In Sickness And In Hell

"Do you, Helen E. H. Madden, take this series to be your lawfully long term project, to have and to hold, to write and to edit, in sickness and in health, through edits and rewrites, for publication and promotion, until death do you part?"

"Uh... what was the question again?"

Anyone who's ever written a novel will tell you that a story that long takes a lot of commitment to finish. Anyone who's ever written a series of novels will probably tell you that you should be committed, as in locked away in a padded room with a custom fit straight-jacket and those funny little pills that make you feel oh-so-happy all day long.

Personally, I have not written a series of novels... yet. I have two published books to my name, one of which is a collection of short stories and the other of which was meant to be the first book in a trilogy of dark fantasy erotica novels. I loved that novel. In fact, I used to eat, sleep and breathe that novel. I loved the exotic settings and the twisty turny plot. I loved the way the characters would wake me up in the middle of the night, feeding me pages of dialog and steamy sex scenes. I loved, loved, loved it!

And yet I have never returned to write that second book.

There are a dozen reasons why, including the fact that I was asked to write something else first. I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have cheated on my first love by going on to work on this second novel. I have yet to finish the second novel at all (though I've got about 30,000 words of it written, so I guess I should finish it some time). But I strayed, and two years after diving into that initial relationship with Demon By Day, I sit here wondering if and when I can revive that long lost love.

Will the half-demon Orziel still talk to me if I dare to conjure him up? Or will he flip me the bird and say, "Sorry sucker, but I know who you've been screwing around with." I'm almost afraid to try. But there's something inside me that makes me think that flame is still alive, and I think that if I try, I could lure my characters back and worm my way into their good graces once more.

But not right now. I've got a list of projects as long as my arm, including a podcast that requires I write, record and produce a new short story every week. I had initially considering writing and producing an ongoing story for the podcast, taking a longer story and breaking it down into weekly installments, like a TV series only in audio format. But I worried about the commitment that would require. What if I didn't like the story? What if I wrote myself into a corner and couldn't figure out how to get out? What if I ran out of steam before I reached the end of a lengthy plot?

What if, what if, what if. As much as those words frequently inspire stories, they can also kill potential projects. With so many what-ifs looming over my head, I opted not to do a podcast serial and went for the individual stories instead. I figured this way I could get away with just doing five episodes and then if I didn't like the project or I couldn't handle the workload, I could quit without leaving anyone hanging. After all, how long could this podcast thing last? Three months? Six?

Or maybe a year and a half and still counting?

"Do you, Helen E. H. Madden, take the Heat Flash erotica podcast to be your lawfully wedded long term project, to have and to hold, to write and edit and produce, recording in sickness and in health, through technical difficulties and computer crashes, until death do you part?"

"Uh..."

Honestly, at this point I guess it's too late to say no.

Sometimes Scary is Good!

Series are scary – lot’s of commitment, time and memory required.

Stand alones are also scary – if all the stories are stand alones, how do you tell which one you should work on next.

My solution is a bit of a middle ground – collections of stories around a theme.

You’ll find these with a lot of publishers – but you’ll usually find that they are multi-author collections – like Total-e-bounds Anthologies and Seasonal releases. (The Gift on the left was the first one of those I tried my hand at.)

In my wisdom I’ve taken this idea and written a series of collections around different themes. Since I have a grand total of one story released in each series, the jury is still out on if these are a good idea or not.

Here’s a bit about them anyway.

The Collared Collection is the first one. I case you haven’t heard me mention the fact before – I love collars. Really, really love collars. I love writing about how collars change and represent different relationships in different ways.

Collars turn up in a lot of my other books as well. But this is a collection of those stories in which the collars themselves really get to take the centre stage a bit more. Since it’s a collection and not a series, each one stands alone – which also makes it easier to put in M/m and M/f stories without worrying that people who only like to read one or the other will be put off.

Here's the blurb for the series, which explains what it's all about a little bit more logically, lol.

Leather. Latex. Silver. Gold. Ink. Velvet.

There are as many different shapes and styles of collar as there are people who wear them. Protection.

Possession. Dominance. Submission. Loyalty. Love.

Some collars mean it's time to play, others signify a life time commitment. A fun bit of bondage to one person can easily look like the kinky equivalent of a wedding ring to another. A gold necklace might look vanilla enough until you know what it means to the person wearing it.

But no matter what they are made of, or what they represent, collars are important. A collar can make or break the submissive wearing it - and the dominant who put it around their neck.

It doesn't matter if you are dominant or submissive. Everything changes once one person is Collared.

The Perfect Timing Collection runs the same way. It’s a set of twelve stories that stand entirely alone. They just all happen to revolve around the theme of time. Again there’s a mixture of M/m and M/f stories in there, and again they’re all BDSM.

