So I got this comment from a reader last week — you can read it, and my reply, here. Basically she said, I love your books but I’m tired of waiting for the next one, so hasta and good luck.
I replied and said, basically, I can’t blame you. I totally understand (and share) your frustration.
Several years and three editors ago, an editor bought Yours, Mine and Howls. She was a very nice lady, and I’ll always be grateful that she gave me a contract, but we never worked together because she left Samhain shortly after contracting the book.
Anyway, the one time we met face to face, she asked me (this was after Kiss and Kin, before Ready to Run) what other characters in the Werewolves in Love universe (it wasn’t called that then) I thought would have their own books. I said Seth, Michael, probably Dec, and definitely Nick and TJ.
And she said — Nick and TJ must go last, because they’re the ones everyone wants to read. (True story: when I first decided to sit my ass down and write a romance like I’d been talking about forever, Nick and TJ was the first story I attempted. It wasn’t working. The idea of a girl who loved a little boy so much that she threw herself in front of a werewolf for him had been hanging around in my mind for a while, so I started YMAH. Then Samhain did a submission call for a shifter anthology, and I put Cade and Ally aside and basically came up with Taran and Lark in a couple of days. And it gave me the opportunity to get back to Nick and TJ. )
(My original opening scene for Nick and TJ still looks pretty good. I intend to resurrect it.)
Anyway. I got it stuck in my head, back in 2009 or so, that Nick and TJ had to come last. And I’ve viewed everyone else’s books — Seth, ______ (the Secret One), Michael, Dec — as stories I had to get through before I could get to Nick and TJ.
It’s like, Nick and TJ are dessert and all the other books are vegetables. And who wants to write vegetables? Seth and Evie (that’s his love – and she’s so cool) and ______ (Secret Person) and Michael and Dec — they don’t deserve to be treated like vegetables. They deserve to be treated as dessert. Something I want to write, not something I feel like I have to write in order to get to the stuff I want to write.
Right? Right.
But if any of this annoys my current editor — whom I love, and wish never to lose — I’m totally blaming Kathy. Whom I’d also like to thank.
Thank you.
I love Seth, but I’m happy to read Nick and TJ’s story, too! I don’t care which one comes next, I’m just stoked to hear you are going to be writing another one in this series! I love these characters and can’t wait to read another book.
Noooo Seth!!….anyway…so excited that Nick and TJ are going to have their story told…..but one question, why didnt you do that in the first place? you would have saved yourself alot of hassle and wouldnt have had to answer “Whens Nick and TJs story coming out?” FIVE MILLION TIMES!!…haha
We dont mind what order you write your books, we’re just happy that you do.