Hollyworld: Hanging With Holly...Views of my Garden and Series

Monday, July 23, 2018

Hanging With Holly...Views of my Garden and Series

Susan just got home and we'll be posting the next Trippin' video tomorrow or Wednesday. In the meantime, come hang with me in my garden! I'm spending the week talking about my book series.
I had so many people ask for series in order, I put up a page on my website. I really try to write the books in a series so they all stand alone. So if you start mid-series, you should be fine, though you'll probably have an inkling you missed something. LOL

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The first series I'm going to talk about is...you guessed it, my Maid in LA Mysteries. When I put up the first book, Steamed, it was just for fun. A lark. I'd never written a cozy mystery, but the main character, Quincy Mac, had been niggling at me. She worried about her kids, her business and after she cleans a murder scene, she worries about going to jail and being forced to get a tattoo.

One book led to another. Quincy's kids got older, she fell in love and built a new career for herself. I thought I was done with her series after book 4, Swept Up. I even wrote a nice little Where Are They Now post at the end of the book to give everyone a real sense of ending. And yet...last month, the 5th book, Polished Off came out. I know. Either I wasn't done with Quincy yet, or she wasn't done with me. It's been ten years since the last book. Her life has continued to change and evolve.

Change and evolve. That is the fun of writing series for me. Like I said in the video, they're the same but different. Characters and even settings evolve and change. That's the fun of writing series.

Here are all five books in order:
Steamed: Amazon & BN
Dusted: Amazon & BN
Spruced Up: Amazon & BN
Swept Up: Amazon & BN
Polished Off: Amazon & BN

If you're reading on Kindle, you can get the first four books in one bundle: Maid in LA Mysteries. It's a lot cheaper that way.

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Another series is my Word of the Heart series. Each book was written as a total stand alone. The first book, Carry Her Heart, is about a mother who gives her child up for adoption, then builds her life around that child. Pip is a character who is near and dear to my heart. I love that she worked as a kindergarten story lady. I did that for years and years. I still adore children's literature. Classics like, The Wild Baby, (I did a YouTube video of that one), Wolf Story (we just finished reading here again) and newer books like the Knuffle Bunny books, The Book with No Pictures and Andrea Beatty's STEM series of stories.

Carry Her Heart in Turkey

Okay, back to Carry Her Heart...It's truly a Romance+ story. What's that you ask? A book that at it's heart is a woman's journey...a journey that includes a romance, but that romance isn't the point of the journey. Does that make sense?

I argued with my editor about the ending. I can't really tell you how it ends, but know that I won.

The second book in the series is These Three Words. I use the tagline Sometimes the Greatest Loves aren't Discovered, They're Rediscovered a lot for it because it truly sums up the story. A couple who's marriage is on the rocks rediscovers each other. Two things that stand out for me in this book. First, it was my Forest Gump book. The heroine has a number of strangers who come into her life and force her to look at her relationship in a new way. The second thing is I used They're Playing Our Song in it (check it out). I lost my mom a year ago, and I love that she got to read this homage to her. She loved that musical. And because she did, I did. (Dear Broadway, please bring back a revival!!) Toward the end, you get a bit of a clue about what is happening in Pip's life.
Finally, Hold Her Heart, is Pip's daughter's story. Yes, Amanda (Siobhan) has come home. It's not exactly how Pip imagined it. But it is a true homecoming story. These books are all first person in the heroines' points-of-view, so Pip's better half doesn't get much from his point-of-view moments. There's a letter at the end of Carry Her Heart (that makes me cry Every Single Time) and the opening of Hold Her Heart (which also makes me cry Every Single Time). I know, it's ridiculous. I wrote the books. I knew/know how they end (hint...all my books have Happily-Every-Afters) but still, Ned does me in.

Carry Her Heart: Amazon, Audible, BN
These Three Words: Amazon, Audible, BN
Hold Her Heart: Amazon

More series tomorrow!

Holly

PS. The first two books are on sale for another week!! If you've never read the series, it's a good time to check them out!

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As always, you can find my ebooks, paperbacks, hardbacks, audiobooks and available through Kindle Unlimited. They're also available in a lot of other languages. I hope there's something for all of you!

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