My special guest today is fellow author, Taige Crenshaw. Today Taige is talking about series and serials. I love reading books in a series. I like entering a world I’m familiar with – it’s like meeting old friends. Over to Taige…
I’ve been reading a lot lately and I love series/serials so I have been rereading my favs. I’ve written on my own blog about my love of series and serials. What they are and how I feel about them. Almost monthly there are so many books coming that are part of a series/serial.
First here are my definitions of them both:
Series ~ Taige Crenshaw Definition:
Novels that has a related story theme but each one is complete in and of itself.
Serial ~ Taige Crenshaw Definition:
Novels that feature/follows the same main character/s yet are still a fresh story each time.
No matter which way you slice it I find whether it is a serial or series I enjoy writing stories like this. It gives me room to stretch my mind, push my characters to give me more and wallow in there adventure even more. Although I enjoy these stories I don’t usually start writing with the intention of it being a series/serial sometimes it just happens to evolve that way.
I write what I love to read and I’m one of those readers that wondered what is next for such and such main character. Or what happened to this sub – character that I liked in this or that novel. I go hunting to find more and when I find it I feel like I’ve struck READER’S GOLD. I jump up and down and shout in glee. LOL.
I’ve been known to search for years to get that book to complete a series/serial I was reading. Hey I’m a dedicated reader and I want the complete set of my series/serial.
For instance I remember many years ago I picked up an author that I hadn’t tried before. The novel was great and imagine my glee that I struck reader gold and it was a series. I went back and bought all of their novels except one which was sold out. I searched and searched for years for this one book and couldn’t find a copy. Not even a used one. I even contacted the author to find out if the story was going to be re-printed. To my dismay it wasn’t at that time. Amazon even had over 200 people waiting for a copy of this book when I checked. I stopped checking the numbers after I saw the amount of people. No one was selling. A few years after looking I finally struck reader gold in 2005 when the book was reprinted and I was able to finish my collection. I know me and over 199 other people very happy.
Can you imagine so many readers looking for an author. Searching for that Reader’s Gold. That is what I want my novels to be to my current and future readers ~ Reader’s Gold. No I don’t want you the reader to wait a long time for my books but I want you to be so drawn into the worlds that I create you can’t wait to see what happens next.
This is what Reader’s Gold is all about. As my thoughts of Reader’s Gold evolved I thought of all the author’s who have some wonderful series/serials that I feel are Reader’s Gold. They line my bookshelf’s (online and print) and I go looking for them when they are released.
I’m sure most of you have a little Reader’s Gold on your bookshelf so come on and share. Give me some new Reader’s Gold to find.
CONTEST: Share your Reader Gold with me and Shelley will pick a winner who can choose one pdf download of any book from my e-book backlist.
Taige Crenshaw is a multi-published author with books available at Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Liquid Silver Books, Loose Id, and Total-E-Bound. Taige has been enthralled with the written word from time she picked up her first book. It wasn’t long before she started to make up her own tales of romance. With novels set in today, in alternate dimensions, or in the future she writes with adventure, fun sassy heroine’s, and sexy hero’s. Always hard at work creating new and exciting places Taige can be found curled up with a hot novel with exciting characters when she is not creating her own. Join her in the fun, frolic, interesting people and far reaches of the world in her novels. You can find out more about Taige at her website: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com or blog: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com/blog.
Wilde Seduction – What happens when a woman who doesn’t know how to relax meets a man whose lust for life will change her and make all her deepest desires come to life?
Buy here at Total-E-Bound.
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August 27th, 2010 at 2:50 am · Link
LOL This post really struck a chord with me, Taige. I’ve been known to search years for books in a series.
The one I remember most is a Sharon Sala series about three sisters–Queen, Lucky and Diamond. I couldn’t find Lucky for years. I actually worked in a bookstore and chatted with folks about that book. One summer a woman came back from another province and actually brought me a copy she’d found. I was thrilled. They’ve reprinted them now, but back then it was out of print. I still have all three on my “keeper” shelf.
August 27th, 2010 at 4:18 am · Link
I love series!!! I am currently working on my own and hope that one day they will be published.
I have to say that my favorite all time series writer is one that I was recently introduced to, her name is Lynn Kurland. She has 20 or more books all revolving around two families.
Another author with a great series is Francine Rivers. She wrote the “Echo in the Darkness” series. I couldn’t put them down!
The ending of a good book has always been a very sorrowful feeling for me. So when you have a series and you get to know what has happened to the characters as they move own, I couldn’t be happier.
Thanks for sharing your series/serial authors!
