When The Next Books Are Different

Anyone who has read It’s in His Kiss know that there’s a certain level of… wackiness to it.

Jenna is a bit over the top. Completely by accident. That is probably what makes her so loveable. She doesn’t know that she’s just a weeeeee bit absurd (and to all  you people saying Jenna is me, I say… Um, can we quit asking that while I call her absurd? Maybe just for today? *shifty eyes*)

Plus, on top of that, KISS is 11k words (OR, in NY Publishing speak, 45 pages). It’s easy and enjoyable to read wackiness for an hour (yes, I went and researched Average Reading Speed to figure that out. I am that nerdy.) But, bring that on for a full novel, for 2-4 hours, and it gets exhausting, repetitive, and — yes — boring.

So, while the next three projects (Dec, Jan & Feb – woot!) are still fun and quirky, they aren’t as over the top. Luckily, Jenna has a part in the second two so there will be her sweet, wacky presense… and yes, Ben will be around to even her out. Thank goodness for Ben.

But that brings us to a question. When you’re first story does well and it has a very specific tone, how hard is it for readers to accept a slightly different tone?

Do I worry? Yes. The next story, a 20k holiday novella titled The Last Single Girl, still has zaniness, but Sarah, our beleaguered heroine is much more on her game than Jenna. I’m excited to share her story, and love her for her ability to plow forward through adversity and … well, a lot of craziness I’m not going to spoil here.

I think that’s one of the scariest things about the next book, Single Girl is still funny, still tongue in cheek, still has some absolutely absurd situations, but Sarah navigates them instead of not seeing them and walking straight into them where they blow up on her.

Okay, maybe there is some blowing up. Ridiculousness blowing up is a favorite of mine!

So, the best you can do with any story when it’s done, is love it and set it over there *points* where it can live forever in it’s happy little cover… and understand that the next story might live next door, but every household is different.

~Caitie~

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