Lisa Jackson | It Takes A Village

I never intended to write a series of connected books. I was always a stand alone girl. Well, okay, there were a few books in my old series romance novels days that were connected, but for the most part I started each book with new characters and a new setting. Fresh start--fresh mind and all that.

Then, about ten or twelve years ago all that changed. I wrote HOT BLOODED with the idea of a companion book, COLD BLOODED in the back of my mind. My editor liked the detectives of the New Orleans Police Department in the first book so well he suggested we go for the second. Okay, no problem. I remembered most of book one and had enough notes to make certain the second novel made sense, that each character looked the same, was true to him/herself, lived in the same house, d rove the same car and so on and so forth. You get the idea.

After COLD BLOODED, I wrote a lot of other books that weren't connected to any other book, but when it came time to write my first original hardback, my editor thought we should go back to New Orleans and some of the characters there. Detective Reuben Montoya was very popular with my fans, so I decided to write his story in SHIVER. But wait . . . how many years had passed? How old were these people now? What were all the characters doing when last we left them? Montoya had grown up. His partner Rick Bentz was married, right? My crew in the fictitious New Orleans Police Department had to be brought back to the fore. What the hell had happened to them in the past few years? Were they still employed.

The job of writing SHIVER was daunting, but fun. Really, fun, I guess, because I went on to write three more books about those characters and in the middle of the writing process, lo and behold, Hurricane Katrina came crashing through New Orleans. Suddenly everything changed, including the characters! The entire city was altered forever because of the tragic storm and two books had already been approved, were partially written, as if Katrina hadn’t hit. I couldn't rewrite. One book was already in production. So, for my purposes, the hurricane had to wa it for several books.

At that point you might have thought that I would have learned my lesson about series, but, apparently, that’s just not so. I wrote LEFT TO DIE a couple of years ago and I fell in love with Grizzly Falls, Montana with its slew of quirky characters. I just had so much fun with these new people that I couldn’t let them go.

Originally my editor had suggested that I write about a female detective team and the first one that came to mind was Cagney and Lacey, that old TV show. “Oh, no!” I thought. It just didn’t work, but as I put my mind to the task, two unique individuals began to emerge. Tightly wound, secretive Selena Alvarez was the first and she was coupled with brash, twice-married single mother Regan Pescoli. Soon they became real to me. Between the detectives and the rest of the staff of the Pinewood County Sheriff’s office, I felt right at home. Writing about them was exhilarating. I laughed. I cried. I LOVED spending time with them. This time, though, I was smarter, and kept copious notes about the characters and the town, even incorporating a map of Grizzly Falls onto my website and creating a character gallery so that when I went to write CHOSEN TO DIE, which is out in the stores now, it was easier to keep everyone straight.

I ’m planning a third book, BORN TO DIE which will be out in a couple of years, so I keeping track of all my information, the back story that isn’t revealed in the books.

I guess the series bug bit me. I’m really into the series thing and I just can’t seem to stop. My sister, author Nancy Bush and I are writing several “Colony” books together, starting with WICKED GAME that came out last February. That’s a whole ‘nother community to keep track of. Yikes.

At least, for the Colony Books, Nancy will keep me on track. Right? Let's hope so!

Lisa Jackson