Today we welcome, Christina Courtney who writes about those characters who just wont leave us alone.
When my first novel, Trade
Winds, was published in 2010 I thought I’d written a stand-alone
historical romance. The story felt
complete to me and had a happy ending, so I could have left it there, but the
characters had other ideas. The couple
in that tale had a son, Brice, who just wouldn’t leave me alone until I’d
written his story (Highland Storms). And
then Brice quarrelled with his younger brother Jamie, who appeared to be the
villain of the piece, but things aren’t always as they seem, which is why he
insisted I had to let him tell his story too!
So this week sees the publication of Monsoon Mists, the third
book in my Kinross trilogy. It’s strange
how these things just sort of happen!
I hear a lot of readers
saying they love series of books (and this appears to be especially true in
America), but I think many authors love writing them too. Once you have come up with a cast of
characters and their setting, it’s really difficult to let them go. It’s as if someone told us we had to suddenly
give up our friends and never find out what happens to them in their
lives. Impossible!
It’s happened to me several
times now, and in fact, although I thought I had finished with the Kinross
family after three books, some of the younger members are now clamouring inside
my head, so it’s entirely possible I may have to continue. It begs the question - are we as authors in
charge of our stories or is it the characters who decide? In this case, it is definitely the latter.
I have to confess I love
series of books myself, my favourite being the Brother Cadfael stories (I know
they’re not really romantic fiction as such, but they all contain an element of
romance). I have all twenty of them and
remember eagerly awaiting each new instalment once a year. Thank goodness Ellis Peters managed to write
the last one before she so sadly passed away!
There are others I follow avidly and returning to characters I know and
love adds to my enjoyment of the stories, like going back to a favourite
holiday destination where you know your way around and can be sure you’re going
to have fun.
It seems to be more common
for thriller/crime writers to keep coming back to the same characters than it
is for romantic fiction authors, but I also love it when novels that are not
sequels are set in the same location as a previous novel by the same author and
we get little glimpses of characters from earlier books. Sue Moorcroft’s Middledip springs to mind!
So when my characters start
to get bossy and demanding, I won’t be telling them to go away – just to form
an orderly queue! How about you – are
you a slave to your characters or are you in charge?
Blurb for Monsoon Mists
Sometimes the most precious things cannot be bought …
It’s 1759 and Jamie Kinross has travelled far to escape his
troubled existence – from the pine forests of Sweden to the bustling streets of
India.
Jamie starts a new life as a gem trader, but when his
mentor’s family are kidnapped as part of a criminal plot, he vows to save them
and embarks on a dangerous mission to the city of Surat, carrying the stolen
talisman of an Indian Rajah.
There he encounters Zarmina Miller. She is rich and
beautiful, but her infamous haughtiness has earned her a nickname: “The Ice
Widow”. Jamie is instantly tempted by the challenge she presents.
When it becomes clear that Zarmina’s step-son is involved in
the plot Jamie begins to see another side to her – a dark past to rival his own
and a heart just waiting to be thawed. But is it too late?
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Thank you, Christina, that's another book to add to our 'to read' pile.
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