I had some wonderful news through today. My third and what was to be final instalment in my Mated to Morgan’s series - Kelan’s Pursuit - was contracted by TEB. The series was originally intended to chart the lives of the Morgan brothers. Three wolf shifters living in a small town in Texas. Each book focussed on a different brother and told the story of how they found their mate.
However, half way through writing the third book one of my secondary characters became more important in the story line and by the end of the novel his tale was so tragic I decided he needed a book of his own. Fortunately my fabulous editor agreed and when she read my last submission she asked if said secondary characters were going to get their own book.
This left me with a problem. Neither of the characters in the new book are named Morgan so if I want the book to come out as part of the same series I have to change the series title. Now I don’t have a problem with doing that and it shouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish as the first book in the series - Luke’s surprise hasn’t been released yet.
So after countless brainstorming sessions I’ve come up with my new series title - Shifter’s Haven and actually I prefer it to the original. However I have now introduced a character in book four that also needs his own book so something tells me this series could far surpass the three book series I had originally planned.
My question is how hard do you find it to say goodbye to your characters when you finish writing a book? I’m not ready to say goodbye to the Morgan brothers just yet and so I won’t, they already feature quite heavily in the new story. Are you ever tempted to write a sequel? Or turn one or two books into a longer running series? When do you stop? When you finish a book are you happy and ready to move on to something entirely new or do you find it to difficult to say goodbye?
Just read your blog and tried to post comment there but my computer froze and threw me out, so... Yes, very difficult. My characters live on in my head and though I've never been temtped to write a sequal in the past I have now decided to do somehing for Adam and Luke from Blind Passion, and though Bringing Him Home is finished there's more these two guys want said, so they may get their wish as well. But like I said, I never say goodbye to them compltely. In my heart they are always going to be there.
ReplyDeleteHi Penny,
ReplyDeleteYes I know what you mean, I think my characters will always stay with me but it has been nice to see them again in this novel(all be it in the background).
Have you started work on your sequel yet?
Hi Lavinia,
ReplyDeleteI think characters just wear themselves out,it's a natural demise. As with everything in life, everything changes. I fall in love with my characters, I hold them close to my heart and miss them when I'm not writing, engrossed in their world. I know it's time to move onto something new when I become bored with them. I am currently working on my sequel to 'Her Heart's Desire' and I am enjoying it,I still feel excited by my characters and am with them all the way to their happy ending, so another book may well be on the horizon.
Hi Lauren,
ReplyDeleteYes you're right, I'm sure there will come a time when I get bored with the characters and look forward to starting something new. The best thing about my series though is that each new book is centred around two new characters so I've always got someone different to play with!
Good luck with your own sequels!