On Writing-Part 5

I was pleasantly surprised by the success of my second book, 'Female Prey'. That success prompted me to use the main female character from that book, Kimberley, in my third book. In 'Female Prey' she had been hunted down and taken captive by three men, all professionals at that sort of thing. As I envisioned it, she'd enjoyed the experience and wanted to try it again. But I didn't want to simply repeat the story, so I began to work on the setting for the new tale. It started out as a small town, one built to look like a set for a Western, and it kept growing from that humble beginning. I finally wound up drawing a map of the place just so I could keep track of all the features, and then dumped Kimberley and her friend Barbara into the middle of it. Neither of them had been there before, so I took the opportunity to introduce readers to the place through the two girls' eyes as they learned about it for themselves. As I was doing this, it became clearer to me just what Kimberley was looking for, and how far she would be willing to go to get it. It took her adventure a little while to get into gear, but once it did new characters, new situations and new circumstances began suggesting themselves to me. Kimberley seemed to relish it all. I should mention that she is as real a person to me as if I had met her personally, and I enjoyed writing about her escapades as much as many people seemed to enjoy reading about them. She had an adventurous spirit and a quirky little mind, and it was clear to me that she was having the time of her life in Gordburg.
As I wrote and wrote and wrote, however, I began to realize that the book was going to run well over the 50,000 words the publisher was looking for. It could have run to 80,000 words easily if I hadn't started to apply the brakes and look for a way to bring the story to a suitable ending.
Gordburg turned out to be a remarkably interesting and flexible setting not only for Kimberley's story but for any further stories I might write. I can't say why it took me so many years to go back there with 'The Novice Prey'.