When I first began writing, I had a character. Liza got into a mess, or she had to get her neighbor and father out of their mess. I had one book in my mind. Sometimes I worried a little that I would be a “one book wonder.”
Then Liza went to a ball and talked with a tipsy Amelia. I loved that scene. Amelia made an impression. She talked herself right into the second book. What a relief! And then toward the end of that first book, I met Sidonie. She was so engaging. Suddenly, I had a series. (I added two novellas somewhere in there too).
Then I had an idea for a short story, a prequel about Amelia’s mother. Except my short story wants to be a novel–I’m working on that now, a little more than half-way through. I do believe this will be the last book in this particular series. But did I only have one series in me?
I’ve discovered that there is something about writing, at least for me. The more I write, the more ideas come to me. I have three sisters that I can’t wait to write about. One of them needs to marry into money. Sometime soon I think I must do a spin-off series beginning with a book about Madeleine (The French agent that we meet in The Masks We Wear). I have a stand-alone knocking around in the back of my brain–a forced marriage, and some men recently returned from the war who meet once a week to play cards showed up in my brain and are waiting for romance.. The ideas just keep coming. I keep making notes and suddenly I have plans for the next year and a half. I can’t tell you how excited, and relieved I am to know that I have more than one book or one series in me.
I can’t wait for you to meet all the people who are now floating around in my brain just waiting to have their turn to tell their stories.