Writing a Series

A friend recently suggested I read FOREIGNER by C.J. Cherryh, a popular sci/fi writer. It’s the first book in a series and has a fascinating premise. A spaceship from Earth has gone off course into an alien universe. A colony is sent down to live on a planet populated by the atevi, an intelligent group that resembles humans, but are taller, stronger, and have black skin and yellow eyes. The hero, Bren Cameron, is a human translator who has learned the atevi language and culture. He wants desperately to maintain the peace between the two diverse groups, but things never run smoothly. By the end of the book, he’s so badly injured he’s on his way to the hospital for surgery, but for the moment, he’s out of danger. The second book, INVADER, begins with Bren leaving the hospital and right back into deep trouble. I don’t usually read sci/fi, but this series is so fast-paced and exciting, it drew me right in. Bren is such a sympathetic character, I couldn’t stop after the first book!

Having one continuing character works well not only in sci/fi, but also in mysteries and thrillers. Sue Grafton has pushed Kinsey Millhone through the alphabet. Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum humorous mystery series is on NOTORIOUS NINETEEN. Fans know they won’t be disappointed when they read the next book in a popular series.

When a family friend married a bullfighter’s daughter, I thought it a great premise for a book, but I hadn’t anticipated a series when I began. Wealthy men often have multiple wives and create new families, and a matador was a perfect fit for the role. My goal in FIERCE LOVE was to tell the story of Magdalena Aragon, a young woman in her twenties who’s meeting her famous father for the first time. She’s the daughter born of his brief marriage to an American woman, and this is her first visit to Spain. That she has half brothers and half sisters she’d also never met added near endless complications to her reunion with her father. When she falls for a matador herself, he’s the very last man she wants to love. The story is set in Barcelona, a city I love, and the book was a joy to write.

When I sent the finished the book to my editor at Samhain, it proved impossible to leave Maggie’s eldest brother, Santos, behind. He’s the bullfighter’s son, and deserved a book of his own. FIERCE PRIDE is an entirely different story. He’s a matador himself and someone wants him dead. That he falls for Maggie’s half sister, Libby, strengthens the ties created in the first book and gives characters I’d grown to love a chance to come back for an encore.

You can probably see this coming, but Maggie’s father had a mistress, a super-model with an independent spirit, who demanded a book of her own, FIERCE PASSION. This series grew from the characters and their complicated relationships, and I had to run to keep up with them. I do believe the FIERCE series is complete as a trilogy, but Maggie has twin half sisters who may someday get a book of their own.

Do you love to read books in a series? I’ll be happy to send pdf copies of FIERCE LOVE and FIERCE PRIDE to someone who comments.

FIERCE LOVE is available in both ebook and print from Samhain. FIERCE PRIDE, a February 2013 ebook, and will be in print in February 2014. The beautiful mistress’s story, FIERCE PASSION will be a November 2013 release. Rest assured, no bulls were harmed in any way in the writing of these books.