Serial Characters

And some whoo-whoo writerly stuff

But first a word from The Book Lounge: “Join us [today] Wednesday, 18 February, for the launch of Falls the Shadow by Mike Nicol. He will be in conversation with [the amazing] Qarnita Loxton. Rsvp to booklounge@gmail.com”

And now to matters writing. And writing serial characters.

The thing is, I suppose, that to begin with I didn’t set out to write a series. The first book Payback (of the Bishop series) was going to be a standalone. But then I kinda liked the characters so it went on into number two (Killer Country) and number three (Black Heart). Collectively they became The Revenge Trilogy.

Done with them, I thought, and wrote a book - Of Cops & Robbers - with a PI called Fish Pescado and his lover-side-kick-spy-resourceful lawyer, Vicki Kahn. But before I could get into a series with them, Mace Bishop’s daughter demanded a book so a fourth was added to the Bishop series - Power Play.

After that I went back to Fish and Vicki and four novels followed - Agents of the State, Sleeper, The Rabbit Hole, Hammerman - A walking shadow. But by the time I got to Hammerman I thought, enough already, so I did something drastic. No spoiler alert because I’m not going to give anything more away.

But it did bring Fish and Vicki to an end.

Which meant I needed a new character.

But before I get to the new character a note about two colleagues who are really into serial characters - John Connolly and Deon Meyer. I have to marvel at their ability to stick with a character for book after book. There are many other crime writers who do this too, Tess Gerritsen being one. (Also, she, like John, seems to have a soft spot for Cape Town and has stopped by a number of times on her book tours.) But that’s a digression. The point is that they keep their serial character in the forefront for book after book. I can’t do that. I get lured away. I’m just not that loyal.

Thus: during Hammerman a cop presented herself in the story as the station commander at Saldanha Bay. A bit part. A page at most. But I must have rather fancied her because the next thing, the moment Hammerman was finished, she was demanding a book of her own. Of course, I obliged. Especially as she was a cop and I had avoided a cop character up to that point. So, wearing a red leather lumber jacket, jeans and a t-shirt, she took charge and “we” produced the just published Falls the Shadow. I say “we” because there is a way in which characters take charge and direct the story.

Alright, I know, that sounds like whoo-whoo writerly mythology and, on most days, I don’t go in for whoo-whoo stuff but sometimes it happens. Sometimes there is no option but to go in the direction the character is pointing. With Captain Zara Dewane I just had to loosen up and follow where she led. And where she led was straight into book two - Firing Line. Suddenly she was in two books and I didn’t have a publisher for the first one, let alone the second. Some adroit footwork by agent Aoife Lennon-Ritchie found PanMac, Catalyst in the US and ever faithful btb Verlag in Germany to publish Falls the Shadow. Next February, Zara will get her second outing in Firing Line. Of course I am not done with her yet, nor she with me and time will tell how we continue.

So, suffice to say I am happy to jump into a serial character’s life - to reveal their strengths, weaknesses, passions, fears and their favourite wine, malbec in Zara’s case. And it is a challenge - and fascinating - taking them from book to book. After writing four standalone novels - and a few more that never made it out the door - it is comforting starting a new book with an established character who is going to be around for a while. It’s the proverbial comfort of the well-worn jersey. And perhaps that’s why some writers are serial monogamists.