Friday, February 8, 2013

Sequel Secrets

When I first began writing the sequel to Out of the Darkness, I thought it would be easy. I already had my hero and heroine. Gerard and Tina were great secondary characters in the first book. They even had a budding romance. What could be better? It took about ten chapters for me to realize their story wasn't going to work. Tina had a daughter. And Gerard was a vampire.

Why did that bother me so much? Because as the mother of two daughters, I realized a good mother would never put romance ahead of her children. No matter how much Tina was attracted to Gerard, he was a vampire living in a dangerous world between worlds. Would a good mother risk falling in love with a man who's very existence could put her child at risk? Maybe. But would readers respect or even like a woman who did that? I had a hard time respecting her as I wrote their story. In my opinion, if Tina really cared more for her daughter than herself (which is how I feel about my own children) I figured she'd avoid getting involved with Gerard and she'd be upfront with her reasons. And if Gerard was as honorable as I wanted him to be, he'd respect that. So, I had to find another love interest for Gerard. And that's when I came up with what I hope is a gripping opening to the sequel, Embrace the Darkness.

The prologue practically wrote itself. I was on fire. I thought I could just keep typing away until the book was finished. But as soon as I sent a rough draft of the first few chapters to my critique partners, authors Andris Bear and Amy Corwin, I realized writing a sequel wasn't just a matter of picking up where the first story left off. As Amy pointed out, Embrace the Darkness wasn't Vincent and Megan's story. It was Gerard and Amber's story and Vincent and Megan had to take a back seat. And Andris informed me that although I needed to give readers enough information from the first book so the second book would make sense, I couldn't just dump it all in the first few chapters because it would still be backstory dump, which is a big no-no. So, I had to filter in the elements of the first book that would be crucial in the second book the same way I'd filtered backstory into the first book--a little at a time.

Easier said than done!

A lot happened in the first book. There were good vampires, villains, military operatives, a questionably bad vampire, a potential cure...How did I filter the information in without backstory dump? I figured I had to tell the first of the story from Amber's point of view. Amber is a new character. She knew nothing about vampires. So after the prologue, I began writing book two in her POV, and things seemed to click...for awhile. Then my characters took over and changed my plot, which left a lot of holes that needed to be filled.

To fill those plot holes, I had to do more research. And I found the answers I was seeking by researching some little known vampire myths. I finally finished the book in July and submitted it in August. And now I'm happy to report, Embrace the Darkness will be released on June 21, 2013.

For those who haven't read Out of the Darkness, here's what happened:


And for those interested in Embrace the Darkness, this is what you can expect:

14 comments:

  1. I will miss Tina, but I can't wait to find out what happens! Thanks!!

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  2. I thought I'd miss her too, Donna, but I had to write her out of the story. I hope you'll love Amber just as much or more.

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  3. I love this trailer! It's so intriguing and I already know the dang story! Lol

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    1. Thanks, Andris. And thanks for all your help on this story!

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  4. I haven't had the nerve to try writing a squeal yet. Kudos to you. Both books sound fantastic and I love the trailers. Good luck.

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    1. Thanks Sandra. Seriously, I think you could so do a sequel. :-)

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  5. Yay you for knowing your characters well enough to relaize Tina wouldn't jeopardize her child for anything or anyone. This makes them more believable, doesn't it? But the creative author in you stepped back and then attacked the story from a different angle--one mutaully acceptable to you, the characters and the readers. Awesome. Enjoyed the trailors, too.

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    1. Thanks, Vonnie. Poor Tina just doesn't know what she missed though, cause Gerard is yummy. lol! But we moms always put our kids first.

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  6. I loved Out of the Darkness and am so glad you have written a sequel, it sounds very exciting. Can hardly wait to read it. The trailers are great. Keep them coming.

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    1. If I can write book 3, I'm hoping my brother can produce another trailer. IMHO, he did an awesome job.

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  7. Lilly, believe me I know what a task it is to make a sequel book stand alone without being an info dump. Bravo to crafting it so it would work!

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    1. Thanks. And BTW, I think you did a fine job writing Bronze Skies. Wasn't that like the 3 book in a series? I hadn't read the first 2 but had no trouble "getting up to speed." I thought the book stood by itself just fine.

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  8. Can't wait to read EMBRACE THE DARKNESS, especially after this post and the anazing trailer! Kudos to you for writing a sequel to OUT OF THE DARKNESS and Kudos to Alexander for the great trailers!

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  9. Sorry for being so late - but I've just seen this post! I for one think you did an AMAZING job in this sequel. I can't wait to buy my finished copy! And poor Tina missing out on Gerard really works! A shock - but a goodie :)

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