Z.L. Arkadie's Blog, page 12
August 17, 2020
His Second Chance with Bryn Christmas Update!
Here’s the deal.
It’ll be nice to have one last book in the Christmas family series–no duet–just one book. The complete story has been written, and now I’m waiting for Crave and Destined to finish clearing proofing. Of course, I could speed up the process by contacting some reliable sources and paying for additional proofs. That just popped into my mind. I think I should do it. But you know what? There are two reasons why I write in trilogies or duets. First, to gain new readers by making the first book free. But, I don’t even know if that’s as effective as it used to be. Visibility is a hard thing to come by these days. It’s like surviving a decade in Death Valley out there. The second reason is that writing the story in blocks (books 1, 2, 3, etc.) helps me keep it interesting and allows me to kick-up my plot a notch or two.
I don’t know. Part of my job is learning what you love to read. So I have to study the work of other authors. I spent yesterday reading this standalone mafia romance novel. I actually liked it. I mean, I didn’t understand why the kidnapped teenager’s family didn’t just follow the kidnapper back to where he was keeping their daughter. The kidnapper went to his strip club every day, and the brother knew he had his sister. If her family was a powerful mafia family, then why didn’t they just tail the kidnapper back to the mansion where he was keeping her? The story would’ve been over in two chapters. It was as if the author was asking me to suspend common sense for the sake of her story. I mean… that’s cool, I guess. BTW, I never do that, in the books I choose to read for my own pleasure. And I still can’t get past a teenager behaving as though her prefrontal cortex is fully developed. I think that’s the allure of mafia romance though–it’s one of the last bastions of conventionalism. I mean, put a baby in her stomach to unite the families? That was tough to read. Sigh… However, the author did a great job of creating believable intimacy between the characters and the plot elements involved in the two becoming a couple. Yet, I thought the story sort of fell apart at the end. I suspect it was because the author didn’t quite know what to do after the main characters had fallen in love, confessed their feelings for each other, and the girl was no longer a captive. Basically, the story was BIGGER than one book. 2011 Me would’ve probably ended the story the way she had. 2020 Me would’ve had the heroine escape after they made love for the first time (effectively kicking the plot up a notch). Writing in the series allows me to do that–because that’s how book one would’ve ended, with the escape. Then I would’ve spent book two, getting them back together while dealing with the consequences of what he had done. A duet…
I don’t know…
Readers like one book tough, a standalone. In the future, maybe I’ll try writing in trilogies or duets for my sake, and then release the story as one book, but that means I’ll have fewer releases per year. Whenever I complete a story, I feel this anxiety, this need to get it into your hands as soon as possible. Waiting would be difficult.
Well see.
I’ll also keep you informed about how I’ll release His Second Chance with Heiress Bryn Christmas. If the complete story is ready to go by August 26th (the date Amazon wants the final version published by), then there will be no need for a duet.
Again, we’ll see.
So that’s the update. Stay tuned!
