Your screen is going all wavy and sound distorts around you. Not happening? Okay, pretend it is. We're back in early November, 2014, and the last few months have been busy. I went through a couple of rounds of editing on Death of a Bride and Groom, reviewed potential covers, and started trying to figure out how to establish a presence on Facebook, Goodreads, and Google+.
Then I joined some writers' groups, started working on this blog (which, as you can see, is a work in progress), and began noodling around an idea for the next book in the series. The rest of the time, I spent fretting about how Death of a Bride and Groom would be received, whether I'd missed something vital during the proofreading, and fantasizing about offers for film and stage rights.
Okay, we're back in the present--hope those wavy screens and eerie music aren't killing you off.
Death of a Bride and Groom will be released May 20 in the U.S. and on June 12 in Canada. The deadline for the next book in the Honeymoon Falls series looms. Since it's a series, many of the same characters will be returning. I spent a lot of time describing these characters and their storylines in the first book, and I'm wondering how to provide the same depth of characterization for them in subsequent books without boring readers who already know them from the first.
And how do I deal with the need to have the next book ready to begin the year-long publishing process now that the first book is out? Up till now, nobody cared when, or even if, I wrote. I probably spent about two years writing and revising the first book--now I have less than a third of that time to produce the next one.
I've started trying to get the first scenes out of my head and onto the paper, and as in all first drafts, the prose is pedestrian, the effects I'm aiming for are elusive, and the characters keep slamming into each other or wandering aimlessly offstage. Some have nothing to say, and others won't shut up. I look at the opening of the first book, and while I don't claim it's a masterpiece, the scenes flow into one another fairly seamlessly and the characters have purpose and personality. How did I do that? Can I do it again?
I guess I'll find out.
In the meantime, I'd like to hear from you. Have you ever read books out of order in a series? Did you feel the characters were fully fleshed out? If you've read from the start of a series, how much re-capping of previous information did you expect and how much did you find?
Then I joined some writers' groups, started working on this blog (which, as you can see, is a work in progress), and began noodling around an idea for the next book in the series. The rest of the time, I spent fretting about how Death of a Bride and Groom would be received, whether I'd missed something vital during the proofreading, and fantasizing about offers for film and stage rights.
Okay, we're back in the present--hope those wavy screens and eerie music aren't killing you off.
Death of a Bride and Groom will be released May 20 in the U.S. and on June 12 in Canada. The deadline for the next book in the Honeymoon Falls series looms. Since it's a series, many of the same characters will be returning. I spent a lot of time describing these characters and their storylines in the first book, and I'm wondering how to provide the same depth of characterization for them in subsequent books without boring readers who already know them from the first.
And how do I deal with the need to have the next book ready to begin the year-long publishing process now that the first book is out? Up till now, nobody cared when, or even if, I wrote. I probably spent about two years writing and revising the first book--now I have less than a third of that time to produce the next one.
I've started trying to get the first scenes out of my head and onto the paper, and as in all first drafts, the prose is pedestrian, the effects I'm aiming for are elusive, and the characters keep slamming into each other or wandering aimlessly offstage. Some have nothing to say, and others won't shut up. I look at the opening of the first book, and while I don't claim it's a masterpiece, the scenes flow into one another fairly seamlessly and the characters have purpose and personality. How did I do that? Can I do it again?
I guess I'll find out.
In the meantime, I'd like to hear from you. Have you ever read books out of order in a series? Did you feel the characters were fully fleshed out? If you've read from the start of a series, how much re-capping of previous information did you expect and how much did you find?