Happy Friday STT friends. I’m celebrating
a new release in one of my series, and it occurred to me some might want to
know how to distinguish one type of series from the other. Sometimes, it isn’t
easy to tell.
A series is connected by some common
element. It might be a setting, the characters, or a theme. An episodic series
is one where a story moves from one episode to another. It can end in a
cliff-hanger or not, but either way, you have to read the entire series to get
the whole story.
My new release is Revealed, Book 3 in Intrigue
under Western Skies. The series is connected by setting, characters and
theme. The story begins in Charleston, SC, but quickly moves to a fictional
town in Nebraska, where the other books are set. Each book has a different
plot, and each story can stand alone, but it adds to the reading enjoyment if
the books are read in order. Of course, different readers have different taste.
I’ve even heard of readers who read the ending of a book first.
I have two books out in another series, The Wolf Deceivers. It isn’t connected
by either characters or setting. Each plot is a suspense that carries the theme
of the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. It doesn’t matter which book is read first.
Some series have prequel books, usually a
novella. I got carried away with the prequel for Intrigue under Western Skies, and wrote three novellas. And the
boxset of all three is FREE today through Jan 14. It contains background information
about Carianne Barlow, the heroine of the first two books in IUWS, although the novellas are about
her three friends who become mail-order brides.
Also, I’ll be giving away an ebook copy of
Revealed to one commenter today. If
you are an author, do you prefer to write series or stand-alone books. If you’re
a reader, which type book do you prefer and why?
Katherine Levinson and her gravely ill mother face
eviction, and she has no choice but to appeal to the brother she’s never seen,
the famous cattle baron, Rhyan Cason. Over her gravely ill mother’s objections,
they move to Nebraska and the sprawling cattle ranch, Sollano.
They are met with whispers and scorn in the little
prairie town near Sollano. Gradually, the sins of her parents’ past surface,
and Katherine begins to doubt her very identify. With her brother busy with
cattle rustlers and her mother too ill to be bothered, Katherine turns to Colt
Holliman, a soft-spoken neighboring rancher, for comfort.
Then unexpected danger strikes, testing Katherine's and Colt's trust in themselves and in God.
