A little background first:
Harlequin Publishing has a Christian imprint: Love Inspired Romance and Love Inspired Suspense Romance.
They have done several series of books, usually 8-9 about K-9 teams. Each book is by a different author, and has the same main characters and their dogs throughout the books. There is one continuing mystery that runs throughout the whole series, with each book also having an individual mystery that gets solved. It has intrigued me from the first ones I read how multiple authors do this.
Their latest K-0 series is The Mountain Country K-9 Unit Series. I reviewed the 8th book in the series, Search and Detect by Terri Reed. It was the book where everything was resolved, though there is a 2-story series finale coming next month. (That review is here, along with a list of all the books in this series.)
I happen to be Facebook friends with one of the authors who writes for Love Inspired Suspense, and who wrote the 7th book in this series, Tracing a Killer. I asked if she would tell a little about how they do these series, and about her books if she wanted. She graciously agreed. Her book was really good, by the way....and any of hers I have read. Onto what Sharon wrote:
Behind the Scenes: What goes into writing the K-9 series for Love Inspired Suspense
By Sharon Dunn
My newest book, Tracing a Killer, is number seven in a series of books called the Mountain Country K-9 Unit for Love Inspired Suspense. There are eight books and two novellas in the series. Each one is written by a different Love Inspired writer. Each book is complete in itself in that the suspense story and the romance is wrapped up by the end of the book. But there are subplots that carry through the whole series, from a missing dog to the search for a serial killer. In addition, reading the whole series gives a person an opportunity to see the growth in each character.
Obviously, there’s a lot of co-ordination and communication required to ensure that the story line and the characters remain cohesive. I’ve been asked many times what the behind the scenes picture looks like for putting together such a series with so many moving parts. The first thing that happens is that once the writers are assigned which book they will write, they receive what is called the bible (small b). Unlike the Bible (capital B) this bible is far from perfect, but it does contain the series overview, a list of supporting characters and sometimes descriptions of key locations along with photos. The bible also contains a four or five page summary of each book that ends with a list of the subplots that carry over from story to story and what needs to happen with subplots in that particular book. The plot summaries also outline basic descriptions of hero and heroine and the K-9 along with photos. The bible runs about 70 pages and I usually have to read it two or three times start to finish to get my head around the story. I reread my own summary more times than that and if there is time, I like to read the whole bible once my book is ready to hand in.
All the authors are put on an email loop so they can communicate with each other as they write. Like I said, this bible usually has flaws. Sometimes what works in summary doesn’t work when you try to flesh out a story from it. Any changes are discussed on the loop and then run by the editor in charge of the series. Each author “owns” the hero and heroine for their particular book so to speak and we want to make sure that even if someone else’s character plays a part in a different book, that the character is consistent in personality and appearance throughout the series. So much of the email loop discussion is about sharing scenes where other people’s characters make an appearance or just letting the other writers know what their character experiences in each book if it will affect the character in another book, like being shot or injured in some way. The books take place about a month apart, so a character who suffered an injury in one book shouldn’t magically be better in the following book.
A lot of commiserating, encouraging and prayer support take place on that email loop as well. Personal struggles that are affecting our ability to write are often shared. I think that is one of the reasons I like working on a series like this. Writing is such a solitary activity so getting to work with a team of authors is a nice break from the solitude.
Books are turned into the editor in order. The editor reads them and gives feedback and usually there is at least one other editor who is reading the series looking for inconsistencies.
I love working on the K-9 series not only for the connection with other writers but knowing that readers have eight books to get to know characters and be a part of their world as they catch bad guys and fall in love makes me feel good about writing.
Sharon Dunn is award winning, USA Today bestselling author who has written over 30 books for Love Inspired Suspense as well as humorous mystery series for other publishers. You can learn more about Sharon and her books and sign up for her newsletter at www.sharondunnbooks.net.
