Connections

I love writing stories that are connected in a series.  When I first started writing, I didn't realize how much, but as my first book for Silhouette Romance led to a second that was set on the same park in Erie, and then a third...  I started to get an inkling.  And as they years have gone on, I'm well aware of how difficult I find letting go of characters.  So they get sequels or series.   Some characters like Nana Vancy from the Everything But... series have gone on to star in short stories, like the Nothing But...series and she's had cameos in Christmas in Cupid Falls as well as Carry Her Heart.

Speaking of Carry Her Heart, one of the characters in that book has a small cameo in my newest release, These Three Words (out for just one week!).  The first reader spotted it yesterday.  She seemed as pleased to find the cameo as I was to include it.

Confused yet?  LOL

Let's just say, if you're someone who reads a lot of my books, you'll begin to catch on.  And if you're someone who's new to my books, you'll never notice.  I really try to make every book a stand-alone, even if it is part of a series.

Yesterday's reader asked if I have any more sequels/cameos coming up.  My answer was...Why yes I do!  I don't have dates or even firm titles for next year's line up, so this is tentative, but there is a sequel to Christmas in Cupid Falls, currently known as A Simple Heart.  There's a sequel to Carry Her Heart, currently known as Hold Onto Her Heart.  And when you reading These Three Words (okay, if you're reading...but I do hope you are reading it!!) you'll meet Alice.  I'm almost done with her story now.  And I have a third Cupid Falls story sketched out and hopefully next on my desk.

Phew.  That's a lot of connections.

As I've been thinking about connecting books and/or characters, I really think it's a case of fiction imitating real life.  Here in Erie, if you go to the mall you're bound to bump into someone you know, or someone you went to school with.  And that's what it's like in my books...you pick up one of my books and never know who you'll bump into!

Holly

PS My new release, These Three Words, hit the shelves last week.  It's a paperback, and audio book and an eBook!!  I hope you'll check it out!!