Writing a Series by Michele Drier

Author Michele Drier stopped by to share tips on writing: 

Specifically, How to write a series. Take it away, Michele!

Series are difficult to write.

There’s always a balance between too much back story and too little. Too much clogs up the plot, runs the risk of an information dump and gives readers the ability to skip chunks of the book…not what a writer wants.

Too little can leave the reader adrift in a world of people he or she doesn’t know, with relationships undefined and situations without resolution. It’s as though your friend is telling a joke and cracking up and you sit there thinking “What’s so funny?” Your friend looks at you and says, “I guess you had to be there.”

I’m at that stage now in the tenth book in the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles. The series has seen a lot of turmoil, murder, violence and love. In addition to the overall theme of the series, that of love and commitment between women who are 21^st century Southern California professionals and the vampires they love, 500-year-old Hungarians, there are gulfs so wide they may not be bridgeable.

As the tension unfolds and the emotions get resolved, the characters must live in the contemporary world, solving contemporary world problems for their stories to work.

So far, they’ve been attacked by other vicious vampire families, broken up a sex-trafficking ring, discovered how the Iranians used Chernobyl to store nuclear waste, survived kidnappings and murder plots, assassinated thugs and mobsters from Chechnya and halted international weapons -running.

Well and good. Lots of action, car chases, bomb plots interspersed with scenes of hot sex, emotional arguments and angst about what being a vampire means (not aging, never gaining weight opposed to never being out in the sun and giving up the foods you love).

Now we’re in the middle of #10. I know the love plot, it will include a character turning into a vampire and a wedding. The family will be working to curtail the Russian incursion into the West because they live in Ukraine, the vulnerable place that’s constantly in Putin’s sights. And their fortune depends on having free trade and information across Europe and the Americas.

What I don’t have is a title. This is a tad awkward. Usually the first thing I do, even before I begin writing, is to give the book a title. As a pantser, writing to the title gives me a road map for the plot. And from the title also comes the cover. I work very closely with my cover artist and she reads most of the book before she begins the design.

I have some things in mind, but nothing has resonated. SNAP: Saving Kiev. SNAP: The Final Love Story. SNAP: All for Love.

Something will finally click, I know, but for now, critique partners and beta readers have to cope with SNAP: #10. Not catchy, no hint as to the plot, no clue about the action. And worst for me, no idea for a cover.

There’s been discussion lately in various writers’ groups about what’s a good number for a series. Some lean on the “less is more” side and say three, a trilogy, makes a perfect series.  Some recommend seven. And then there’s Laurie King, whose 21^st novel about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes will be out in June. And Lee Child with Jack Reacher and Janet Evanovich with Stephanie Plum. Upwards of 20 books in the series.

At this point, I’m planning on #10 as the last in the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles and it will be out late this summer. But once I have a title and write the resolution, will that pesky vampire family nag at me to continue their story?

More About the Author 

Michele Drier was born in Santa Cruz and is a fifth generation Californian. During her career in journalism—as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers—she won awards for producing investigative series. She is the president of Capitol Crimes, the Sacramento chapter of Sisters in Crime, and the co-chair of Bouchercon 2020. Her Amy Hobbes Newspaper Mysteries are Edited for Death, (called “Riveting and much recommended” by the Midwest Book Review), Labeled for Death and Delta for Death, and a stand-alone thriller, Ashes of Memories, published in 2017. Her paranormal romance series, The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, has consistently won awards and was the best paranormal vampire series of 2014 from the Paranormal Romance Guild. The series is SNAP: The World Unfolds, SNAP: New Talent, Plague: A Love Story, Danube: A Tale of Murder, SNAP: Love for Blood, SNAP: Happily Ever After?, SNAP: White Nights,  SNAP: All That Jazz, and SNAP: I, Vampire. Connect with her here:

Website     Facebook     Amazon Author Page

*note from Nancy Lee badger: Happy Friday the 13th!

On the Road Again with Michele Drier and SNAP

On the Road Again

It’s closing in on Halloween and time I put on my costume.

That’s right, I dress up like an author.

What does an author look like? A bit frazzled, somewhat frantic, putting on a happy face while begging “please buy my book.”

