Susan feels like the new kid on the block when it comes to connected books.

Unlike my Sister Quillers, it used to be that once I’d completed a book I was done with it, you know? Finished with those characters and ready to move on to brand new ones. I loved reading connected stories--I simply had no desire to write them.

But one day I took a good long look at the market and noticed that many of the most successful writers in our industry were writing books with connected characters. And I made a cold-blooded decision. I was going to try my hand at that as well. And If I wasn't particularly wild about the idea of reusing characters I'd already written-- well, I would just have to suck it up and do it anyhow.

Then something happened that I hadn't anticipated. I discovered I'd been missing out.

Oh. My. Gawd. Why had no one ever told me? It must be like the Secret Handshake or something, because this wasn't onerous at all! In fact, there was a huge benefit to writing connected books that had nothing to do with the advancement of one’s career. Not only was this fun, but it improved my comprehension of my characters. Yowsa!




I'm very much a character driven writer. Yet even so, it takes me a solid five or six chapters of feeling my way through the various personalities before I figure out just who all these people I’m creating are --and often it takes much longer. I've found out, however, that having a hero or heroine who's already made an appearance in another book gives me a big leg up on my understanding of their character. This was first driven home to me in the case of John, the Rocket, Miglionni from my Marines Trilogy. He was a throw-away line, hardly even a mention in Head Over Heels. In Getting Lucky he had an actual role and began to become real to me. By the time I got to his story in Hot & Bothered, I knew this guy inside out. It was so kewl that I immediately dove into another duo of connected books about Vegas showgirls.

And it happened again. I had to kind of tiptoe my way through the beginning of Skintight, but I really knew Carly Jacobsen (the best friend of Tight’s heroine) by the time I wrote Just For Kicks. And the fastest book I've ever written in my life (which ok, ok, isn't that fast compared to most writers I know, but still) is my upcoming Coming Undone, which is PJ and Jared's story. They were a couple of kids living on the streets of Denver in Hot & Bothered and those two simply would not leave me alone until I aged them 15 years and wrote their story.


So, as you can see, I’m a convert. I’ve discovered the wonders of writing connected stories, and I ain’t ever going back!

But what do YOU all love (or maybe hate) about these connected books? What pleases you most? What do you like the least? Who first sucked you in? Are there things connecting the characters that you like better than others? And do you find the characters more fully realized in subsequent stories. . . or is that a phenomenon realized only by me?