Let’s start with a confession: for years, I’ve insisted I will not write a sequel to any of my novels, but now I’m vacillating between that bedrock conviction and the desire to spend more time with my favorite characters.
If I had a literary tagline, it would be a ripoff from Monty Python: “And now for something completely different.” I’ve often said during book club talks and in author interviews I don’t write sequels because (a) I have a low threshold for boredom and can’t endure writing in a consistent genre from book to book, let alone spending time with the same characters again and again, and (b) none of my books have sold well enough to warrant a sequel. It’s very rare that sequels sell as well as the first book in a series. My top seller has been purchased by fewer than ten thousand people, so very likely the sequel to that book will sell only a few thousand copies, tops. Hardly enough to get my publisher excited; from a business standpoint, it doesn’t make sense. Instead, the cold-hearted logic of commerce goes, I should put my efforts into writing a fresh new book with broader appeal.
The whole “low threshold for boredom” thing is true for me. If you look at my books as a collection, there’s little consistency. A plucky heroine takes charge in a couple novels, but one’s a forty-year-old NYC transplant trying to solve a mystery in the tiny Southern town where she was born (Aftermath) and the other is a twenty-something Jewish ballerina who’s lost her leg in a car crash and is reinventing herself (The Caretaker). In Hardscrabble Road, the hero is a boy barely surviving two horrible parents and lethal poverty in South Georgia during the Great Depression and war years. The Five Destinies of Carlos Moreno offers another intrepid male hero, but he’s a Mexican-American in his early twenties on the run from an obsessed Texas Ranger in Houston in the late 1920s through early 1930s. No real commonality in character types, time period, geographic location, or theme. Even the style of writing is different from book to book, based on what I decided served the story best, from the literary (Hardscrabble and Five Destinies) to modern, punchier prose (Aftermath and Caretaker), with an even split between first- and third-person points of view. In short, I’m all over the place–hardly good training for a series writer. However, some of my readers love this and urge me to give them a totally different kind of story each time.
Logically, then, I should stick to my guns and continue not to do any sequels. And yet…for each of my books, different readers have asked for a continuation of the story. While it’s impossible to quantify the “market demand” out there, there’s definitely some interest. As a writer, nothing is more flattering than to have your readers clamor and beg for the further adventures of the characters you’ve created. Honestly, I miss some of those fictional folks, too. I miss getting into their heads, walking around in their skins, and writing down what they think, say, and do. As with some of my readers, I’m curious to know what additional situations they could get into and out of.
I even took some baby steps in that direction. In preparation for the release of Aftermath in October 2016, I wanted to give potential buyers an incentive to make a purchase, so I crafted a prologue (“Before Aftermath“) set long before the novel starts, allowing readers to meet three characters–Janet’s mother, father, and brother–whose influences are pivotal to the novel plot and the formation of Janet’s character but who are deceased when Aftermath opens. To give those who read the novel an incentive to post a review and encourage others to take a chance on it, I wrote an epilogue (“After Aftermath“) that takes place a year later, with a new mystery for Janet to solve. In other words, I not only wrote a sequel but also a prequel, albeit brief ones. I really enjoyed creating those stories and continue to receive positive feedback.from those who read them, which further delights me.
Pulling me in the opposite direction, though, is the new novel I’m writing: it’s a modern thriller this time (yet another new genre for me, of course), with a strong, determined female protagonist and a complex villain. I’m having a lot of fun with it, and the thought of stopping so I can craft a sequel to an earlier work–or divide my time and attention between two novels–doesn’t thrill me. The journey from first draft to published novel is a twisty one, though, with dead-ends, irreconcilable plot problems, characters who aren’t memorable, and lifeless prose. I’ve abandoned works-in-progress before, and it’s devastating to consider so much lost time and seemingly wasted effort; having a sequel to fall back on would be a balm to those emotional wounds.
From experience, I know my creative momentum could come to a grinding halt next week, or the novel could continue to sail along and cross the finish line to publication in record time. In other words, I might need to dive into a sequel to recover my confidence, or “The Further Adventures of…” might be a year off or later. Or never, if new stories continue to seduce me.
What will happen?
Stay tuned–you’ll be the first to know.