Writing a series with Stephanie Queen
Welcome to the garden. The first snow has arrived. For the rest of the winter we'll enjoy the warmth of the Rose Room. Help yourself to some goodies and your favorite beverage. We're continuing our discussion about writing a series and today is special guest Stephanie Queen.
Author Bio
About USA Today Bestselling Author Stephanie Queen
A romantic at heart and a writer by nature, Stephanie Queen has the enthusiastic soul of a cheerleader. So of course she loves creating stories where the good guys always win. Although she's lost count of all the jobs she had before she settled on being a Novelist, her favorite was selling cookies as a Keebler Elf. She is a graduate of UConn (go Huskies!) and Harvard U and lives in New Hampshire with her family, her cat, Kitty and a band of friends who love the beach.
A while back, a friend of mine called and asked me if I wanted to contribute a book to a boxed set she was putting together. I said, “Sure. What kind of book do you need?”
She said, “Think beach romance.”
I said, “Can it have suspense in it?”
She said, “Sure, murder and sex on a beach works.”
That’s what my inspiration was for writing the romantic suspense novel, The Beachcombers.
Now you ask, “I thought this was about writing a series?”
It is.
What happened next was I fell in love with my characters from The Beachcombers and when I got to the end, I couldn’t say good-bye. So I didn’t let them have the ever-after part of their happy ending. I left a relationship hook.
They were happy with each other, full of the potential and promise of bliss and spitfire.
Dane & Shana are a pair of romantic relationship-challenged investigators with muddy pasts. The beach is anywhere on Martha's Vineyard, but the 'beachcomber' reference is more about a state-of-mind, an attempt by Dane to escape from the hellish missions of his special ops career. He's not 100% successful at escaping from life's dark side or the danger. Shana is trying to escape the shadow of her dead cop father and prove herself to him at the same time. They’re too much alike to get along and too mesmerized by each other to stay apart.
I had to stay with them and write one book after another to see how it turns out.
Each book can be read on it's own, but there is a character arc that threads the stories together so they're best read in order.
I probably should have written them in order, but that’s a story for another day.
Amazon Series Page
New Release:
Beachcomber Wedding
Blurb:
While Dane and Shana are hired to protect a bride from a Russian arms dealer, will the idea of wedding bells inspire romance between the private-eye partners or will the notion of love and marriage scare them more than the threat of a bomb at the church?
Buy Links:
B and N: iBooks: KOBO:
The Beachcombers
Ex-special ops legend Dane Blaise takes on a new partner for a kidnapping case, gorgeous Scotland Yard detective Shana George. Mistake? Maybe. The fireworks between them could get them killed before they have a chance to find the missing heiress--and whoever is behind the kidnapping
Buy Links:
Amazon: KOBO: iBooks: B and N:
Beachcomber Investigations
Blurb:
In spite of their love/hate relationship, ex-special ops legend Dane Blaise partners with ex-Scotland
Yard detective as private-eyes to stop a sniper before he kills an old friend. Their volatile relationship may break them before any threats from a dangerous killer...
Buy Links:
Amazon: B and N: KOBO: IBooks:
Beachcomber Baby
Blurb:
Dark and dangerous Dane and shamelessly sexy Shana team up like oil & water on a mission to save a baby while they wage a personal war of love & hate between them.
Ex-special ops legend Dane Blaise doesn't like cases involving babies. In his experience, they always end bad. Really bad.
When Father Donahue hands Shana a baby and the mission is to find the baby's mother, the ex-Scotland Yard detective can't resist taking the case. Shana convinces Dane to help her, but he'll only go so far.
Once they discover that the priest dragged them into the tip of an iceberg full of trouble with an ex-Russian KGB operative turned-criminal and his comrades involved in a baby farm, things look bad. Really bad.
To keep Dane on the mission, Shana will need to uncover the secret of his terrible baby case from the past. Can she convince him to put aside his fears to save this baby--and save their partnership too?
Buy Links:
Amazon: Kobo: iBooks: B and N:
Beachcomber Trouble
Blurb:
Out of the blue, ex-special ops legend Dane Blaise receives a CIA coded message for Trouble. It's a
call to action to help an old associate and friend of his—Oscar. Dane didn't know that his young and gorgeous partner Shana George, an ex-Scotland Yard detective, knew the CIA man too. Even though they both suspected Oscar’s CIA handler was not exactly trustworthy, they answered the call to help their friend.
But Dane had no idea that the trap was set and the trouble was about to go from bad to the absolute worst possible ...
Buy Links:
Amazon: iBooks: B and N: KOBO:
Beachcomber Heat
Blurb:
The temperature on Martha's Vineyard isn't the only thing heating up this summer--the crime wave is sizzling and so is the attraction between ex-special ops legend Dane Blaise and his ex-Scotland Yard partner Shana George.
They're supposed to be hands-off, but their combustible chemistry is out of control. Now the question is whether or not their professional partnership will remain in tact long enough to keep them out of trouble when an old enemy returns--or whether they've already gone too far...