Deadlines. Relationships that are intended to end when the proverbial clock strikes midnight. Existing relationships that change with the click of the equally proverbial fingers.

I had a huge flurry of stories where the relationship thrives or fails based on the Perfection of the Timing. So I went with it. I don’t even know if anyone reading them will see the way they are related to each other. I just know that they felt connected when I wrote them.

Or, to put it a little more logically:

Sometimes you meet the right person at the wrong time. Sometimes it takes an exceptional circumstance to make you realise the time has come. And sometimes you just have to wait to get for what you want.

But when the timing is perfect, anything could happen…

The third collection I’m working on at the moment actually came about because someone mentioned the fact that those guys in my books who like other guys tend to be quite comfortable with the fact they are gay (or in some cases bi).

They tend to be out, and happy about that. For want of a better term I didn’t write about “gay issues”. And so the G-A-Y series was born. I’m not going to say they represent a deep and angst ridden troll through the difficulties of being gay in a sometimes still very homophobic world. But they all revolve around different things that are probably more an issue for a gay man than they would be for a straight one.

Here's the thinking behind the series:

Being gay isn’t always easy. Between families and closets and psychotic ex-boyfriends, finding a happy ending can be difficult to say the least.

At the same time, other guys seem to fly a rainbow flag and breeze through homosexuality as if it’s the easiest thing in the world.

Maybe it’s about time the guys who’ve got it all worked out shared some of the fun with those having a rougher time of it.

Maybe that could lead to happy endings all around.

When I started thinking about my response to this topic, I was going to say that I’m going to write a proper series, but I haven’t done it yet. I actually said that on another blog I contribute to several months ago - I also made a commitment that I would get my act together and try to work on a series as well as the collections I enjoy writing so much.

Well, as of a few days ago, that information is out of date. I now have a contract for a series – one in which the characters, location, theme and what-not all follow through from book to book!

Pack Discipline is a M/m werewolf, BDSM series. It will run for four books. And I’m completely in love with it. The first book isn't going to be released until next year, but I’m excited already, lol.

I think I’m going to become very quickly addicted to writing series. Sometime scary is fun!

Kim Dare.
Kink, love and a happy ending. Do you Dare?

Stand alone...leads to a series...or

by Jude Mason

Another topic that's got me thinking and wondering how in heck I can explain myself. So many things to think about with this one.

All righty, here goes!

I didn't actually read a lot of serial type stories or books when I was younger. Nancy Drew didn't do it for me. The Hardy Boys were more my style, but I honestly didn't go for them a lot either. Besides that, I had eye sight issues. By the time I really got into reading, I was in my mid-teens and ready for the naughty stuff.

I was really into science fiction and things like John Carter of Mars books. The Gor series was the first real D/s I'd seen and I loved them, although I often rooted for the females to rebel and enslave those nasty men. I think that's when I realized I was a tad different from the girls I knew.

Back to series or stand alone books. (Notice how easily distracted I am. Ugh!)

When I really got into writing for myself, the stories I created where sort of a series. They all happened to a single person, but the stories weren't connected in any other way. I adored writing about the same woman. I knew here like I knew myself and if I'd allowed anyone else to read the stories, I'm sure they'd have thought I was nuts. LOL But, that aspect of serial storytelling is incredibly attractive. You get to delve into every aspect of a character's life and show it all to the world. You've got time to dig into bits you might not have in one book or a short story. Each new story, you can just dive in. There's no need to describe the setting or what the character looks like, or where they live. You've already done that. A quick skim and you're good to go.

Now, a stand alone has its own special advantages. The first for me is, I don't have to remember all that's come before. You might laugh, but when you get to be my age and have written as many stories as I have, it's an issue.

The chance to create new scenarios, new characters, new games and such is also very big with me. I love the challenge of putting it all together. Characters have to meet, they have to have a place, a job, a style, they're like my children. I have to make sure they have everything they need to live and breathe and tell their stories. I also get to chose their sexuality, or share it with others if the characters have already formed in my thoughts.

See that's what happens, sometimes. I'll be doing something and out of the blue, BAM, a story will strike. Often it's the outline, or part of an outline and I have free reign to decide the rest. I may have only a genre and one character, a place maybe and that's it. Other times, I'll get like a flash and it's all there. The entire story, or even the basics for a series. Each time is different and each time I wonder, where in hell did that come from? But, I'm always glad it arrived.

Of course, there are always the characters who began as secondary who cry out for their own story to be told. Sammy was one of those. He was born in An Acquired Taste, wound up in Yes, Ma'am and then in his own story, Sam the Man, in the anthology, Phaze Fantasies VI. I love it when a character is that strong.