August 27th, 2010 at 4:26 am · Link
Taige and Shelley,
I’m crazy when it comes to having to have all the books in a series. Just like I have to read all series in the correct order.
The series I remember searching for the most is the Irish Hearts series by Nora Roberts. I had originally found Irish Rebel and Irish Rose at the library, but found out that they were books 2 and 3 of the series and that they didn’t have book 1 – Irish Thoroughbred. So I went to the bookstore and they told me that they didn’t carry the book anymore and that it was out of print. It was released in 1981. I eventually found it 6 months later at a bookstore that specialized in out of print books. Even now on her website her list of books by year don’t even go back to the 1980s. I’m very happy I found the book. It’s a great series.
August 27th, 2010 at 10:03 am · Link
I found Cheyenne MaCray’s Magic series by accident in a used bookstore. I realised that it was the second book in the series and managed to track down book 1 and 3. I really enjoyed this series.
August 27th, 2010 at 2:07 pm · Link
Hi Taige – There’s nothing better than discovering reader gold. I was late to discover Keri Arthur’s Riley Jensen series. I just love that one. It’s wrapped up now but I have the final book on my to-read pile. It is a “reward” read.
I’ve recently discovered Tracy Anne Warren’s historical series. I’m enjoying that one too.
August 27th, 2010 at 4:33 pm · Link
Yes, this has happen to me many times. I except I cannot remember th name of the books.
lorettaC
lbcanton@verizon.net
August 27th, 2010 at 5:37 pm · Link
I love series also. I particularly love finding a complete series quite by accident and not having to wait for any of the books!
I’ve enjoyed Mima’s Bonded Series and also Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series. i like variety!
August 27th, 2010 at 5:42 pm · Link
I LOVE series!
I’ve been lucky (or cursed) to happen upon most series when they are just beginning….and then I suffer waiting for the next release to come out.
I think the one that hurt the most was waiting for Sherilyn Kenyon’s Night Embrace. I didn’t know anyone else who was reading them (at that time) and I reread Kyrian’s book at least 7x waiting for Talon’s.
August 27th, 2010 at 6:51 pm · Link
I searched for ages to find the Kell Sabin series by Linda Howard-I wasn’t even sure what Kell Sabin was to be honest-for all I knew it could’ve been some weird futuristic! But I finally got them this year-loved 2 of them and was more hmm about the others .
I love to write series but occasionally run into 2 problems with readers.
1. They get mad if the book doesn’t wrap up with the traditional HEA.
2. They want to know exactly how many books I’m planning to write and when I’ll be done so that they can wait and buy the whole lot as they don’t read open-ended series.
August 27th, 2010 at 7:46 pm · Link
I started reading Roxanne St. Claire’s Bullet Catcher series a couple of years ago and I started with her 5th book in the series. I didn’t realize that it was a series until I started reading the story (it was in a anthology) I fell in love with the series and bought all of ones that was coming out at the time. I then went to the bookstore and tried to order the other 4. Well I could get three out of the four the other was another anthology and was out of print. I looked in used book stores and I couldn’t find it. One day I was blogging on Murder She Writes and I can’t remember the subject but I wrote about not being able to find the book and Roxanne told me if I wanted she could email me a ebook of it. I jumped at the chance. I thought it was so sweet of her to send me a copy of the book and I can honestly tell that it was a great story I think it was one of my favorite in the series. I will never forget how nice and sweet she was to me I had done given up hope of ever getting to read the story.
August 27th, 2010 at 9:18 pm · Link
Kate – I love Linda Howard’s older books. I don’t have any on my keeper shelf but I do really like them. I should have them there!
Sherry – wow, that was nice of her. I haven’t read the Bullet Catcher series, but I’ve heard lots of great things about them.
August 28th, 2010 at 4:30 am · Link
I love series/serials. I think Sherrilyn Kenyon is my favorite and I am currently waiting for the second half of Nick’s life.
August 28th, 2010 at 1:47 pm · Link
Nessa, is that Infinity? The Nick story? I have Infinity to read. I just grabbed it and didn’t read the blurb. I’m an old-time fan of Sherrilyn Kenyon.
August 29th, 2010 at 2:32 am · Link
Ooh, Taige–I love finding a good series! What can be hard is either waiting for the next in the series OR tracking down the books that are no longer in print! I’ve done that before with Suz Brockmann’s titles and a few others, and now am always waiting for quite a few authors’ next titles!
August 29th, 2010 at 10:07 pm · Link
CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT
And the winner is Becky!
Congratulations. I’ve emailed you privately.
Thanks to everyone for visiting. I’ve added all your names to my quarterly draw for a $25 Amazon voucher. The next draw is at the beginning of October.