Paula asked Heather Ames:

How do you manage to write two very different series? Do you have an idea of how many books will be in each one?

Heather Ames Thanks for asking these questions, Paula.

Let me answer the second question first...

The Swift/Roberts series will have 5 books. When I was first convinced (by 17 people in an LA critique group, including several screenwriters) to make Indelible the first book in a series instead of a standalone I originally planned, I felt it would be a limited series, perhaps with 6 books. By the time I wrote Book 3 (Swift Retribution) I knew the story arcs for all main characters would be completed in 5 books.

The Ghost Shop series also started with a standalone, but when I relocated it to the Willamette Valley and introduced new characters that gave it the paranormal twist that defines it, I realized there were possibilities for more books. I am currently writing Book 3, Tainted Legacy, with a storyline that involves a very bad vintage. Finding ideas for strange new plots and oddball, sometimes human and sometimes far-from-human characters are proving to be relatively easy.

Writing two series with very different storylines and characters makes the process easier at times, but more complex at others. I found the emotional depth I have to reach with the Swift/Roberts series didn't mess well with the lighter touch I use for the Ghost Shop series. Mystery/suspense with thriller elements is a very different kettle of fish from cozy but paranormal. I had to stop working on both first drafts in tandem. I'll finish Tainted Legacy's draft before I go back to Maine Issues (Book 4 in the Swift/Roberts series.) It'll be easier to revise one while creating the other. If it isn't, then I'll finish Tainted Legacy to meet my publication deadline of the end of October, and complete Maine Issues over the winter, for a spring release. Better to publish what I feel will be two good books than possibly sacrifice some of my best writing.

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