Laura Caldwell |A New Trilogy

This summer, my publisher, MIRA, put out my new trilogy—Red Hot Lies, Red Blooded Murder, and Red, White & Dead—back to back to back. Meaning, the first one came out in June, the second in July and the third on August 1.

It’s tricky enough to promote one book (in a market where book reviews and articles are declining), so we assumed it would be even trickier to try and promote three. Actually the opposite has been true. My publicist, Tom, is a former newspaper man with a southern drawl that drips over his always-kind words. When a magazine tells him, “Oh, sorry, we won’t be able to cover Red Hot Lies in our July magazine. We already put the issue to bed,” he says in that sweet voice, “Ah, don’t worry about it. We’ve got two more books in the series. I’ll send ‘em out to you.”

Another amazing thing about a quick release trilogy is reader feedback. I get to hear what readers think about the love interests in the book. I get to find out whether they’re satisfied with the ending, what they’d like to see in the next book and the next. And I get to hear if they enjoyed Izzy, my main character, a sassy, redheaded Chicago lawyer. It’s those comments I always cross my fingers for when I read them. I know writers aren’t supposed to do this, but Izzy is rather like me. Don’t get me wrong –her story isn’t. My fiancé’ didn’t disappear weeks before my wedding. I haven’t moonlighted as a private detective. I haven’t sat in the anchor desk of a network news program or been chased by Mafioso. But characteristically, Izzy is a taller, cooler, smarter, younger, prettier me. She’s sort of a superhero version of me, I guess, because she doesn’t get as cranky as I do, she’s much more patient, and although she always talks about sleep she seems to need rather little.

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Christy Reece | How a Wish Became a Series

People often ask writers where they get their ideas. Many can answer about how a particular incident or thought popped into their head and they were able to create an entire book from that. With the first three books I wrote, before I sold, the idea always started with a comment in my head. A character, usually my future heroine, would say something and I'd wonder why she said it. The conversation would expand and I would create the story from there. That's one of the wonderful things about imagination. Being able to take something so small and seemingly insignificant and create characters, a story and sometimes an entire world.

When I started writing RESCUE ME, my debut book, it wasn't because of some conversation I heard in my head. It was an event. I'm a self-confessed news junkie. Even when I'm writing, I often have the news playing in the background because I never know what might spur an idea. Something that always intrigues me are missing persons cases. Tragically most of these cases don't have happy endings. Many are found dead, some return on their own. But the few that never return, the ones who disappear without a trace--what could have happened to these people?

One high profile case touched me more than any other because it was a young girl who lived in my city. I watched the news, read articles, followed the case closely. The longer it took to find her, the likelihood of a good outcome seemed less and less. I began to wish that an organization existed that would do whatever it took, no matter the risks or cost, to find and rescue her. And that's how Last Chance Rescue was born.

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Linda Winstead Jones | BRIDE BY COMMAND

First, thanks to Fresh Fiction for inviting me to be here to blog about Bride by Command, which will be officially released tomorrow. It’s always great to get out and “talk” to readers and other writers.

Bride by Command is the final book in “The Emperor’s Brides” trilogy, which has sent Emperor Jahn of Columbyana on a reluctant quest for an empress. There are two potential brides per book, and naturally, by the third book in the series many of the brides are spoken for by other heroes. At one point I joked with a friend, as we walked around the neighborhood and talked plots, that I should title this one Empress by Default. :-) At the time, the working title was Unbreakable, and as you can see I ended up with a title somewhere in between.

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Monica McCarty | With a little help from THE DA VINCI CODE

A big thank you to everyone at Fresh Fiction for inviting me here today to celebrate the release of HIGHLAND WARRIOR, the first book in my new back-to-to back trilogy, featuring the “bad boys” of the Highlands, Clan Campbell. Back-to-back means you won’t have to wait long to find out “what’s next?” HIGHLAND OUTLAW comes out at the end of this month and HIGHLAND SCOUNDREL at the end of March.

Like my first trilogy, featuring Clan MacLeod, you’ll find plenty of sexy Alpha heroes and “ripped from the headlines” history, bringing to life actual people and events with a sensual fictional twist.

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Kat Martin | Trapped in the Past

Trapped in the past for nearly two years, I have written four historicals in a row! I much prefer to mix in Contemporary Romantic Suspense, but contract obligations made it impossible.

