JAYNE JOINS THE CIRCUS

Okay, I have not actually run off and joined the circus (or Cirque du Soleil, either) but I have been learning how to juggle flaming batons and I’m getting a lot of experience on that flying trapeze thing. Welcome to my world.

All I can say is that it seemed like a good idea at the time. I would create three worlds of psychic romantic-suspense that would all be linked together by the Arcane Society, an organization dedicated to the paranormal. The cool aspect from my point of view, of course, is that this would allow me to do what I love best – combine romance, mystery and the psychic stuff – in all three of my fictional landscapes. I was so excited, I could hardly stand it. So, I did it.

My Amanda Quick books feature characters from Arcane who live in the Victorian era – a wonderfully atmospheric time of gaslight and fog; an era in which the psychic thing was considered very, very cool. My Jayne Ann Krentz novels focus on heroes and heroines and plots from the modern, contemporary world. And now, unable to restrain myself, I have begun to weave Arcane into my Jayne Castle futuristics.

Hey, I figured that if the concept of the Arcane Society did not work in one or all of my three worlds, I could ease back out and try something else.

As the old saying goes: Be careful what you wish for. What I hoped for, but hardly dared to believe might actually happen, was that I would end up with all three of my names and fictional landscapes linked together in a long-running series. To my amazement, I got my wish. Readers from all three of my worlds seem to love the Arcane Society novels and they’re starting to cross back and forth between the various settings.

But there’s always a dark side, isn’t there? Do you have any idea of how dicey it can be to keep all the characters, incidents, random facts, and just plain old chronology straight when you’re working with any series, let alone one that moves from the past to the present and into the future? I mean, you’re looking at someone who was never even any good at crossword puzzles, for Pete’s sake!

But I am enthralled by the Arcane Society characters and I can’t wait to see what my heroes and heroines will do next in my Quick, Krentz and Castle worlds. So that is why I’m now taking lessons in the fine art of juggling and doing a lot of aerial acrobatic training. Got a lot of flaming batons to keep up in the air.

What do you spend your time trying to balance? How many balls have you got in the air at any given time? I think we all do a lot more of this sort of thing than we realize.

Sincerely,Jayne