed to be doing fine in 'H…” > Likes and Comments

omg Mr. Cannon, how could you have forgotten to post this. it has finally resolved, for me, one of the great mysteries of lesfic ;)

I've been following ari/dale since you started writing them, but when Underdogs was published, I thought you had changed your mind about Nat/Dale and decided to go all Ari/Dale instead, and quietly chucking Nat/Dale in the book. This seeming lack of continuity bothered me forever, and when I saw this 'Ask the Author' feature on GR, I just had to bring it up. :)

Anyway, Coyote Ugly isn't just a big, missing piece of the puzzle, it isn't just a continuity filler, it practically lays the foundation for Ari/Dale's complicated relationship, Its also got the best line in the series, when Dale says 'Love me. Love my dog' LOL

What a horrible author, eh?! ;D I'm glad to finally resolve the issue for you! I'm slowly but surely getting all the Underdogs stories up on that site (most of the missing ones are in Volume 2). And I actually used "Love Me, Love My Dog" as a title in Volume 2.

Not horrible, just forgetful, I hope :)

Of all the Underdogs stories, this is without a doubt the most meaningful, relationshipwise. Missing this story was like watching 6 seasons of Castle and missing the wedding proposal. That's what the ending of Coyote Ugly felt like...a commitment of some sort...whatever it was, lol.

Also, loved this exchange: Dale: “Don’t make me choose between you. ” and Nat says “You already chose.”

So many gems! How could you hide these from us? :) Okay, maybe I agree with you a little bit about the horrible author, lol.

I agree with you! Ari and Dale had close calls before, but sleeping together and then Dale making the decision (however unconsciously) to put Ari's needs before her own... it built up to her exploding in the novel which led to... well. ;) I'll do my best to get the site 100% up to date without inundating people with a flood of stories all at once! :D

Now that I've fallen in love all over again with Ari/Dale, I'll be immersing myself in this universe again when Im done with my current book. My question is, do you have a timeline for everything Ari/Dale--from free to published? I've read everything marked as 'Volume 1' on the website and the Underdogs #1. What comes next?

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my question and clear up this mystery. And, I can't thank you enough for leaving so much of Ari/Dale as free reads. Maybe if you compile a more complete version of the first stories on Amazon as a Volume 0.5 or something, it may attract even more readers, as I know a lot of readers who don't even venture outside of Amazon or their e-readers.

I'll consider a volume of short stories collected all in a bundle! As for what's next... the stories in Volume 2 pick up right after the novel. Ari and Dale work their heads around being a couple and getting new clients due to the exposure from the Gavin case. Then it's Underdogs: Beware of Wolf, and there's not a whole lot of time for short stories between that and Dogs of War (I think there was a month or two between the novels... not a whole lot of time for extra adventures ;D).