Mary J. McCoy-Dressel

Not a Series – Not a Sequel?

I posted the image below as my regular Facebook profile STORY post, but now I’m adding it here with an explanation.

Yes, it’s true. Some readers asked for more after reading the first book. Yay, thanks! Big hugs. I’m writing a second book in the fictitious small town of Sugarton, North Dakota. Cullen Hollister, his family, and Elle from “Blue Snow in the Moonlight” will make their appearances. I can’t call it a sequel, I don’t think, but it is a SECOND BOOK.

Or will it turn out to be the first book in a potential series? When it comes down to it, I’m not certain I can dedicate time to writing another series.

Any suggestions as to what to call two books? It can’t be a duo because they’re one book with two stories (I think).

Little Did I know

At the time of writing Blue Snow, my new hero’s name popped into my head out of the blue as names do with me. I never expected to say or write his name again. The few lines with his name in book one were written to break up Cullen’s train of thought as he drove to his cottage. So, yes, to me he was just a name, and there was no reason to go further with him at the time. (Sorry, dude.)

Things can change, can’t they? It took until a month ago to decide on a second book. As I jotted down a handful of ideas for this new book and my new hero, his name started sounding familiar to me. No wonder. I did a search and found a few famous people with his first and last name. Oh, great! Famous people? Duh. If I had plans on using him in the book or a second book, I would have completed a name search then.

Since he is already mentioned in my already published book, I had choices: 1) keep his name, 2) come up with a new character never mentioned in Blue Snow, 3) change his name in Blue Snow in the Moonlight. Um, NOPE, or, 4) write a book in the same area not related to Blue Snow.

Fixing the Name Blunder

The thing is, his first and last names are “first names.” Let’s take a first name and surname like John Roy (fictitious as far as I know). To fix my blunder, I separated my character’s first and last names with a hyphen and gave him a new surname. Lucky for me, I rarely have to mention the hyphenated name in the new book, because as it goes, he happens to hate his hyphenated name and insists on no one saying it like: “Don’t call me John-Roy! The name’s John.” Not my characters name.

Moving On

With this book, I’ve reverted back to writing “by the seat of my pants.” All I did was jot down a few paragraphs about what could happen, plus, I included character details. Let’s say, I finally got to know this hero. I’m looking forward to learning more. I changed my heroine’s name five or six times. Oh, I switched the spelling of her name three or four times. The poor girl is going to have an identity crisis.

Next, I started writing. So here we are. I have no idea where the first 11,000 words came from, but boy-oh-boy was I glad when they poured out. Honestly, I’m not sure where it’ll go from here. Other than getting them to a happily ever after, of course. Did I mention I’m writing two other books? Long story there and maybe the “long story” might make it into a shorter blog post, cause this darn thing got long.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned to see how many more names I can change.

Featured Image: Pixabay JolaKedra