Early Stories and Characters

How do I come up with the characters and their storylines?  I get this question a lot, and there’s really no set answer.  The premise for Home Forever came to me while I was driving and morphed into an entire book.  My original plan was to write one book.  I’d made that deal with my son and needed to fulfill my end of the bargain so I could go back to living my life.  

But as I got to know the characters in Home Forever, I realized I wasn’t anywhere near done.  I wanted to explore Lisa’s life and what she’d overcome before she found Zeke. In the course of doing that, Kale and the other Forresters appeared.  

Next thing I knew, I’d come up with Kale’s backstory and was engrossed in his and Terra’s unconventional start.  As with the Knights, I planned to write four books in the Kings series - one for each brother.  I didn’t even consider writing about Jenna since she was just a secondary character that helped develop Kale’s plot.  

I had it all mapped out.  Four books for the Knights and four for the Kings.  We see now how that went, considering I’m in the process of writing Clem’s story - the 16th and final book in the series.  After Kale, I started to write Bird but somehow got sidetracked with Sonny.  That was not part of my plan!  But Sonny and Brenda’s love story had to be told, and it just came out of nowhere.  Then Bird finally came along, and the rest is history.  

So, I’ve got the Knights wrapped up, the Kings will come to a close in December with Clem’s book, and the Rojo series appeared so my side characters could tell their stories too.  I’ve started a series with Ciara St. James in a new town and an MC that has nothing to do with Rojo, and now, I’ve introduced you to the Tempest family with Wrath.  I’ve got plans for so many more series in quite a few different genres, and I come up with new stuff I’d like to write all the time.  

It’s a wild ride, but I’m loving every minute of it, and I hope you are too!