The good news is, when you are writing in a certain time period, you begin to get a feel for that period. Mostly, my historicals have been set in the Regency Period, but a few years ago, I got an itch to move on, and so I set The Heart Trilogy: HEART OF HONOR, HEART OF FIRE, and just released, HEART OF COURAGE, in London in the 1850’s.

The books are all set around the London ladies’ gazette, Heart to Heart. I chose the period because it was a time when women were beginning to be involved in activities outside the home. They worked, they owned businesses, they were becoming more outspoken. I thought this time would give me an opportunity to explore a broader range of stories and I think it has.

Currently I am immersed in The Bride’s Trilogy, books about three brothers, also set in the Victorian period. The first, ROYAL’S BRIDE, will be out next September.

In the meantime, I hope you will watch for HEART OF COURAGE and that you enjoy! All best wishes for a great 2009!

Kat
www.katbooks.com/

Patrice Michelle | Ideas pulled from the air...

The other day I received a question from a reader who'd already read my latest release Scions:Revelation (December 1st) and the last book in my Scions trilogy. She asked if the prophecy--that has been an underlying thread through all three of the books in the Scions trilogy--was something I planned from the very beginning, or if the outcome of the prophecy had come to me as I wrote the books.

The answer is actually somewhere in between. :)

The idea for the first book in my Scions series came straight from a dream. I'd dreamed about a woman who was kidnapped by a vampire and they were being chased by gunmen. Lots of running, leaping across building rooftops and gunshots ensued. The scene in my dream was right out of an adventure novel and too surreal not to write once I woke up. But once I started jotting down notes, I then had to figure out how to turn that "one scene" into a novel. Hmmm...I ask the question: Why the vampire might want to kidnap the human woman and why the gunmen were chasing them....and all the reasons in between....and that's how the first five chapters in the first book in my Scions trilogy (Scions:Resurrection) was created. Once I'd completed those chapters, my agent read them and said, "This is more than one book, right?" I pondered some more and came to the conclusion...Of course there would be more than one book! and there's even a prophecy, which I promptly detailed out as part of the proposal to pitch to potential publishers.

In the summer of 2006, I'd written five chapters of Scions book one, a synopsis detailing the rest of that book and a one-page overview of the other two books in the Scions trilogy (including the prophecy). As I was writing the overview, the actual prophecy itself came to me easily, yet I wasn't "set" in how that prophecy would play out in the stories.

Ultimately, even when wearing my author "hat" I'm still a reader at heart--I want to be surprised and I discover the twists and turns in the stories as I they unfold before me. ;) I didn't know who would uncover each of the pieces of the prophecy, how the layers would all tie together, who would be responsible for the biggest reveal or how each of the characters would be impacted by all the revelations. All those unknowns were very exciting to unearth as each story was written and each of the main characters played out their respective parts.

So I guess the answer to the question is that the prophecy came to me in...equal parts intuition, guess-work and good old fashioned...jigsaw puzzling. It never ceases to amaze me how the muse works in inexplicable ways!

If you're interested in reading an action-adventure paranormal story where a suspenseful mystery is woven along-side a sexy romance, then I hope you'll give my Scions books a try.

Note: Each of the Scions books are written to be read as stand alone stories, but if you'd like to read the adventures of each of the main characters in order, then they are as follows: Scions:Resurrection, Scions:Insurrection and Scions: Revelation.

Patrice Michelle
www.patricemichelle.net

Sandi Shilhanek | Series

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been reading the Bakery Sisters Trilogy by Susan Mallery. People who know me best know that I love connected stories. I tend to horde the first and second book until the third becomes available, and then read them back to back to back.

While for a short series that will release quickly this is a great plan, but for a longer series such as the In Death books this does not work. When Naked In Death by J. D. Robb first came out I bought the book even though I didn’t think it was truly my thing. I saved it knowing there would be more to follow.

What happened? I’m sure you know. I kept collecting expecting an end to this series so I could finally begin to read, but that end is still nowhere in my line of vision. Finally I saw a website that was beginning a book of the month read, and offered people several choices to choose from, and amongst the choices Naked In Death.

A few friends and I decided to all vote for Naked In Death and get one book or perhaps more should our choice win out of our TBR mountains. Luckily for us it worked! Now three years later the three of us are current and awaiting the next release.

