Leigh Greenwood | Series, Series, Series

I didn’t set out to write series. I fell into it by accident. I was watching the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with my younger son about twenty years ago. We didn’t pay much attention. He was eight and preferred trying to wrestle his father to watching a musical even though it was his idea to watch the movie together. (Since he’s never watched a musical before or since, Providence’s hand must have been at work.) After it was over, I thought that seven brothers looking for wives would make a good idea for a series, never dreaming it would turn out to be an idea for me. Sometime later, I realized I had a group of brothers in my head. I didn’t know where they’d come from or why they were there, but they were remarkably well defined. A little bemused, I asked my agent what I should do about them. She suggested that I write a proposal, let her send it out, and see that happened. Thus was born the Seven Brides series.

A John Wayne movie, The Cowboys, gave me the idea for my The Cowboys series. He recruited schoolboys to help with a cattle drive. My idea was to have a school teacher looking for homes for orphan boys nobody wanted and a rancher in need of cowhands to help with a cattle drive. She could provide the love and sense of belonging they didn’t know how to accept while he provided the safety and sense of purpose they needed. I just had to figure out a way to get them together. It took thirteen books, but I finally helped each boy find the love and family he’d always wanted.

The idea for my third series came from a book about Mosby’s Raiders, a Confederate cavalry band that harassed Union Army General Sheridan’s supply lines in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia during the Civil War. What if one of the band betrayed the troop which resulted in most of them being killed? What would the survivors do? They would try to bring him to justice – at least their kind of justice – for his betrayal. That’s how I came up with The Night Riders.

Someone Like You, the fourth book in the series, came out in March. The next book, as yet unnamed, is scheduled for February of next year. There will be two more books after that.

I have an idea for a fourth series, but I’ll wait to see if I live long enough to write it.

Leigh Greenwood
www.leigh- greenwood.com