To Series or Not To Series...

by Janis Patterson

Yes, that is the question! And a fairly knotty one it is. There are those who say you can’t make money writing today unless you do a series. There are others who say that series are repetitive and creativity-killers. There are still others who bore easily and on the whole find series a great bore.

Then there are people like me who believe a little of all of the above. Of course, like the Red Queen I have been known to believe three impossible things before breakfast!

Seriously, I was never a fan of series since I outgrew my passion for Nancy Drew… though I still enjoy one of her books every now and then. As I bore easily, I always want something new, new people, new places, new situations… All of my novels since the beginning a couple of decades ago have been standalones with no crossover characters.

So why am I now writing not only one, but TWO series?

I have no idea.

I have always been a pantser who has characters walk in and start dictating to me instead of being one of those lucky ones who can outline stories and create personality sheets delineating each character in the book. They are creators; a lot of the time I feel more like a simple scribe.

My first series is about Flora Melkiot, an elderly widow of a jewelry store magnate who likes to live life just as she wants and is convinced that she could be good at anything if she just puts her mind to it. Usually she is, too, despite the fact that others regard her as a menace and a meddler. One police detective called her the ‘dark side of Miss Marple.’

Flora first appeared as a minor character in EXERCISE IS MURDER. Once the book was finished and out, though, she refused to leave me alone and – Flora-like – she eventually got her way. Of course. Her new adventure is profiled in MURDER IN DEATH’S WAITING ROOM, where after what she called a minor traffic accident (only a broken wrist) she has been put by her painfully conventional daughter into a rehab facility… against her will. Of course there are murders, and it’s a lovely romp. Her next book will be called MURDER AT FIVE TO ONE and set in Las Vegas and she is nagging me mercilessly to get started on it.

MURDER IN DEATH’S WAITING ROOM released this week in ebook format at the four major retailers. There will be a paperback version available as well, as soon as I can get past some technical difficulties.

I can’t give in to Flora now, though, because I am halfway through a brand new series start called A KILLING AT TARA TWO. This is about a contract archaeologist named Dr. Rachel Petrie (no relation, as she has to tell everyone, to the famous turn-of-the-last-century Egyptologist William Flinders Petrie) who is currently on the dig of an old plantation house in Alabama. She is much less pushy than Flora, but she too is urging me none-too-gently to get her series going. As a contract archaeologist she can work anywhere, and I already have ideas for stories in Peru, Boston and Bavaria.

In addition to this I am contracted for a couple of romances as my Janis Susan May persona. These are standalones – at least, I think they are. With my demanding characters one can never be sure. Plus, a darling friend of mine is enthusiastically urging me to write my memoirs as I have led such a varied and 'interesting' life. I haven't told her yet that I can't do that because some of the statutes of limitations have yet to run out!

So many stories, so little time. Sigh.

To Series or Not to Series...by Kathy Ivan

Sometimes as a writer, I’ll get an idea for a story, and immediately want to write it.  (Fitting it into my hectic schedule is a whole other ballgame.)  There’s enough of a story for it to be what’s known as a standalone book, meaning there will only be the one book which doesn’t connect with any other books that author has written.  No other books will come from this story idea.  And that is perfectly fine. 

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But other times, I will get a kernel of a story.  When I start thinking about it, and begin writing, there’s so much going on, not only with the main characters (the hero and heroine), but with the secondary characters, I feel the need to tell their stories too.  Some of them have stories that are equally as interesting as the people you are writing about—so much so they almost steal the story away from your hero and heroine. 

When that happens, it almost becomes imperative to write an ongoing series.  Writing a series can be done in many ways, but the two most common are:

1.  The hero and/or heroine will have multiple books about them.  This individual’s story arc will carry across from one book to the next (a perfect example is Julie Moffett’s Lexi Carmichael series).  These books revolve around the main character, i.e., Lexi, and her many adventures, including solving a mystery in each book, as well as surviving the ups and downs of maintaining a romantic relationship.  This works extremely well for cozy mystery series.

2.  Another example would be the series where there are cross-over characters, but each book has a different hero and heroine (or hero/hero, heroine/heroine depending on the genre).  An example of this would be my New Orleans Connection Series.  Each book can be read as a standalone book—meaning you don’t have to have read any of the other books in the series in order to read and hopefully enjoy any single book.  The characters will cross over into other books in the series, and readers seem to love when that happens.  It’s like catching up with old friends you came to care about in other books. 

These are just two examples of writing series versus standalones.  Neither one is right or wrong, or better or worse than the other.  It’s all up to the writer, and ultimately the reader, to decide their reading preference.  And that’s part of what I love about writing (and reading).  There’s a vast amount of choices out there—all you have to do is pick one and dive in. 

Happy Reading! 

Kathy is busy writing her New Orleans Connection Series, a romantic suspense series, set in and around New Orleans.  Her latest release, Deadly Justice, is available now.  Her next book, Wicked Obsession, releases in September 2016.  For more information on Kathy’s books, click on:  www.kathyivan.com/books.html