I’m still processing the Romance Writers’ Conference. One of the presentations was very timely, as I’ve been rethinking my publication sequence because readers are asking me to complete some of my series before going on to others. I’m not one for serials. In a serial, you have to go to the next book to find out the resolution of the main plot, which I find annoying. But I do love series, where each book has its own story arc, but we continue to meet the same characters over and over.

I’ve also been talking to the wonderful Caroline Warfield about her Children of Empire, which has now become series 1, with more to come. Caroline is getting to know her characters, family by family, so she can discover the overall series arc for each group of books, which is something I’ve lucked into rather than deliberately sought. At the conference, Bella Andre and Nadini Singh both made a good case for thinking about both the story arc in the individual novel that forms part of the series, and the overall series arc. I think I can enrich my books by being a bit more deliberate.

I can certainly be more deliberate about the order in which I write and publish. In the beginning, I started publishing chronologically. Now, having written five and a half novels, nine novellas, and nearly twenty short stories, I still don’t have a completed series.

Here’s where I’m up to in my thinking.

The Golden Redepennings was always designed around the concept of a wealthy, handsome, charming aristocratic family, all descended from three brothers. I have published three of the planned seven books, and am writing book four for publication in March 2019. One a year until 2022? Maybe faster, if I retire. Each book has its own theme and its own arc. The end returns to the beginning, with a minor villain in book 1 coming home as the prodigal son in book 7. Series arc? I had one in mind, but I’m not sure I’ve kept it front and centre. I’ll have to mull a bit more.

The Children of the Mountain King series, which starts The Bluestocking and the Barbarian, has individual love stories for each child and niece of the Duke of Winshire, head of the Winderfield family. The overarching storyline of the  series is a secondary romance — between a Winshire and a Haverford. They start on opposite sides, since her husband attacks the legitimacy of the Winderfield children. And then, through the series, various things happen (including her husband’s death). (My next novella with the Bluestocking Belles is a prequel to this series.) I’m aiming to finish and publish this series over the next two years (2019 and 2020).

Game of Mist and Shadows, the Prue and David series, is a mystery/suspense, but each book will have a love story, and part of the plot will be the emergence of yet another Haverford bastard child for Prue and David to help. The first book, Revealed in Mist, was Prue and David’s love story. Concealed on Shadow has gone on the back burner so I can work on the other projects while selling my house, but I already have an idea for the next one after that. Revealed in Mist is also the first book in The Virtue Sisters, which will go on to explore the love stories of each of Prue’s sisters. The overall arc is the reconciliation between the sisters.

I’ve done a couple of stories in Lion’s Zoo, a series about an ill-assorted bunch of men who were exploring officers for Wellington in Spain. House of Thorns is sitting back on my desk so I can do the edits, and The Fifth Race was a newsletter subscriber story. I’ll have to think about overall arc. At this point, nothing occurs.

And The Heart of a Wolf is about to become a series, at least in my imagination. Who’d have thought? The hero of the short story will be the subject of the overall arc (finding, redeeming, and supporting his people), and the love story in the final book. I need to map out story concept for the other books, but I know the first one involves Bastian’s secretary, who falls in love while out on search for a suitable bride for Bastian.

I have others, as you know. But that’s enough to be going on with.