Writing the Second Book in a Series OR “Previously on . . .”

One of the many things that’s difficult about writing a series is that each book has to stand alone, so you have to set up the stuff from the first book at the beginning of the second. But you can’t just lay it out there, that’s boring for the reader who HAS read the first book. The opening of the second book in the Rocky Start series begins with my heroine being significantly annoyed with the hero because he’s leaving her, which of course he has every right to do. Or as she puts it, “You know what I hate? I hate being mad at somebody who hasn’t done anything wrong. It makes me look bitchy.”

And that’s a worry for me, too, because she’s repressing a lot of anger in the first two pages (as she recaps briefly what’s gone before) because she knows she shouldn’t be angry BUT SHE IS. Nobody likes a bitchy heroine. So here’s the first paragraphs of Very Nice Funerals. Tell me in the comments if you think she’s too awful or if you think the recap is too heavy handed.

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“I was not upset.

“I was perfectly fine with Max Reddy leaving Rocky Start. I’d only met him two weeks ago when he’d come to town, looking dangerous, dark, and gaunt, mostly cheekbones, so we’d hardly had time to bond. I had a whole new life to plan, I had a future again for the first time since I was eighteen and threw mine away, so I had to make plans, good plans this time, a better life, so I didn’t have time for Max anyway. I mean, I was grateful for all he’d done for us, especially saving my daughter’s life, I would owe him forever for that, but I was fine with him leaving. It would be good if he’d tell me when he was going to go, but it didn’t make any difference, really. It was fine.

“I even understood when he got out of my bed every morning that week to get back into shape to go back to the Appalachian Trail; he was a man’s man who needed to stride alone across rivers and through forests as manly men do. Perfectly fine with that. I did notice that today, for the first time, he had his heavy backpack on. Knowing Max, it was so he could suffer more during his walk. He’d told me “pain is weakness leaving the body,” which is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Pain is a warning system. Pain is a body saying, “Sit down, you idiot, you’ve hurt yourself and you should stay where you are with that nice woman you’re having a lot of sex with.”

“I will admit that when Maggs didn’t follow him to the door that morning for another practice hike, I thought, Good for you, sweetie. Maggs is a long-haired German Shepherd, a special breed whose thick fur is pitch black. She’s large enough to be mistaken for a wolf, much like Max with his dark eyes and silver-threaded dark hair and general dark outlook on life, not to mention his lust for walking through forests and probably peeing on bushes. They clearly belonged together. So when Maggs sat down by me instead of following him to the door, I shrugged my shoulders at Max, who looked surprised. No idea why she’s not leaving with you, Max. No idea why you’re leaving me, either. You dumbass.

“Max opened the front door of my second-hand shop—my secondhand shop, the one I’d inherited from my boss/landlord Ozzie Oswald only two weeks before, the shop that was going to be my second, no third, no, wait, fourth chapter in my life—and called her, and Maggs just looked at him, the picture of A Big Black Dog Who Didn’t Understand the Situation.

“I could relate. For the past two weeks, I had often looked at Max the same way. I mean, I could completely understand why he might want to head back to the Appalachian Trail with winter approaching so he could eat frozen rattlesnakes and mice instead of hot lasagna and mustard chicken. I mean, who wouldn’t?

“Anybody, Max. Anybody but you.

“You know what I hate? I hate being mad at somebody who hasn’t done anything wrong. It makes me look bitchy.”

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Okay, if you’d never read Rocky Start, the first book, which you haven’t because it’s not out until next month, would that give you an idea of the situation, enough of the back story to at least get you situated in the romance, and a solid idea of what had gone before? Or is it confusing and Rose is just a nag? This stuff is hard, help a writer out, Argh.