Linsey Lanier
Sally Kilpatrick
Sia Huff
Romily Bernard
Darcy Crowder
Marilyn Baron
Tami Brothers
Sandra Elzie
Carol Burnside
Debbie Kaufman
Maxine Davis
Tammy Schubert
Susan Carlisle
Pam Asberry
Lindy Chaffin StartDebby Giusti On Writing a Continuity Series
PROTECTING THE WITNESSES
By Debby Giusti
Last year, I was asked to take part in Steeple Hill’s 2010 continuity, PROTECTING THE WITNESSES. As the back-of-the-book blurb states, the stories in the series, written by six different authors, revolve around “new identities, looming danger and forever love in the Witness Protection Program.”
Chicago Mafia Don Salvatore Martino is dying and his son Vincent takes over the family operation. Years earlier, the testimony of a green-eyed woman named Eloise Hill sent Salvatore to jail for murder. For her own safety, she was placed in witness protection in Montana, but the mob is after her now, and in their attempt to find Eloise, innocent women end up dead.
Steeple Hill Assistant Editor Emily Rodmell was in charge of the project, and I applaud her patience in keeping us on track and ensuring each book fit into the overall vision for the series. Shortly after she invited the authors to take part in the continuity, Emily sent out the “bible,” a 31-page, single-spaced outline for the series. Packed with information, the bible included an overview of the stories as well as the major threads, settings and brief character descriptions. The continuity elements and teasers needed in each book were part of the bible, as well.
Luckily, my story was the second in line so I had fewer threads to pull together, in comparison to books at the end of the series. The final author has the most challenging task of wrapping everything up in a satisfying conclusion.
The authors set up a yahoo loop to ease communication and, after weeks of brainstorming, we submitted our synopses and first three chapters to Emily. Once the proposals were accepted, the writing began, yet we continued to keep in touch, often asking advice, clarifying information or specific details as well as determining when clues would be revealed and by whom.
The deadline for each book depended on its placement in the series, with book #1 being the first in line. Changes or rewrites affected the other stories so everyone needed to be kept up to date on revisions.
Looking back, I learned a lot about the continuity process and how to take an established story line and make it my own. Working with the great lineup of authors was like a fairy tale come true and the highlight of the entire process.
I hope you’ll enjoy reading the continuity. Look for the following PROTECTING THE WITNESSES stories wherever Steeple Hill books are sold:
TWIN TARGETS, by Martha Perry, Jan 2010
KILLER HEADLINE, By Debby Giusti, Feb 2010
COWBOY PROTECTOR, By Margaret Daley, Mar 2010
DEADLY VOWS, By Shirlee McCoy, Apr 2010
FATAL SECRETS, By Barbara Phinney, May 2010
RISKY REUNION, By Lenora Worth, June 2010
Happy reading!
Wishing you abundant blessings,
Debby Giusti
http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/
http://www.ladiesofsuspense.blogspot.com/
Tags: Debby Giusti, Guest Chef, Killer Headline, Steeple Hill
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February 10th, 2010 at 8:04 am
Debby,
The series sounds wonderful. I found it particularly interesting how much up front coordination was involved and your editor’s bible was obviously invaluable. The Petit Fours wrote our first blog novel last year; we’re finishing up our second and are planning a third. We’re having a lot of fun with it but the process isn’t as structured as yours. One of us starts and each author just continues without much interaction. We’ve enjoyed this experiment a lot and hope our readers have too. Thank you for sharing your process with us and thank you for blogging today.
Marilyn Baron
February 10th, 2010 at 8:30 am
Sounds like a great series, Debby. Thanks for that inside view of the process. Interesting. And thanks for blogging with us today. It’s always a pleasure to have you!
February 10th, 2010 at 8:53 am
This does sound like a fascinating series–I liked how the “green-eyed” part stuck out. I’m going to guess that’s important.
