All commercial logic dictates that the sensible strategy for an author is to write a series. That way you don’t have to invent new characters and introduce them to your readers. If a reader has become invested in one or more characters, it is much easier to persuade them to buy the book to find out more. In today’s world of online publishing and distribution, one of the most powerful marketing strategies is to actually give away the first book in a series in order to suck as many people as possible into the world of your character.

Knowing that, there was definitely something stubborn and pig-headed in my decision to write three completely different novels after I started writing; I was going to write what I wanted and what felt right – not allow myself to be driven by what I “should” do.

I am pleased I did, but at the same time, both Best Eaten Cold and The Old Orchard were always going to have sequels and I was very excited to start on Best Eaten Cold (2). It was going to be so much easier – I knew my characters inside out, there were lots of unanswered questions which I already knew the answer to, I had an established base of readers who would be keen to know what happened next to Jax/Julie, Sam, Daz and the others (and maybe learn a little more about Fabiola as well).

That euphoria lasted for a very short while before reality kicked in. Yes, I had a good over-arching plot which would (hopefully) satisfy readers, but it is easy to forget just how much the devil is in the detail. Some novels in series have very formulaic plot structures – especially the ones where the hero is a troubled policeman (or woman) or retired special forces veteran. Those formulae work very well and I enjoy reading books of that type (although after about five or six, I do tend to stop caring about how or why the protagonist has been driven back to the bottle (again) or whatever other dark place they tend to sink into).

But a formula wouldn’t work for the sequels to either Best Eaten Cold or The Old Orchard for all sorts of reasons, and I realised quickly that there weren’t any short cuts. I still needed a full and detailed plot which could grip people for 300 pages, I needed to show the characters grow and evolve in response to their new experiences and, to make it worse, I needed to keep everything consistent with the previous book and the expectations of its readers AND the sequel still needed to work as a standalone book.

I was also going to find it just as difficult as before to come up with a title. So far I have Best Eaten Cold Sequel, but I think it needs more work.

I am finding writing books to be a fascinating learning process and have found many things much easier and more natural than I expected. Writing sequels doesn’t appear to be one of them – it’s definitely as tough as coming up with a new novel from scratch, and possibly tougher.

I suppose I’d better get my head down then!