Hi, I'm Lucy and I'm obsessed with book series, reading and writing them.
When I really sit and think about why I enjoy reading books in a series so much, I land on the following: if you absolutely fall in love with the setting/ characters/ feel of the story, there's a whole world to explore. And on the flip side, I'm not a series purist, so if I don't enjoy a first book in a series, I feel no strong need to finish it (though I know there are readers that do). Two particular examples in the romance genre that come to mind as exemplary series are Lisa Kleypas's The Hathaways (which is also connected to the Wallflowers) and Merry Farmer's The Brides of Paradise Ranch. Both of these are historical romances, because when it comes to contemporary romance, I tend to gravitate more closely to solitary reads, or very loosely connected series that I don't feel the need to consume at a neck-breaking pace. The Hathaways series was introduced to me in the throes of grad school, when I was working full-time and going to school at night and my brain was so fried I could barely read anything (even though my masters' degree is in Library Science). One of my friends/ classmates gave me Mine Till Midnight and I was immediately hooked. I flew through the series, and immediately after, read The Wallflowers (which is technically a prequel series). I was reading for fun, even when my nights off of school usually consisted of an hour or two of intense reading for school. Fast-forward quite a few years, and I'm a mom of two, and dealing with some serious anxiety issues interfering with my sleep. Over the years, I've been able to figure out exactly what my triggers are (daylight savings is a huge one, oddly) and gotten a much better handle on it, but this particular year was the worst. I needed something relaxing that I could read on my kindle at four am when I still hadn't fallen asleep for the fifth night in a row. Enter, Merry Farmer. I'd done a loose "pioneer romance" search on Amazon, and after a few duds, found The Brides of Paradise Ranch. And it was just the ticket. Long after my anxiety had sorted itself for the season, I was still burning through these novellas and loving them more and more. I also found that there was a prequel series, Hot on the Trail, which I read afterwards. It's touching, for me, to look back on those two extremely stressful times of my life, and see how two book series did their part to get me through it. I don't think a single book could have done that in either case. I'm not knocking a solitary story, heavens no. Two of my favorite books (The Red Tent and The Dovekeepers) are stand alone novels. But, sometimes, as a reader, it's nice to lose yourself in a series. It can stand by your side during a difficult (or joyous) time, like a good friend. As a writer, I've always written series. Seriously, always. Every novel I've ever started writing, since high school, has been part of a series. Most (all?) of those series are lying by the wayside in old notebooks (showing my age) in boxes in my basement, but at one point, there were grand plans for three, four, even eight books. I think I can trace this series obsession back to my love of fantasy. I love world building, even if that world is a small Midwestern town, or a corner of a city, or a family or group of friends. It doesn't have to be Middle Earth or Dune or Hogwarts to need a handful of books to explore. As a writer, I like really fleshing out the entirety of a world when I take a reader there. It's what works for me. In concrete writing news, I'm at 7k of the rewrite of Only You and I like it so much better than my first go already. I'm getting my writing groove back after months of editing, and it feels good to commit words to paper (computer screen) instead of critiquing them. This part is just more fun! Only You will be the last book in the Falling for You series, but I'm not feeling sad about it. I think I picked the perfect amount of books for this particular series. I'm not sick of it or feeling like there is so much more left in this little world. It's feeling ready to be complete. The next two weeks here are supposed to be downright miserable with more snow, a polar vortex, and the potential to break our all time low temperature record! Yikes. Here's to cups of tea, cozy blankets, and several thousand words written. And maybe some cookies. Love always, Lucy
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Lucy HudsonMy thoughts on the writing and indie publishing process, as well as life occasionally Archives
April 2020
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