The Druid Made Me Do It

I never really set out to write these stories as a series. One funny paranormal romance -- I would have thought -- would be enough weirdness for the market to stand from one weird author named Natale Stenzel. But then . . .

Okay, we’ll start at the beginning. First there was Pandora’s Box. That was the secret pleasure I wrote in the belief that New York would never buy it, so I wrote it exactly the way I wanted it. ‘Exactly the way I wanted it,’ however, just happened to include an ending that begged for another story based on my secondary characters. That was kind of risky, right? I’d leave readers hanging if book number two never came out to satisfy questions. But that didn’t matter to me. As I said, I’d written this story to please myself. Ah, but then the unexpected happened and I sold it. Even more unexpectedly, my new editor let me keep that ending. And so we birthed The Druid Made Me Do It. (And by the way, as a reward for toughing it out through this blog post, I’ll be giving away to a commenter one free copy of Pandora’s Box, the story that started this whole mess in the first place. You know, the prequel.)

So, writing a series. What on earth was I thinking? Well . . . mostly that I really, really loved the world that I’d created and that I’d left a couple of amusing but secondary characters in a position that needed some explaining, developing and resolving. Talk about a challenge. Before I go any further, how about some blurbs, just so you know where all of this is originating:

The first book in my series of funny paranormal romances, Pandora’s Box (Dorchester Love Spell, February 2008), tells the story of Pandemina Dorothy Avery, a woman in dire financial straits who inherits . . . a rock. But not just any rock; no, her legacy turns out to be a fragment from a monolith that once stood in the stone circle at Avebury. Yes, just like Stonehenge, except the Circle of Avebury is bigger, older and less well-preserved. Of course, my heroine doesn’t realize the significance of this rock at first, any more than she knows about an ancient curse, a condemned but gorgeous trickster of a puca named Riordan, or how much her strange inheritance would disrupt her life.

My August 2008 release, The Druid Made Me Do It (check out that hunky cover!), picks up where Pandora’s Box leaves off, with some of the same cast and mythologies, but with a new romantic couple and new conflict. To satisfy karma and Druid justice, hunky but penitent bad boy Kane must make amends to everyone he’s harmed in the past – including Dr. Janelle Corrington, his new and reluctant guardian. How does a Druid convince a human doctor to take on guardianship of the guy who devastated her years ago? Why, he offers compensation in the form of a gift she cannot refuse: the power to heal with just a touch. Not that this gift is without its own drawbacks . . . and temptations.

And speaking of drawbacks and temptations, I swear I was seduced into writing this series by the characters themselves. They just grew so large in my mind that I couldn’t let them go, couldn’t leave them where they were. It’s so satisfying, really. Even the secondary characters, the ones that go from book to book with me, have arcs of their own, with back story to reveal, motivations to outline and fulfill, and lessons to learn. Oberon, king of the faeries, is suave, less than faithful, but full of strong if flawed love for his family and a responsibility toward his people. His wife, Titania . . . oh, do I have fun with her. At first, she seems merely frivolous and poisonous – definitely some comic relief with this character – but over the course of a few books, we begin to understand why she is the way she is.

Did I know this starting out? Heck, no. If I did, I might have talked myself out of a project as complex as this. Not just book arcs but entire series arcs. Oh, and then there’s High Druid Phil. (Yes, I said ‘Phil.’) He’s a modern professional with thinning hair, designer specs, purple sneakers and a disarmingly sunny disposition. I fell in love with him and was so thrilled to hear my editor and some of my readers did, too. So – yay! – I had a blast with him in my third book, which I just finished. Originally, I’ll admit, I envisioned Phil as more of a minor, walk-on character. But then, as I kept writing from one scene to the next, one book to the next, he grew unexpected depths. Scary funny. I’m not kidding. I love Phil.

So, as you can see, I’ve grown obsessed with this world I created. I’m having a lot of fun playing in my own backyard for a while longer. There’s so much to discover now that I have the opportunity to dig deeper. But still . . . there are pitfalls and drawbacks when you use the same world and some of the same characters for separate books. For example, you have to be careful with words like ‘always’ and ‘never,’ especially when you’re writing paranormals. Once you lay down a law and a book goes to print, you have to follow that law for subsequent books. I like to leave a little loophole in case I need it later – since, after all, I didn’t plot this series when I first started writing it. I need a little wiggle room so I don’t get stuck later.

Another negative: keeping everything straight. Seriously. Hair color, last names, timelines. This would be so much easier if I were a plotter and had everything graphed and diagrammed and organized into little tabbed sections and charts. I don’t. I have free-flowing blather. Sophisticated, huh? But that’s my process. I’ve tried to fight it, tried to incorporate all the little organizational toys (I love office supplies as much as the next girl), but they just pile up in between the story and me until I can’t see past the charts and graphs well enough to recognize the spark that lit up the story for me in the first place. So I do this the messy way and clean up during revision and editing. Will I make mistakes? Very likely. But my characters will be three-dimensional and totally alive for me and – I hope – the reader. That’s the trade-off.

So, have I learned my lesson about writing books in a series? No, not so far. I think I mentioned I just finished writing the third book in the series. It’s called Between a Rock and a Heart Place, due out in March 2009, and yes, we’re talking about another couple with a new romantic conflict and . . . yeah, okay, you’ll guess the premise for this book as soon as you read the ending for Druid. I couldn’t help myself.

Thanks for having me on Cigars, Sam! I had such a good time guest blogging here when Pandora came out that I couldn’t resist coming back. So, as I mentioned, I’m giving away a copy of Pandora’s Box, the first book in this series, to a randomly drawn commenter on this blog. Just leave me a note telling me if you like to read or write books in a series. What do you like or dislike? Do you have a favorite or a couple of favorites that you follow? What’s the appeal? You do have to be registered at Cigars to be eligible to win.