So, series or stand alone, are in some ways the same, they both need to be filled out, the beginning middle and ending have to be complete. It's just a matter of how much 'story' there is. How much time do I have to spend on it? Am I answering a call or do I have freedom to work as I please? Am I writing with my partner, Jamie, on some sexy new addition to our Kindred Spirits Series?

My preference? At this instant, stand alone, because that's what I'm working on. But, ask me in a few days, or even tomorrow, and the answer may be completely different.

Guess that really didn't tell you which I prefered. I'd love to know what you think, what are your preferences?

As Easy As 1, 2, 3,

I love a good series. When I find memorable or even likeable characters, I think it’s great to be able to have grand adventures with them again, as long as the author can keep the stories fresh. I experience déjà vu enough without having a book trigger the feeling with a rehashed plot.

Another thing that will kill the thrill for me is to read the first couple books in a series and pick up the anxiously awaited next installment only to have it suck… big time. You know what I’m talking about. You recognize the characters names and even the environment, but the plot and pacing are so piss poor, you can almost feel the pressure the writer must’ve been under to put out something… anything. I wonder if they experienced a feeling of dread as they sifted through their final edits, knowing that the work they held in their hands fell far short of the tales they’d released before. I pray I never have to experience the sensation.

As a writer, I’m now giving serious consideration to trying my hand at a series of my own. I have characters from a certain novel who have endeared themselves to me so much, I just can’t bear the thought of letting them fade into a distant memory. They still have secrets to share with me, tales to be told and havoc to be wreaked. My only dilemma is whether or not there is enough original material there to actually justify a series.

How many ways are there to kill a man? How many different sorts of monsters can come out of the shadows before the reader begins to wonder what kind of a world the hero and heroine live in? How many trials and tribulations can I subject them to before they decide they don’t want to play with me anymore?

I guess we’ll see…

Qualified Yes

Series can encompass a variety of different things. As a kid growing up, I loved the teenage mystery series—Trixie Belden, Donna Parker, the Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, heck, even the horribly dated Bobbsey Twins. Nancy Drew was the one exception. Never could stand her. These books followed the same characters through a variety of adventures, hopefully learning a little something with each episode. I graduated to Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and the Mrs. Pollifax books when I was a little older, and those are much the same, except with adult characters and situations. Then I discovered fantasy and science fiction. The Narnia books, Lord of the Rings, Robert Aspirin’s Myth Adventures, and so many more. Still the same concept though—same main characters, different stories.

But in romance, series usually don’t work that way. For a romance to be a romance, you have to take two (or sometimes more) characters from not being together, to their happily-ever-after. That’s pretty final. Although I have read a few great books where the romance continues to grow and evolve in a second book, (Jayne Ann Krentz has a couple good examples of this) that’s about the limit if each story is really a romance. So a series takes a different turn. Usually it’s a common world, town, family, or group (a Navy Seals team, perhaps) that have overlapping stories. Each book of the series features a different character finding that HEA. So each book as a unique hero and a unique heroine. One of the great features of this kind of series is that you get to peek at the HEA of earlier couples. It can be kind of like catching up with old friends.

From a reader’s standpoint, I love series. I love seeing that couple A is still together a few years later, maybe with children, or still helping to save the world. I still have the first romance series I ever collected, Roberta Gellis’ fabulous Roselynde Chronicles. She broke a rule in this series, too. The first two books had the same heroine. Yep. Her first HEA wasn’t so ever-after. Husband number one was much older and died while the heroine was still in her 30’s, leaving her to remarry a man much closer to her own age. I’m not sure you could get away with that in today’s market, but as Ms. Gellis was one of the founders of the historical romance genre as we know it, she did. I had the chance to meet her at last year’s RT convention, and practically genuflected at her feet.

Series have problems though. They can go on way too long. Then they run the risk of being repetitive or jumping the shark. There are a couple of very big names that I used to run right out and buy on release day. Now I get them from the library if I bother at all. I totally respect author Linda Howard who said she wasn’t writing any more books in her MacKenzie (sp?) family series, because she didn’t want to have to kill off the parents. Sometimes, you just have to let go. And who knows? If she hadn’t, we might not have had all the NEW wonderfulness she’s written since.

As an author, I am learning about the pitfalls of series. Writing the last of my Crazy H trilogy was hard. There was a lot I’d written in that couldn’t be changed, so I had to write around a lot of things I might have changed if they hadn’t been set in stone by previous books. I had to really work to make this heroine different from the other two—can’t have them all blending together. Even names are a bigger challenge. But sales-wise, there’s a definite plus. When Always a Cowboy came out, sales did spike again for books one and two in the series. And when you’ve written a character who’s just too cool to say goodbye to, it’s nice to be able to give them their own HEA.

So yes, I’d have to say I’m in favor of the series concept, both as an author and as a reader. But if I ever drag one out to the point of absurdity, will somebody please let me know?