Buy Links:
AMAZON: iBooks: B and N: KOBO:
Thank you, Stephanie, for joining us at the Garden. I love the sound of your series.
About USA Today Bestselling Author Stephanie Queen
A romantic at heart and a writer by nature, Stephanie Queen has the enthusiastic soul of a cheerleader. So of course she loves creating stories where the good guys always win. Although she's lost count of all the jobs she had before she settled on being a Novelist, her favorite was selling cookies as a Keebler Elf. She is a graduate of UConn (go Huskies!) and Harvard U and lives in New Hampshire with her family, her cat, Kitty and a band of friends who love the beach.
A while back, a friend of mine called and asked me if I wanted to contribute a book to a boxed set she was putting together. I said, “Sure. What kind of book do you need?”
She said, “Think beach romance.”
I said, “Can it have suspense in it?”
She said, “Sure, murder and sex on a beach works.”
That’s what my inspiration was for writing the romantic suspense novel, The Beachcombers.
Now you ask, “I thought this was about writing a series?”
It is.
What happened next was I fell in love with my characters from The Beachcombers and when I got to the end, I couldn’t say good-bye. So I didn’t let them have the ever-after part of their happy ending. I left a relationship hook.
They were happy with each other, full of the potential and promise of bliss and spitfire.
Dane & Shana are a pair of romantic relationship-challenged investigators with muddy pasts. The beach is anywhere on Martha's Vineyard, but the 'beachcomber' reference is more about a state-of-mind, an attempt by Dane to escape from the hellish missions of his special ops career. He's not 100% successful at escaping from life's dark side or the danger. Shana is trying to escape the shadow of her dead cop father and prove herself to him at the same time. They’re too much alike to get along and too mesmerized by each other to stay apart.
I had to stay with them and write one book after another to see how it turns out.
Each book can be read on it's own, but there is a character arc that threads the stories together so they're best read in order.
I probably should have written them in order, but that’s a story for another day.
Amazon Series Page
New Release:
Blurb:
While Dane and Shana are hired to protect a bride from a Russian arms dealer, will the idea of wedding bells inspire romance between the private-eye partners or will the notion of love and marriage scare them more than the threat of a bomb at the church?
Buy Links:
B and N: iBooks: KOBO:
Ex-special ops legend Dane Blaise takes on a new partner for a kidnapping case, gorgeous Scotland Yard detective Shana George. Mistake? Maybe. The fireworks between them could get them killed before they have a chance to find the missing heiress--and whoever is behind the kidnapping
Buy Links:
Amazon: KOBO: iBooks: B and N:
Beachcomber Investigations
Blurb:
In spite of their love/hate relationship, ex-special ops legend Dane Blaise partners with ex-Scotland
Yard detective as private-eyes to stop a sniper before he kills an old friend. Their volatile relationship may break them before any threats from a dangerous killer...
Buy Links:
Amazon: B and N: KOBO: IBooks:
Beachcomber Baby
Blurb:
Ex-special ops legend Dane Blaise doesn't like cases involving babies. In his experience, they always end bad. Really bad.
When Father Donahue hands Shana a baby and the mission is to find the baby's mother, the ex-Scotland Yard detective can't resist taking the case. Shana convinces Dane to help her, but he'll only go so far.
Once they discover that the priest dragged them into the tip of an iceberg full of trouble with an ex-Russian KGB operative turned-criminal and his comrades involved in a baby farm, things look bad. Really bad.
To keep Dane on the mission, Shana will need to uncover the secret of his terrible baby case from the past. Can she convince him to put aside his fears to save this baby--and save their partnership too?
Buy Links:
Amazon: Kobo: iBooks: B and N:
Beachcomber Trouble
Blurb:Out of the blue, ex-special ops legend Dane Blaise receives a CIA coded message for Trouble. It's a
call to action to help an old associate and friend of his—Oscar. Dane didn't know that his young and gorgeous partner Shana George, an ex-Scotland Yard detective, knew the CIA man too. Even though they both suspected Oscar’s CIA handler was not exactly trustworthy, they answered the call to help their friend.
But Dane had no idea that the trap was set and the trouble was about to go from bad to the absolute worst possible ...
Buy Links:
Amazon: iBooks: B and N: KOBO:
Beachcomber Heat
The temperature on Martha's Vineyard isn't the only thing heating up this summer--the crime wave is sizzling and so is the attraction between ex-special ops legend Dane Blaise and his ex-Scotland Yard partner Shana George.
They're supposed to be hands-off, but their combustible chemistry is out of control. Now the question is whether or not their professional partnership will remain in tact long enough to keep them out of trouble when an old enemy returns--or whether they've already gone too far...
Buy Links:
AMAZON: iBooks: B and N: KOBO:
Thank you, Stephanie, for joining us at the Garden. I love the sound of your series.
Comments
Best of luck on your writing journey, Steph:-)