However, I truly digressed, I’m reading The Bakery Sister books, and saved them once again until I could attain all the books. Thank you to the publishing person who decided to release the books in quick succession. I’m learning a bit about the bakery business and a lot about family dynamics. Would I be getting these lessons if I had had to wait for the books and read them spaced apart? That’s a question that will never be answered.

What about you? Do you save a book until you have all the books in the series or do you read them as they release? If books are spaced apart like the In Death books or the Black Dagger Brotherhood books by J. R. Ward do you have to reread them before you read the new release?

Gena Showalter | What If?

Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if one thing in your past were different? Just a single thing? Like the movie Sliding Doors, what would your life be like if you’d missed the train home one day? Invariably that thought process always leads me to think about what my life would have been like if I hadn’t pilfered that first romance novel from my grandmother’s house. Silver Angel by Johanna Lindsey. That book changed my life. I remember staring down at it, intrigued by the cover – the heroine had long blonde hair, something this dark haired girl had always desired – thinking, Should or should I? I was about fourteen and if I got caught with it, I would have been in big trouble. But in the end, I did it. Snatched it up, and devoured it in a night.

Before reading it, I was a girl who hated to read. A girl who was behind in every subject at school. A girl who had to be held back a year just to catch up. After reading it, I improved in every subject (my mother would insist I add: but math). I read every spare moment. Relationships (in every form) suddenly fascinated me. First awakenings, the journey to happily ever after, the complexity that is known as Man, I couldn’t get enough. I was hooked. (I’m still hooked!)

And that love of reading eventually blossomed into a love of writing, of weaving my own tales. So here I am, awaiting the release of my Lords of the Underworld trilogy – featuring immortals warriors who opened Pandora’s box and are now cursed to carry a demon inside themselves – and enjoying my career more than I could have ever imagined. All because I picked up that first book. I always shudder to think about what might have happened if I’d decided I shouldn’t.

To learn more about New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter and her sizzling new trilogy about immortal warriors possessed by demons (and the women who love them), visit http://www.genashowalter.blogspot.com/.

Cait London | PSYCHIC OR PARANORMAL, WHICH IS IT?

The Aisling psychic triplets trilogy was a departure for me. I'd always had a little of the Gothic in my books, a little suspense, and layers of characters and their interactions. But while writing the sisters' books, I was struck by how much of the material, resource, and research already dwelled within me.

Writers often speak of where they get their research, and share with others. To some extent, writing is a share and hand-me-down craft. The rest of the writing experience rests on the individual's investment of time and energy. Some people are just natural storytellers, and stories bubble out of them. But structuring them, and putting them into book form, takes editing and control.

I spent a great deal of time setting up this trilogy. Due to the logistics of business and contracts, I wrote SILENCE THE WHISPERS (a favorite story) prior to beginning this trilogy; the psychic triplets had to sit on the back burner for a while. The basic trilogy idea contains a story arc, where the threads of the story run through each book, and end in the third. I'd written several other series, including the TALLCHIEFS (9 books), and understood how to build a series from the start, not just adding book after book. I usually lay down all three story ideas at one time, rather than adding on one at a time, which may be more usual. (I happen to like building proposals and series.)

As for this trilogy, I wanted Celtic names for the contemporary sisters, who are in order: Claire, Tempest and Leona. I have a great number of baby namer books and used the definition of the names to suit the characters. In a series, in this case a trilogy, it is really important to keep a character list and to balance the names of all concerned. For instance, Claire in AT THE EDGE is an empath and more gentle and reserved (until Neil comes into her life). Tempest's name says everything (A STRANGER'S TOUCH 4/08). And Leona (FOR HER EYES ONLY 10/08), the oldest of the triplets by three minutes is a lioness, when defending her family. Greer, the world-famous psychic mother of the triplets has red hair and a pale complexion, just as they do. Greer's coloring and her gifts are inherited from her ancestor, Aisling, the captive bride of a Viking chieftain.

Greer is a widow with very unusual children, and one profitable gift in her pocket: she's a powerful psychic. As a single mother, with three daughters, born three years apart, I understood much of the family dynamics. To some measure, this trilogy mirrors my own life and interests. That research was already built into me, stacked up and ready to be used. It's true then, a writer sells pieces of their family off, a few at a time. I understood the relationship and interaction of the sisters, and somewhat how the mother would feel/react in certain instances. I'm also very interested in Viking history, and elements of the Celts. You can read much of this at my website and blog, how I used my own earrings and other elements dear to me, such as beach stones and handcrafted in artistic items, within my stories. I like to keep a variety of objects around me; each seems to have a story lurking within.

