Perils of the Writer: Making the Series Work

It's been said, both by me and to me, that it's pretty crazy to start two parallel series at the same time.  Do I like burdening myself with work and expectations?

Strangely, yes, I do.  

One of my biggest fears was that one of the series would really "click", while the other would completely fail to.  So then I'd have people going, "Ugh, why is he writing another X book when he should be writing a Y book?"  (Little do they know that I've also got the Z books and Q books and On Beyond Zebra in the wings...)  

But it seems like both Thorn and Murder have found fans, which is a good start that makes me happy.  Now the question is, can I maintain that?  What does it take to maintain that.

I really believe that the core of a successful series is the characters.  For Thorn to work, you have to click with Veranix.  For Murder, you have to connect with Satrine and Minox. If I don't make those key connections between the readers and the characters, then those books, and with them, the series aren't going to work.

But that's just for any given book.  To stretch that out for a series requires a bit of a juggling act.  Specifically, you have let that character grow, while at the same time retaining the core that the audience connected to.  

Now that I've turned in a final version of The Alchemy of Chaos and a finished draft of An Import of Intrigue, the big question is: did I pull that off?  Time will tell.