Yes! of course I am addicted to serial books.  Yes - it's always great to revisit characters and have new characters or other plots boil up and linked to their own stories.  That's how Sherlock Holmes became so addicting right?

The No! factor comes in to play with the having to wait for the next story.  Which of course actually adds to the pleasure I know. 

So, yes, authors, tempt me and tease me, because I apparently fall for it every time! 

Posted at 12:37 AM on June 8, 2009

I actually like serials a lot -- from the persoective of a reader, as well as a writer. It's the exact same mechanism that works for tv shows: you have to spend about 200pp (or a 2 hour movie) getting the whole "universe" into line, first time out. Think of Stargate. After that, you can romp around and generally run berserk with stories inside the framework that you worked so hard to mold and shape.

As a reader, I do enjoy the setup material, which frequently has a huge emotional punch. But the second and third books have a ripeness, a maturity, which can't be beaten -- so long as the writer does the job properly. I've also read a few series where the writer was clearly bored by the third book ... which is too bad, when it was obvious that the project had been planned as a trilogy!

Latetocomics is also dead right: waiting YEARS between episodes is a pain in the rear. George Lucas had to be the worst culprit for this. You could see the actors visibly aging, while a few months were supposed to go by...

And I know, I know, I'm the last one who should bang on about this, because if I don't get HELLGATE finished by Christmas, about 500 people are going to come downunder and lynch me...

Posted at 2:50 AM on June 8, 2009

I blame Dark Shadows for my addiction to serials.

That show was all over the map in terms of spining plots off into the past and future and when I write, I end up dying to know why Character A is the way he is and how the actions of Chracter B will impact his life over time.

Posted at 3:41 PM on June 11, 2009

Is that the vampire/alien/paranormal soap opera that ran back in the 1970s -- and they're making a movie right now, and Johnny Depp is tipped to be in it? (This is what you get for reading Aricia's Hollywood gossip blog...)

Posted at 11:55 PM on June 11, 2009

Oh, yes! Barbara!  I so loved Dark Shadows!!!  I used to follow my older sister all over and it drove her nuts, and I wasn't suppose to watch Dark Shadows because it gave me nightmares (Ok, it's corny I know, but the music and the actors - well I was a kid OK?) So, anyway, I followed my older sis to a friends house to watch DS, and she said I couldn't go in the house and watch TV until I drank a class of salt water.  I did it and she had to let me in or she wouldn't hear the end of it!!!!  We had the DS board game too.

And Mel - on MY!  really?  Johnny Depp in a Dark Shadow movie! ah man, that will be so cool!!!

But about serials - yeah, I love them more than I hate them - I love revisiting the characters and continuing the story.  But I hate them in the way I get to rant about waiting for them - that makes a twisted sort of sense right? So if I'm not reading them, I guess I am complaining about not reading them because I am waiting on the next installment!

Posted at 1:01 AM on June 12, 2009

I love serials. If I like a story enough to become emotionally involved with the characters, it's hard for me to let go.  I need to read more about them, to become more immersed in their world.

The Dave Brandstetter series by Joseph Hansen is one of my favourites.  There are quite a few books in that series, and the author kept the quality high all the way through.  But I've also experienced  a couple of series where the author seems to have changed direction and the enjoyment factor decreased a good deal.  It's a shame when that happens.

Posted at 7:11 PM on June 13, 2009

Hi Sue! Exactly! Emotionally involved with the characters that it's like visiting home - reunion type!   I haven't read the Joseph Hansen series - you're trying to add to my to-be-read pile!!!  Thanks for the tip! LOL.

Which leads me to a question - how do you feel when one of the major players meets with an unfortunate accident?  Permanent kind of accident.  Personally, I have ranted and cried like a baby, but understand sometimes that's just how things had to happen.   Secretly, I wonder if the author was tormented by the play of events or if they were diabiolically planning to twist me inside and out?

Posted at 11:22 PM on June 13, 2009

Hi there!

How do I feel when one of the major players meets with an unfortunate accident?  Permanent kind of accident.

Hm.  You mean as in they DIE??  Death fics are an absolute squick of mine.  I struggle to read them.  So if a major character were to die unexpectedly in an (up to then) loved series I'd be distraught. 

If it's a permanently incapacitating accident, but the character survives, I may not mind so much.

I wonder the same as you about the author in some situations.  If an author has a major character suffer extreme pain it makes me pause.  Do they hate their character?  Their reader?  Think nothing of it, it's just part of the whole plot?  This has cropped up in the Nightrunner series, and the Raised By Wolve series.  It put me off both series, I must admit.

Posted at 11:56 PM on June 13, 2009

I love series -- although when I really love a series I start to worry. The author has so much power at that point. It takes a lot of trust to just let go and believe the author is going to steer this little ship through the shoals. Because I am very unforgiving of authors who kill characters I love. In fact, I have a hard time when the main character's romance breaks up (assuming I liked both characters, and if I love the books, that's a given for me).

I don't mind a lot of angst or pain provided the emotional payoff at the end is in proportion to it. But chapter after chapter of pain, and then a couple of They All Lived Happily Ever After paragraphs is not going to do it for me.

Posted at 1:35 PM on June 19, 2009

I like series fine.. but even more, when I find an author I can really enjoy, I get all OCD and devore everything available. It's about 'calculated risks' for me.  This person tends to write stuff I like, so know it's a safish bet. 

All that said-- I am one of those evil Kindle people, and if it's not on Kindle, I don't read it.  Paper is so dead to me.

Posted at 12:03 AM on June 21, 2009

Hi Josh! Yes, I still give Kiernan Kelly a hard time about making me cry in one of her books - but she always makes me feel - whether it's laughing or crying.  But, yeah, agreed - the angst/pain - don't wrap it up with a pretty little bow and short diddy at the end.

MarkBuster:  oooo - need a Kindle vs Sony e-reader discussion?  Nah, not really - just joking around - I love my e-reader.  And though I've loaded every single e-book on it since I started buying e-books and haven't run out of memory yet - well, it's still good.  But, I don't know - I still love my print books.  There's a couple I treasure with author signatures - way back before I discovered m/m romance - I remember skipping out of work on some excuse or another to meet an author at a Barnes & Noble.  I will never forget that meeting.  Or give that book away.  Same thing with other books I have been lucky enough to get a hardcopy directly from the author with an autograph.  Old school I guess!

thanks,

Liz

Posted at 12:59 AM on June 21, 2009

I'm a serial book addict. I love them.  Whether they are about affiliated characters or the same main ones it doesn't matter to me.  If you are writing ones about different characters give the reader a bone and have a scene or two with the previous characters in them, or have the occasional reunion book.  There is nothing I love more than having it shown that the HEA I saw previously is alive and well.

Posted at 12:43 AM on July 12, 2009

Well I guess that answers what spell checking with a Google toolbar looks like.

Posted at 12:46 AM on July 12, 2009

I do like series a lot. And the reason is that if you feel for protagonists and got attached you definitely would want to know what their future would look like. And I am not only talking about romance genre but about any genre in general. It's not that I am as a reader don't have ability to fantasize about the future but I usually prefer to rely on authors to guide me through intricacies of imagination ))

That is why I've got Mel Keegan's NARC series, Josh Lanyon's Adrien English's adventures, Dorian Grey's Dick Hardesty crime novels and many others; just to learn a bit more about my favorite protagonists with every new book.

Thanks,

Lada

Posted at 11:48 PM on August 21, 2009