Monday, October 5, 2009

Criss-Crossing Conversations


When I began to write Maxwell’s Fall and Jackson’s Rise, I knew the books were going to be connected but even I was a bit surprised how intertwined the stories became.

A little background…Jackson and Maxwell are identical twins and werewolves. In the second book of the series (Summer’s Caress) you meet the twins and I enjoyed these characters so much, I decided they needed their own stories.

The two books begin with the exact same scene, just written from a different point of view. The scene phone call between the brothers. Each brother is hiding something from the other. Being twins (and werewolves), they sense something is wrong r and individually decide on an impromptu visit to see their twin. They cross in the air, one arriving Anchorage, Alaska and the other in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I could have stopped there. They’d ended up in their respective cites and barreled into their conflict (or it barreled into them). The stories would have been good written separately. Instead, the books became wrapped around each other. They occur in the same week. And there are several phone calls…between the books. It was like dialing across manuscripts. Jackson calls Mandy, Reign calls Max. Both sides of the conversation appear, but in their respective books.

For example, in Maxwell’s Fall, after experiencing a night of incredible sex with a man she believes is Jackson, Mandy receives a voice message from the real Jackson. He apologizes for the previous night and sounds distracted. Mandy is crushed. She thinks he’s apologizing for making love to her.

In Jackson’s Rise, you get to see what he’s apologizing for and find out what (or who) is distracting him.

The books were written at the same time and when a line of dialogue changed in one book, it had to be changed in the other.

It’s not necessary to have read Maxwell’s Fall to enjoy and understand Jackson’s Rise—the stories stand completely on their own—but it was great fun as a writer to incorporate both POVs in a scene. We rarely get to live the scene from more than one person’s mind.

Moment of blatant self-promotion…Jackson’s Rise comes out from Ellora’s Cave October 7, 2009. Check it out!
http://www.jasminejade.com/ps-7583-50-jacksons-rise.aspx

Have fun,
Tielle

6 comments:

Lynn LaFleur said...

Love your books, Tielle, and am eagerly awaiting the release of your new baby. I have my Visa close by, ready for Wednesday.

Lynn

LORETTA CANTON said...

I'm going to buy the whole series.

loretta,
lbcanton@verizon.net

Cait Miller said...

Looking forward to getting this book! It's a great concept and I applaud you for it!
Cait

LizbethSelvig said...

What a concept -- what fun it must have been to write! See...writers have ultimate power! Great job, Tielle!

Lynn Lovegreen said...

What a clever concept! I can see why it would have been fun to write. It's interesting how many different angles people can find to use in their writing--another reason this genre is so hot right now, Hope you sell lots of the series.

Boone Brux said...

Tielle, congrats on the new release. You make your book sound so tame, but I know that it's way naughtier than that. Especially love the granny panties! I own some. Maybe I could be in one of your books. Me in granny panties, now that's dead sexy!

Boone