Piling Books Into Your Series - How Authors Keep Their Readers Coming

   My recent book store adventures continue. Found so many new books last time that a customer thought I was an employee as I walked to the coffee shop. She looked at the pile of books in my hands in disbelief when I told her the books were the ones I was buying. Yeah, I found several books by favorite authors with long series plus a couple new mysteries, including a writer I hadn't read before.

   Normally, I don't talk much about the authors I read automatically. But I've been thinking lately about characters and series and why/how they keep their wheels spinning along, a lot recently because my own reviewers keep insisting I write more about my different characters.

   The puzzle loomed higher while I was glancing through those favorite authors, trying to decide which book I'd read first. Ended up reading Christine Feehan's Viper Game even before Patricia Brigg's new Mercy Thompson. That surprised me, but then, Feehan featured Wyatt & Gator Fontenot's grandmother as a secondary character.

[Yeah, I'm into old ladies. ... Nothing prejudiced about me.]

   Romance writers have it the easiest when it comes to keeping their worlds alive, I think. They can give all those relatives, friends, and acquaintances a chance at finding their own "one true love". Mary Balogh and Stephanie Laurens do this  well. The children of Lauren's first batch of Cynsters are now in the process of finding love. Balogh is still mining the social network of the Bedwyns. Both of these are writers of Regencies, and thanks to Georgette Heyer and Nora Lofts, I remain addicted to a good Recency, though the number of fictional earls and dukes have long outnumbered the quantity of real ones in British society.

   Since when did reality have anything to do with romances, anyway? Still, I don't tolerate writers who don't/can't give a feel for the mental mind set of the Enlightenment lurking in the shadows of privilege.

   Back to Feehan. She keeps two paranormal series going--that of her enhanced military operatives and their female counter parts and her benign vampire series, the various Carpathians ruled by Prince Mikhail Dubrinsky. Viper Game belongs to the former series, this time featuring the brother of a former "book star". I like how Feehan has toned down the testosterone of her male protagonists; they were getting just plain annoying, even though she writes a good sex scene, around the middle of the series. Feehan's super villain is still lurking in the shadows, but the series may set up a new compound [aka fortress] of enhanced warriors and their mates. She left hints that another of her misfits might find true love--after some exciting adventures, of course.

    Patricia Briggs keeps her series going by emphasizing one main character, Mercy Thompson, a coyote walker in a world of werewolves. The latest novel, Night Broken, features the manipulative former wife of Mercy's werewolf husband coming to live in her house because she's stalked by a volcano demon/god. Added complications come from a fae walking stick which refuses to abandon Mercy and the need to conceal the powers of a half-fae friend. Yeah, Briggs piles a lot of supernatural into the northwest corner of Oregon, and her fans keep coming back for more.

    I sometimes think that Yasamine Galenorn's Otherworld series has become too complicated. Still, I keep coming back for more, including Panther Prowling, told from the point of view of Delilah D'Artigo, my least favorite of the three sisters featured in the series, though Galenorn has grown the character over the course of the series. Heaps of supernaturals are piled upon the reader in this series with the sisters bouncing around like ping pong balls trying to save Seattle and the human-based earth. Panther Prowling takes a breather from their arch-villain and concentrates on a possessed sword rather than a demon lord trying to conquer the mundane, fae, and demon worlds.

   One note on Galenorn's books. Her publisher, Berkeley, has decided to stop publishing her Otherworld series after ten years and 18 books, citing decreasing sales [if I remember right]. They want her to concentrate on her two new series. Sounds like she's going to. But...Galenorn has the ending of the Otherworld series in sight and is thinking about becoming a hybrid author.

   Interesting. The current publishing paradigm is provided opportunity for established authors as well as pip squeak writers like me to be independent.

All these books are written by master craftsmen. You are going to find tight, complicated plots and three dimensional characters, even among the secondary ones. I recommend the books as do thousands of other fans. Of course, I love Briggs depiction of the Tri-Cities area along the Columbia River.

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Interesting & Useful Links:

   What can be more useful than a laugh? Chuckles are nice, but readers of L. D. Masterson's blog often get a belly-laugh or two. I usually read her Hump Day Mish Mash Funnies on the week-end and don't comment as much as I ought. Maybe a link will make up for my lateness.

   Other stuff that pulls me out of my working schedule: The Passive Guy posted some videos on What the English of Shakespeare, Beowolf, and King Arthur actually sounded like. Take a click and see how much you understand. [I was thankful for the subtitles.]

   Then, I recently had a couple guest posts and interviews posted on various sites. You can take a peek at Pat Stoltey, The Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Zoe Ambler, and  Savvy Book  Writers.

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  I've been whining -- mostly to myself -- since last week. My critique group told me the back story [relating back to my short story, Noticing Jamilla] wasn't working in either of my two attempts to add to Cassy Mae's adventures. It just confused them. Suggestion was to rewrite the whole thing from beginning to the escape and go on to her escape from the Markham's wrath. 

   And, here I wanted to get a simple short story up so I could collect my Andor stories into a print volume. Oh, well.

But the Triumph!!!!! 

