Drumming up a fiction series.....

Dangerous Tidings, a Holt Medallion Award Winner

Hello, all. Dana Mentink here. Summer means "write like crazy" time for an elementary school teacher. I dash off into my garden here in Northern, CA and hammer out as many words as I can before the Mentink children find me. Having just finished the last in the four book Pacific Coast Investigations series, I'm at that scary time when I have to build a world, a fresh series idea that will hopefully please readers and editors alike. Sheesh! That's a tall order! This puts me in mind of a few questions I have to ask myself and I figured I'd pose them to you, too!

When writing a series....

1. Should it be a small town setting? Do we enjoy that type of story, dear readers? The little small town where strange and nefarious things occur? Usually this town has a quaint name, like Rose Villiage or Bear Mountain. It's got to be catchy, you know, not like 'Cuperinto' or something.

2. Should the stories focus on one family or on many unrelated characters? Do you like to follow the lives of those four brothers or sisters or do you find that tedious after a while? Hmmmm.

3.  What would a reader find unique about the series? Are the characters all scientists? Navy Seals? Dog trainers? Or maybe scientific Navy Seal dog trainers? What series have you found to be unique?

Book Series

BOOK SERIES

 Hello friends, Karen Kirst here.  I don’t know about you, but I truly enjoy reading romance series, successive books either by a single author or multiple authors that are linked in some way.  Sometimes the connection is family.  I remember well my first time reading the O’Malley series by Dee Henderson.  The books, which revolve around adoptive siblings, hooked me with the first chapter.  Other times, the connection is a career or workplace.  Love Inspired does a number of continuity series, and one of my favorites is the suspense series Texas Ranger Justice, featuring brave men and women in pursuit of justice.  A series can also be tied together simply by a town or business venture, such as in the Love Inspired Historical series, The Women of Swan’s Nest, by Victoria Bylin. Or Kathryn Springer’s Love Inspired Mirror Lake.  

Why do these appeal to readers?  Perhaps it’s because the characters become familiar to us, almost like family, and it’s a treat to revisit them in later books.  Or because we’re introduced to interesting secondary characters and are eager to get that next installment featuring their stories.  When I began writing what would become my first sale, I knew I wanted to do a series.  So I planned it around the O’Malley cousins, two families living in 1880’s Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  As a writer, I’ve had a blast creating their world, especially as I’m a native East Tennessean and grew up near the Smoky Mountains.  I’m half-way through, yet I already know I’m gonna miss it.

What about you?  What do you like/dislike about series?  And for writers, what do you find most challenging about them?  (I have trouble keeping up with their ages as time passes!)

 Here’s a description of my April 2013 book, His Mountain Miss, third installment of my Smoky Mountain Matches series. 

A Battle of Wills

New Orleans aristocrat Lucian Beaumont wants only to sell his estranged grandfather's property and escape the backwoods of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. But a stipulation in the will brings him head-to-head with a local beauty. Megan O'Malley and the town must have access to the house. For the first time in his life the commanding Lucian finds himself at an impasse.

Clearly the worldly gentleman doesn't fit in Megan's quaint Smoky Mountain town. But as she glimpses the man beneath the hardened veneer, she believes Lucian is here for a purpose. To heal his soul. And maybe, with Megan's help, to heal his heart.