Maybe it’s because of the long summer when much of California takes a vacation away from the heat, but every year September, October and into November is the travel season. The one where you load up the trunk of your car with books and hit the appearance road.

This year it began in New Orleans with two panels at Bouchercon, the world’s oldest and largest mystery fan and author convention. As the co-chair for Bouchercon 2020, here in Sacramento, I spent six days taking notes, shadowing people, being on panels, talking, talking talking. I was reacquainted with old friends, met some new ones and came home exhausted.

The Great Valley Book Fest

with (left to right)

Catriona McPherson

Cindy Sample

Cherie O'Boyle

Michele Drier

moderator Danna Wilberg

Packed up the car and took off for a presentation in Fresno, 170 miles south. Home again, I reloaded the car and drove to Manteca (50 miles south) for the Great Valley Book Fest, a one-day fair of all thing bookish. Talked to a lot of people, met William Kent Kruger, award-winning author of Ordinary Grace.

Then closer to home, I drove to Face in a Book, an independent book store in El Dorado Hills to take part in a Sisters in Crime mystery panel. I’m the president of the local Sisters chapter, Capitol Crimes, and with four other members, regaled the audience with tales of being a writer. How do you come up with your plots? Do you have a regular writing schedule? Are you like your characters?

Odd, no one asked what we wear to write in. They probably knew that a writer’s uniform is jammies…or in my case either a t-shirt or sweatshirt, depending on the temperature. One author confessed to writing every morning in her recliner and another said she stands at her kitchen counter. Me? I sit in my office and stare, waiting for inspiration to leap out from the walls.

I‘m winding up this sprint on Nov. 5 when I teach a writing class at a local Adult Ed program.

At the bookstore, I fell into conversation with a young woman who’s just finished her first novel, a YA coming-of-age set in the supernatural. I gave her some resources, encouraged her to polish her book and to see it through to be published. Having the passion to write, to finish a novel, or short story or essay is a wonderful thing. And to sell it, to share your stories with others, to amuse, challenge, scare, teach others through the persuasion of your own words is heady stuff.

But being a writer is scary, also. Putting your thoughts, ideas and words out there for perfect strangers. Letting people you don’t know into your world. And then hoping they’ll pay to hear and read that story, those words.

And what’s even more scary? I still have a trunk full of books in my car.

I tell myself that John Grisham and Stephenie Meyer started out this way.

Book Blurb

In book nine of the Kandesdky Vampire Chronicles, Maxie Gwenoch, LA-based media star, VP for International Planning for the multi-national gossip conglomerate, SNAP, has finally agreed to marry Jean-Louis Kandesky, a 500-year-old Hungarian vampire a leader of the family that owns SNAP.

Is marriage a big change? Not as big as the fact that Maxie is now a vampire, as well. When munitions from the Kandesky Enterprises weapons plant in Slovakia turn up at the bombing of a Royal's house in England, Jean-Louis and his "brother," Nik, are hot on the trail of shadowy terrorist groups dealing in international weapons sales. Are the Kandesky arms being sold to terrorists groups? Should Maxie use her new-found vampire strengths to ferret out the scum?

More About the Author

Michele Drier was born in Santa Cruz and is a fifth generation Californian. She’s lived and worked all over the state, calling both Southern and Northern California home.  During her career in journalism—as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers—she won awards for producing investigative series.

She is the president of Capitol Crimes, the Sacramento chapter of Sisters in Crime, and the co-chair of Bouchercon 2020.

Her Amy Hobbes Newspaper Mysteries are Edited for Death, (called “Riveting and much recommended” by the Midwest Book Review), Labeled for Death and Delta for Death.

Her paranormal romance series, The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, was the best paranormal vampire series of 2014 from the Paranormal Romance Guild. The series is SNAP: The World Unfolds, SNAP: New Talent, Plague: A Love Story, Danube: A Tale of Murder, SNAP: Love for Blood, SNAP: Happily Ever After?, SNAP: White Nights,  SNAP: All That Jazz, and SNAP: I, Vampire.

Visit her facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/AuthorMicheleDrier, her website www.micheledrier.com or her Amazon author page, http://www.amazon.com/Michele-Drier/e/B005D2YC8G/