   After working on the revision of my author website since December, I published it last night...when I should have been writing this blog. Oh, I still have to do a lot of checking and optimization. But it's up! Finally!  You can see it here, says M. K. Theodoratus, Fantasy Writer.

Sorry to be late in posting the blog this week.

Can Your Characters Stand the Series Test?

Picked up a copy of Christine Feehan's Samurai Game, the new Ghost Walker novel, in the grocery store. A couple of books back I stopped looking for her new titles because it seemed to me that she was giving the same character different names and matching him up with a different woman who was a cookie cut-out from the previous heroine. I think this is a minority opinion because they are re-issuring her Carpathian series -- and publishers don't do that unless an author's books are selling.

In the series, the Ghost Walkers defend themselves against Dr. Whitney's attempts -- the man who created them by enhancing their psychic abilities to use as military operatives -- to regain control of the soldiers and their women. At this point in the story line, the pairings of different Ghost Walkers have now produced children. Whitney plots to kidnap the babies for further experimentation. This time around, Feehan complicates the story line with an added element --  a female character is as lethal as the overprotective males.

So, how did Samurai Game stand up to being read? Well, I read it all the way through with very little skimming. ... All the action you expect from a Feehan novel is there, maybe more than some previous volumes in the series. What kind of action? Well, how about three assassinations in the first 20 pages. Firefights, intrigue, more assassinations follow, and plenty of sex in between the fights.

The book's well worth studying for how Feehan paces the plot. Even though this is tenth in a series, very little back-story clogs the action. Even though I hadn't read the last few books, it didn't matter. Dribbles of info here and there gave me enough to know where this book fits in the story line.

I still haven't decided whether this book's a keeper or is going on the trade pile, but I recommend it as a read.

[Christine Feehan. Samurai Game. New York: Jove Books, Penguin Group, 2012.]

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Looking for success with the help of an agent? Rachelle Gardner, one of the best for sharing publishing info, recently blogged on what catches an agents eye. So, if you'd like a pointed commentary on what agents look for in a writer, the info is only a click away.

I'd add one other point that's a necessity if you are seeking an agent's quality time. Write consistently and productively. There's a pace in the commercial publishing world that can eat up a writer alive ... especially if you write genre fiction. Read the blogs of professional writers, especially when they write about revisions and copy editing.  Both eat up hours.

At least Gardner nor any other agent need to worry about me clogging their in boxes. Since I can't sit at the computer long enough to be efficient, I've decided not to query agents ... even if I had something to query with.

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Which reminds me of the status of my writing. My pig prequel has a new title ... Troublesome Neighbors ... and I'm slogging somewhere in the last third. So much for spending a week on writing a free short story. Worse than being a slow writer is trying to tie together several story lines into a new whole.

Hopping from Book to Book

The Read ...

I like to give new authors a try.  This time I bombed out ... on a recent grocery story buy.   Paid full price which stabbed a cheapskate's heart.  Did read a couple pages before I bought the unknown author.  The first chapter was nice, if slow.  The concept of a runty, near-sighted goblin was appealing ... but the next three chapters bogged me down.  On the second day of reading ... when I found myself rereading similar dialog on the part of the adventurers who captured the goblin, I gave up.  

A lot of people, though, must have liked the book since it had a couple sequels.  Maybe they were desperate for a new supernatural being?  Or, is that paranormal now?  Maybe someone will be happy to find it used.

Jumped into Christine Feehan's Dark Slayer, the umpteenth book in her Carpathian series.  You have to admire any writer who can keep three different series front and center on the bookshelves.  Must admit the middle ones didn't grab my interest much.  You can only take so many hunky Carpathians forcing their attentions on their newly discovered "life mates".  Granted the stakes are high.  The nocturnal Carpathians turn into particularly nasty vampires when they don't find their one [and only] true love.

Then, Feehan put the villain she'd hinted at in previous books front and center.  The books now have a cagey and powerful nemesis to defeat.  Result.  More exciting books.  For example in the first chapter, tons of back story about Carpathians is incorporated into a fight with a powerful vampire.  At the end of the chapter, the MC discovers the sprawled body of her life mate, "the curse of all Carpathian women", sprawled in the snow as the sun is close to rising, and she needs to seek her lair.

In the second chapter, she saves a child from a vampire trap but is confronted by a more powerful vampire, who just happens to be one of her brothers who thinks the MC is dead.  By the end of the chapter, her problems are complicated when she is confronted by the Carpathians, whom she hates for good reason, who insist on healing her wounds, a offer she resists.  The story is off and running.  I'm a fourth way through, and the story line hasn't lagged yet.  

The only problem.  I'm busy.  I barely got down to the TV to watch Castle last night.

Web and Other Stuff ...

Guess I hit Barnes and Noble wrong.  Today, we had to pick up a book the old man ordered.  Found the books books I bought on the display shelves ... on a Monday.  So, the scenario, went to the store on Wednesday.  They stock on Thursdays. I bought at the grocery store on Friday.  Bottom line:  they lost the revenue on four books. 

I wouldn't have ordered them either.  This writer business is keeping me too busy.  Guess I could have gone to my used book sites to find them ... but, again, too time consuming.