I also visit every location of every book, but fictionalize the names. AT THE EDGE is set in Montana, a state I love very much and have set several books there. A STRANGER'S TOUCH is set on the shores of Lake Michigan, where I spent a creative retreat. I thought Port Salem was an excellent choice for a fictional town, considering what happened to psychics in another Salem. FOR HER EYES ONLY is set in Lexington, Kentucky, where I visit often.

Here is where regimentation and control of the writer come into play. With everything built into me already, and my extensive interests, it was important to center into the threads of the story, running through all three books. Yet it was imperitive to give each book, each sister, an individual suspense/dangerous story. This trilogy is a crossover between psychic and romantic suspense, because there is individual danger included, and there is an overall family danger. For those unfamiliar with romantic suspense, it can be light or loaded with forensics and bullets. The Aisling trilogy is loaded with tension and danger and suspense, but also saturated with family relations. It is also loaded with sensuality and romance, as the sisters deal with their different and unwanted psychic gifts. That is the key to the trilogy: these women want to live like every woman, yet they cannot. They cannot even live close together, for fear of their sibling and psychic connections interfering with each other.

If you are a reader who prefers a light, comical read, this trilogy may not be for you. These stories are layered with intrigue and relationship and very dangerous threads. I very much enjoyed writing the individual suspense stories, and building the threads running through these books. I hope readers enjoy them, too.

As for the psychic elements, I researched much of that and interviewed psychics. But I kept the elements away from what I consider paranormal, like ghosts or vampires. In each book, the sisters relay that they are not shapeshifters or mediums for the dead, which is a psychic element. To me there is a distinct difference between paranormal and true psychic.

Do I have any interest in psychic or intuitive ability? Yes, definitely, and I feel bits of it reside within my family. (BTW, I have my own set of runes, which I understand better than Tarot cards.) I really enjoyed writing this trilogy, and hope you enjoy it too. A newsletter is available at my website, if you wish to keep up with the progress of this trilogy and my other upcoming books. Bookmarks and newsletters are also available for SASE.

http://caitlondon.com/

http://caitlondon.blogspot.com/

Tracy Anne Warren | Back to Back to Back . . .

Trilogies are an interesting beast—especially back-to-back trilogies. Readers enjoy them since it means they don’t have to wait long between books to find out what happens in a series they’ve discovered and come to love. On the flip side, it does mean that once the trilogy is concluded, it’s over for a good long while––at least if the follow-up trilogy is another back-to-back.

That’s the situation that occurred with my first two trilogies––both of them written back-to-back-to-back! After the best-selling success of my debut Trap Trilogy, I was excited when my editor told me she wanted a second back-to-back trilogy. I rubbed my hands together and got right to work. But that excitement was soon tempered with expressions of frustration from some fans who wanted more books as soon as possible. While the time between trilogies seemed a bit too long to a few of my readers, it seemed very brief to me as I hurried to write three new books in the shortest amount of time I could manage. Still, in the intervening months between trilogies, my readers have been wonderfully supportive and patient, eagerly counting down the days with me!

I’m happy to confirm that the wait ended last month with the October 30th release of My Fair Mistress, the first book in my new Mistress Trilogy! In that story, young, aristocratic beauty, Julianna Hawthorne, risks her reputation and her heart by agreeing to spend six months as the mistress of Rafe Pendragon, the man who holds her brother’s gambling debt. I adored this story with its elemental conflicts of power and sacrifice as well the chance to explore the lengths to which people will go to protect and cherish those they love. Similar themes and lots of good, sexy fun continue when Rafe’s rakish best friends struggle against the inevitability of love, starting with Ethan’s story in The Accidental Mistress––which, thanks to the back-to-back release schedule––will be in stores starting November 27th. Tony’s tale follows on December 26 with His Favorite Mistress––a day-after-Christmas present, as it were.

So which release schedule do you like best? Books that come out in quick succession, but which may entail a longer wait in between new trilogies or series? Or a more frequent schedule where a new book in the same series is available every six months or so?

http://www.tracyannewarren.com/