The Yahoo Group of authors sounds very interesting as does the “bible.” It just goes along with everything else I’ve been reading that reinforces the need to do a lot of planning up front. I bet that’s a fun loop, though. : )
February 10th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Hi Marilyn,
Yes, I remember your great blog story. The Craftie Ladies of Suspense (www.ladiesofsuspense.blogspto.com) blog is running a 14-day continuing Valentine’s Day story called KILLER CHOCOLATE! I had a ball coming up with my scene, which posted last Sunday, Feb 7th. Each author — because we write suspense — leaves her section of the story with a major hook! The next author has to pick up at that point and try to work all the clues and details into the next scene. Stop by if you have time.
February 10th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Hi Linsey!
I love this blog. You gals are the greatest!!! Wish I could get to GRW this month. Looks like I won’t make it until April. Seems like everything urgent falls on the 3rd SAT. How’s everyone like the new location?
February 10th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Hi Sally,
A continuity takes lots of prior planning and coordination between the various writers. For me, it was a real learning experiece. Thank goodness for the gals who had worked on continuities before and were so willing to explain the process. I couldn’t have done it without them.
February 10th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Debby,
Glad you stopped by! The book(s) sound fabulous. Can’t wait to read your addition.
February 10th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Debby,
I is always good to have you here. Thanks for all the great information about the behind the scenes stuff. I had no idea that was how it worked. Do come back and see us soon.
February 10th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Maxine,
Congrats on all you’re doing with Petit Fours and Hot Tamales! Such a fun place to blog!
February 10th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Hi Susan,
Like you, I never realized how a continuity worked until I was involved. At times, I felt I was putting a giant jigsaw puzzle together and wondered if all the pieces would fit! Hopefully, the readers will like the finished product.
February 10th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
Congrats on the continuity. Those are tough collaborations with so many writers involved, but it sounds like your group worked well together.
February 10th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Debbie,
Thank you so much for joining us. It is always such a pleasure to chat with you.
The series sounds wonderful, and I’m looking forward to reading all the books.
The story bible and development process of all the books intrigues me.
A lot of authors talk about their finished work turning out to be very different than the original synopsis. To me, this means there are major changes during the early drafts. This got me thinking about how your team worked and managed things like this.
Collaborating on a project like this takes an exceptional amount of communication. Since you had to work on the book while the first one was in process, how did you manage the impact of revisions/changes on the first book without spending an excessive amount of time redoing your own work? (I’m thinking in terms of major rewritting types of work not changing blue eyes to green.)
February 10th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Hi Debbie. Thanks for stopping by this week. The insider look has been fascinating. I’ve always heard that continuities were difficult at best, but it sounds like you had a great group participating. I’m looking forward to reading them. What a great story idea.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Hi Di,
Thanks for stopping by today! Hope all is well with you! Congrats on all your success!!!
February 10th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
Hi Tammy,
My editor reviewed the synopses to ensure they fit the overall story line so the majority of the rewriting took place at that early stage, before the pages were actually written. Once that good outline was in place, we were given the go ahead to write our stories. The changes later involved minor rewrites, such as where a character may have seen the bad guys or perhaps what someone looked like. But we were constantly checking to ensure our facts matached what everyone else was writing.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Hi Darcy,
You’re right. I had a great group of authors to work with…and most of us were friends. We could laugh while we were pulling out our hair, trying to make all the pieces fit!
February 11th, 2010 at 6:22 am
THANK YOU, Debbie!!! Great stuff and I can’t wait to read this. It does sound like a really good group participation thing.
Thanks for blogging with us this week!
Tami
February 11th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
This type of series really intrigues me, Debbie. I’m not a big series junkie — I usually get tired of them after a few books, especially if I feel like the writer is trotting out the same-old, same-old. But having new writers wrap their minds around the characters seems like it could really keep things fresh. I’m seeing more and more series done this way — maybe because it just speeds up the release dates!
Thanks for blogging!
February 11th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Unlike Anna, I’m a series junkie, so this is of interest to me. Congrats on getting asked to participate in a continuity series and thanks for the insider view. Love hearing about stuff like this!
February 11th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Debby,
Sorry I’m chiming in late. Thanks so much for being our guest. The series sounds fantastic and thanks for giving us an overview of how all you ladies worked together to get it done. It will make it so much more interesting when we read them.
Sandy