Progress ...

Did get my short story up ...Stubborn Is As Half-Elven Does ... still with no artwork.  The details are on my Half-Elven blog. 

What I wasted my writing time on -- agent queries.  All those listings for fantasy agents makes it seem like a large market.  Then, you look at the websites, interviews, and blogs.  You discover they don't really care much for the type of fantasy you're trying to flog.  Then, you go to the AW Water Cooler and find some have a questionable reputation.  Ugh.  I've landed square in "query hell".

Trivia ...

The old man went to take a shower after the news last night ... and no hot water.  The hot water heater died just when the dishwasher was full and waiting.  The part has to be ordered, and we may get convenient hot water heater by tomorrow ... if they overnight the part.  Until then, the stove's been drafted.

Same Ole, Same Old Stuff

Trivia:  Spent yesterday afternoon getting the car in shape for winter, including a new battery.  The dealership didn't have any record of me buying a new battery since 1999 so I figured it was time.

Managed to finish Christine Feehan's Dark Curse while waiting.  [Read one chapter on Saturday when I should have been writing.  Took two days for a 400 page book.]

Reading Lessons:  So what did I learn?  [Other than I'm a faithful series reader ... as long as the story line doesn't bore me.  Guess, I like retreating into other people's worlds ... though I don't fantasize about them afterwards.]


Feehan's working in back story without filling up pages of explanation caught my admiration.  Many of Feehan's older characters appear in the book with just enough tag to place them in the world's setting.  No giving their life histories and their characters remain consistent with what I remember.  Jim Butcher does this very well in his Dresden series too.   Both do this without using the same tags repeatedly.


Feehan's done her Carpathian series for over a decade and is pushing twenty books.   I'm overwhelmed by her output.  [Three series plus, and I'm doing good to get one 'book' a year with endless revisions.]  To keep all that straight, her character outlines must be as long as a book to keep her people straight.  [My Half-Elven stuff, including locations, covers three 'books' and runs about twenty pages; other WIPs are only three-four pages.]


While the attraction/love scenes repeated themselves, Feehan managed to switch gears before I became bored with the same repeated descriptions.  Redundancy, anyone?  To me, redundancy is more than telling and then showing the same action.  Some might think she head hops because she switches viewpoints in mid-chapter, but she's easy to follow so I didn't mind.


Progress:  I continue to chop about 1000 words a chapter on Tangled.  Most of it is redundancies, adverbs/double adjectives, and passive verbs.  When I get to the end, I'm seriously going to have to look at whether I want to simplify the viewpoints.  I'm sure I'll hit my head against the wall of liking to read multiple viewpoint stories.


Emma got slammed by my local crit group because I don't give enough emotion.  Well, I'm not emotional ... also she's suppressed her emotions due to the abusive treatment of the grandmother.  I need to work on that a bit.  Maybe have her feel more emotion and consciously suppress them.


Whoever said writing was easy.

Can't Win for Losing?

Trivia:   The recycling's done for this month!  We have to lug it to a station with eight truck-sized bins lined up in a row, each taking their own blend of garbage.  Plastics.  Newspapers.  Glass.  Cardboard and the stuff in between.  I wonder how much "improper stuff" is dumped in each bin.  Whatever, the place is in constant motions, like ants.  As soon as one car leaves, another takes its place.

Comments:   The Republicans are having another hizzy-fit over Obama's address to the school kids.  Both the sainted Reagan and Papa Bush did the same, but I guess only the righteous right has the privilege of "indoctrinating" the kids to do well in school.  --  Again, I wonder when the conservatives will wake up and address the real question facing our society and offer some workable solutions instead of grandstanding.

Wanna bet the lumpin-politik will forget the corporate fascists are responsible for getting rid of the regulations that allowed the current economic mess to happen?  A fifth grader should know:  if it's possible to milk the system, someone will line their pockets at others' expense until someone makes them stop.  Madoff, anyone?  At least, no one talks about privatizing social security anymore.


Reading:   Finished Patricia Brigg's Hunting Ground.  A satisfying read which I did in two days.  Liked the Seattle locale since I knew the environment from before the "freeway" disrupted everything.  The last time we were there I hardly knew the Pike's Street market with all the spendistas hogging all the parking spaces.

Can't wait for Brigg's new Mercy Thompson book to come out in mass paperback.  My kids would giggle over me being a cheapskate ... if they knew.  My lack of bookshelf space is the real reason for me not reading it yet.  I have two bookshelves (badly in need of pruning) to contain all my books.  I won't mention the books under my bed.

The library?  After a day, I can't find them under the piles of owned books scattered around the house.  Fines accumulate fast around here.

Kindle?  I don't wear a purse.


Writing:   Do I even want to talk about my lack of progress?  Actually, I am writing and accumulating copy.  Just not as much as I wish.  I'll be sticking out the slowness of Emma's journey into Faery and ignore the other ideas churning in my head.

I indulged in another vice beside solitaire to avoid writing last night -- watching the trailers about Christine Feehan's Dark series on YouTube.  Liked her comments, quoted from Romantic Times, I think, about writing slow but steady.  See?  I have an excuse for doing what I'm doing.