On the death of a character...

I’ve just started work on Wolf Tales 10 (yep, that’s a number ten, not a Roman numeral for those who are keeping track!) and already I’m dealing with something that’s never happened to me in a story before.

I know that one of my regular characters is going to die.

In an ongoing series, it’s not unusual to occasionally lose a character, but I’ve never actually come across this situation while writing. One thing I don’t want to do is spring it on my readers, because that’s NOT the kind of surprise I want when I’m reading a romance, but before I disclose the character’s identity, I thought I’d toss the question out to those of you who read this blog. I trust your opinions, as I know you’re all serious readers with a lot of ‘book experience’ in your background. I’m curious about your feelings—if a character dies, one you’ve “met” in the course of a series, do you want to be warned in advance, or is it something you’d rather find out about in the story?

Do you need to know their identity, or is it sufficient merely to know there will be a death that’s a necessary part of the story?

Personally, I want to know what to expect, but then I’m the kind of reader who will flip to the end of a book if there’s any doubt about the ending. I hate getting to the end of a story and finding out the hero and heroine aren’t actually going to have their HEA! On the other hand, I know that Wolf Tales 10 will have a very happy and satisfying ending to it in spite of the death, but it’s not going to be an ending that’s easily reached. And, because this is an ongoing series, it’s an ending that will be explored again in the next book as my characters grow and develop within the parameters of their roles.

The weird thing is, while I don’t plot my stories ahead of time, I do have a general idea what direction my tales will take. With this particular character, I realized almost from the beginning that she wouldn’t be in the series for long. I would reread my work at the end of the day and discover she’d been left out of a scene entirely, or when I’d go to write her dialogue, she would become uncharacteristically silent. It was almost as if, once introduced to the series, she made her appearance and then began to fade away. Preparing me, as the author, for her demise? I don’t know, but I do know that when I started putting together ideas for Wolf Tales 10, the very first thing that occurred to me was her death, and what it would mean to her mate and his future within the pack.

So that’s my question, and it’s one that will actually determine the blurb on the back of the book—do I let my readers know in advance that one of my Chanku won’t survive the first chapter, or do I keep it a secret and allow readers to find out on their own? And if I do announce that a Chanku will die, do I give her name or leave it to the reader to discover?

Thank you—your input is really very much appreciated! This is one of those situations where I honestly don’t have the answer.

From Wolves to Demons...and Demon Hunters

I’ve started work on my new paranormal series for Kensington Zebra, tentatively called Demonfire, though since I recently noticed that Emma Holly has a book out called Demon’s Fire, that may get changed...titles are strange things. As an author you can be highly invested in a title and yet someone else will get to it first, or the editor will think it’s horrible. Need I say who generally wins this one? That happened with my Wolf Tales series, when I called the overall series, while it was still an online serial, Wolf Tales, but gave each story a new name: Stefan, Alexandria, Anton, Keisha, etc.

When Kensington bought the series, they decided to call every novel Wolf Tales with a Roman Numeral to designate which book it was, but now that we’re up to IX they’re talking about going to Arabic numbers—personally, now that I’ve figured out how the Roman Numerals work, I hate to see them change, but it’s out of my hands. Point being, using Wolf Tales as the overall title has worked really well, though I know my readers get confused when I have to explain that the series continues in the Sexy Beast anthologies, where all my titles have “Chanku” in them—but I digress. I was talking about Demonfire!

This new series is going to be something totally new for me. It’s not erotic, but it is a sexy paranormal. Picture Earth as the fulcrum holding the world of Eden (Good) and the world of Abyss (Evil) in balance. However, demons from Abyss have been invading Earth in ever growing numbers, until now, it’s reached a tipping point where Evil might be in a position to take over all three worlds.

The good citizens of Eden can’t fight, even to protect themselves, but they know something has to be done to stem the flow of demonkind into Earth’s dimension. They hire a fallen demon to do their work for them. Dax has been booted out of Abyss—he’s got a streak of good, though he’s far from perfect. He agrees to do the Edenites’ dirty work for a chance at Paradise. They give him a human body and a tiny will o’ the wisp named Willow to help him adjust to the strange dimension called Earth, and send him off to save mankind—with exactly seven days to get the job done before he gets zapped back to the void where they found him.

Unfortunately, Dax gets hit by the powerful curse from a demon the moment he sets foot on Earth. He ends up unconscious in Eddy Marks’s potting shed, where her dog Bumper discovers him. Eddy’s a pragmatic soul, but it’s hard to deny the existence of a demon when there’s a little Tinkerbell clone flitting around, and the snake tattoo that runs from this absolutely gorgeous man’s thigh to his chest seems to have a life of its own. I did tell you he’s naked when she finds him, didn’t I? Oh, well, he is...and, uhm, you can see where this is going, right?

I absolutely love starting a new story that’s set in a totally unfamiliar world. I’m about eighty pages into this one and it’s beginning to open up for me. It’s lighter than Wolf Tales, with a little more humor and a lot of action. I think readers will identify with both Eddy and Dax—and Bumper the dog. Poor Bumper is a case of odd breeding. Picture a pit bull crossed with a standard poodle—she looks like a pit in a blond Marilyn Monroe wig, but she’s loyal and brave, and with Willow’s help, often finds her own voice.

I’m not exactly sure where this story will take me, but it’s the first book in a series of four that, unlike Wolf Tales, will end after the fourth book is written. We don’t have a set release date, but I expect Demonfire (or whatever it’s called) will hit the stores by Spring of 2010, which, in the publishing world, isn’t all that far off. In the meantime I’ll be splitting my time between writing stories about my demon hunters and my sexy Chanku and trying to keep everyone straight.

So my question is, do you have a problem when authors change genres? Wolf Tales is definitely erotic, but Demonfire most assuredly isn’t. I’m hoping readers will be open enough to something new from me—it’s time to stretch my wings a bit and make the move from trade paperbacks to mass market. I’d love to hear what you think.