Triplets. I’ve only completed three manuscripts in my life and they all turned out to be the same series. I didn’t plan it that way –THEY planned it that way. The characters. They yell at you night and day until you tell their story. It’s like Pirandello’s play, Six Characters in Search of an Author. In my case, they didn’t have to search far.
I had this idea for a book back in 2009 sometime. I’d always loved older woman/younger man stories, so i wanted to write one. Then i found male/male fiction and was captured. Okay, so now my older woman and younger man have another man in the mix. Voila, i’m a menage writer. And, of course, i love beautiful men, so this “other” man has to be be gorgeous. How about a supermodel? Bingo, Genetic Attraction was born.
When i finished Genetic Attraction, i started writing a science fantasy menage. I got maybe a third into it, but the characters from Genetic Attraction kept telling me i wasn’t done. How did my two heroes meet? How did a scientist find a supermodel? Was it easy or hard for them to get together? Okay, okay. I put down the other book (sigh. It still sits in a computer drawer), and wrote The Scientist and the Supermodel , the prequel to Genetic Attraction. That manuscript has recently been submitted.
Time to break out. I had a conversation with a friend in London who is a ballet nut. Ah, i decided to create a ballet dancer hero, and started writing Pas de Trois. But then came NaNo, and i needed to start a manuscript on Nov 1. I was already several thousand words into the ballet piece, so i put it aside. What other idea did i have ready to go? How about a sequel to Genetic Attraction that told the story of Jake’s brother, Caleb, who was introduced in The Scientist and the Supermodel? It was a story that wanted to be told, and it popped right out —Androgynous Dreams.
So, now i have three books all in the same series. Are there more lurking in there? Well, there’s a baby born in the latest book, but she won’t grow up for years — so i just might get to write a story about some other people. Ballet dancers anyone? How about blue aliens? Are your characters task masters, too?