After ten standalone books, why now a series of connected stories? #1 bestselling author Louis Douglas tells us all about her brand new page-turner The Summer of Lies!
The simple answer to that question is that I had an idea for a story that wouldn’t fit neatly into a single book. There would be too much drama and the timescales were too complicated to pack into one novel. If this story was to be told it would need to be spread out.
I’d never written books that were connected before, and as I’m not the best plotter in the world, neither am I particularly organised, knowing where to start was a problem. Also, I couldn’t simply tell the main story – it’s not fair on readers to write one story across more than one book without giving them anything else in return: that’s part of the unspoken bargain between authors and readers. To solve this problem, I focussed on Toussaints, an agency that specialises in finding missing people. Most of its work is legal: heir-hunting and so forth, but occasionally a meatier case comes along. This meant I could write a missing person story in each book, contained within the main story. That way, nobody has to read more than one book if they don’t want to.
I set most of the action in Brittany because it’s a place I love in real life, and I knew I’d be happy spending a good deal of writing time there. The main protagonist, Mila, and her niece Ani live in the sea house, the kind of place where I’d like to live, so it’s a pleasure to keep revisiting.
The best and worst thing about writing a series, is keeping track of everyone’s age, their birthdays, their likes and dislikes, whether or not they have milk in their coffee, and remembering how they connect with the other characters. To avoid continuity errors, I need to know the recurring characters as well as I know my own family.
The other tricky aspect is that you can’t go back and change something in Book One, when you discover it’s problematic halfway through Book Three. Although I know mostly where the plot is heading, and Book Five is already mapped out, there are some key parts of the mystery that aren’t yet resolved. This is the thrill of writing. It’s also, sometimes, a complete and utter pain.
I’m really enjoying being immersed in the Morannez story. If you decide to read The Summer of Lies, I sincerely hope you enjoy it too.