Facebook Q&A - February 16, 2019

Facebook Q&A

Q: Is Sienna ever going to be able to fly again?

A: Mmmmmmmmmaybe

Q: Oh please!

A: I don’t really take requests. Usually the opposite. But on this I’ll just say...wait and see. I want to say more but I shouldn’t. All I’ll say is I plant a lot of seeds in my books. Sometimes they get harvested. Sometimes they’re red herrings. Maybe I’ve planted a seed regarding this. Maybe it’ll bloom at some point.

Q: As for the last book, I do want to say it was my absolute favorite!

A: FLASHBACK? Yeah, it and HERO are two of my favorites of the whole series. Which is a good thing to be able to say, as the writer, thirty four books into the series. I really like COLD as well, though I’m always nervous about these things until I get some preliminary reaction from fans. COLD is a very different thing, more of a mystery/whodunit/whydunnit, so I’m curious to see how it’s received. Much less emotionally twisting than HERO or FLASHBACK, which I found to be so wrenching. I think it moves in a very different way.

Q: I’ve been dying to ask...when in the series did you know you would write Flashback?

A: I’m not precisely sure, but it had to be at or before writing Girl in the Box 9 [Destiny] because I specifically seeded the necessary events into that book to suggest it would happen.

Q: Who do you read? And how hard is it to write different series without getting confused?

A: Interestingly enough, it’s not particularly hard for me to keep things separate in my head vis a vis my characters/worlds. I used to be sharper, though, and I’m looking forward to ending a few of these series (ASHES is done, MIRA BRAND’s last book is being edited, and LIARS AND VAMPIRES is finished being written, just not done being edited) so I can stop trying to remember where I last left the characters. Maybe then I’ll be able to remember what my kids told me last week.

HAHA, just kidding. I’m getting old now, no chance I’m going to remember stuff happening in real life.

Q: Will Sienna ever (in your opinion) be coming to the screen?

A:Nothing’s in the works, but forever is a long time.

Q: I’m currently re-reading and I’ve just read that Scott has dark hair...Always imagined him as blond?

A: He is [blond]. I‘ve had readers point out before that I wrote him as black-haired in his cameo in ALONE. I just tell them that he was going through an emo phase.

 Q: In Alone Zack was short, just a bit taller than Sienna, Later on he was around six feet. I always thought that Sienna was pretty traumatised in that first book, having her Mom go missing, then having Agents break into her house. So, as she was fighting them, she saw Zack as short because she was beating him so easily and everything was confusing. Also as much as I miss Wolfe, I miss Gavrikov more. I hope that Sienna gets flight powers again, or maybe a cool new power like invisibility or speedster.

A: Whoops! See, I’m not a very visual person, so these are the kind of problems I have during writing.

Q: I just wanted to say Flashback was an emotional roller coaster for me, but so important. I just wanted to say thank you for it. Was it easy to write or was it hard?''' '''

A: Honestly, the only hard part was figuring out where and how the action would take place. The underground casino sequence gave me fits because my original working idea had it being a bank. But I’d just done a nighttime bank robbery in DRIVEN, and I couldn’t abide treading the same ground. That’s really the only issue I have with Sienna these days; it’s surprisingly easy to find new emotional beats to go to. But coming up with the action and fights and making them utterly unique to what I’ve done before is much more of a challenge.

Q: We saw vampires once before. Spike and angel. Will we see more in the future?

A: Maybe as a throwaway villain, like a minion or henchman or something. I hate treading the same ground over again, like I said before, so I’d need to find some fresh use for them, and having a vampire series (LIARS AND VAMPIRES) I’m more likely to reserve vampire ideas for that.

Q: Where do you draw your inspiration from to keep writing such long series without the story getting stale or burning yourself out and everything feeling rushed?

A: Interesting question and interesting timing, because I actually have felt quite rushed the last few months, with the most recent Out of the Box being pushed right up to deadline due to my burnout last fall.

That said, overall, the way I’m able to handle it is that I don’t really make my long-ranging story arc decisions at the last minute the way I may make a decision in an individual novel. Usually I have Sienna’s story arc for a year planned out well in advance and just make small adjustments as I write the actual books. So, for instance, I had the Scotland trilogy planned out waaaaaaaay back when I was writing Girl in the Box 7 or 8 and had it planned to be Out of the Box 6 or so. It got pushed back because I kept getting other ideas I wanted to explore which logically fit before the Scotland incident.

So I guess the answer is that I plan in advance and add better ideas as they come along, but always have an endgame in mind. From there I just sort of think about things and add in additional story arcs that will bring out new aspects of the character when they spring to mind. Having years to work on them helps quite a bit.

Q: I have to say that one of my favorite things about your writing is the way you can flesh out the characters, giving them all a very unique personality and make each of them feel real and believable. Please never change on us!

A: Part of what (I think) helps in this regard is that I’m constantly adding new characters for Sienna or whoever (Cyrus, etc) to bounce off of, which in turn exposes new facets of their personalities. And also, I’m not afraid to really dive into miserable situations with them, which also keeps things fresh (though it also makes fans want to kill me for putting them through the ringer). The ringer is what keeps things interesting, though!

 Q: Will we ever get Wolfe back in Sienna’s head? Or for that matter, the whole crew that used to be there?

A: No and here’s why: I hate emotionally manipulative writers who just make storytelling decisions just to eff with their readers feels. I didn’t kill these characters just to mess with you guys; I did it because the story demanded it, because there was a powerful reason to do it, the sacrifice was a major endpoint to their character arcs and a trial the like of which Sienna had to go through in order to forge her character further. Removing the consequences of the entire Scotland arc would, in my estimation, make the books completely weightless, emotionally. So no, they won’t be back because I *FELT* the pain writing that trilogy and I’ll be damned if I cheapen it by saying, “KIDDING!” and making it so there are zero stakes when someone dies in Sienna’s world. That’d be a quick way to make the entire series mean nothing, in my estimation.

 Q: As much as I hated aspects of Wolfe, he was so complex in the end. It’s hard for me to let him go. I was ok with the rest of them going. But Wolfe and Sienna had changed each other. And honestly I miss Sienna having his powers at hand.

A: I agree, having his powers at hand actually made it a lot harder on me as the writer, too, tbh, to give her believable threats to her life. I had to work extra hard to make it possible to put her in harm’s way/had to up the danger quotient in whatever she faced to make it MORE PERILOUS. Which in one sense was good, upping the stakes, in another was bad, because I think the series would be a lot less thrilling if you get the idea that Sienna could just safely cruise through all her stories without that ultimate threat of death hanging over her.''' '''

Q: Are Sienna & Harry endgame?''' A: Mmmmmmmmaybe '''

Q: Will Sienna ever have more souls?

A: Yes!

Q: Did you ever think you would get to where you are with Sienna? 20+ novels for one character is awesome! (well done btw) If not, at what point was it 'supposed' to end?

A: Well, I’d originally planned to end with book 10, but I really loved writing them and readers seems to really love reading them. And one night I was reading a review of book 7 (which I never do anymore, but I used to) and someone mentioned what they loved about the series and it gave me an idea for how the series could continue. So it seemed logical to keep going since I was having fun with it and (many, though not all) readers were. So here we are, 34 books in, and I’m still having fun. And I plan to keep going until I’m not having fun anymore, at which point I’ll wrap things up. Having just wrapped up COLD, I have to say, I think I did something new here, so I’m satisfied. As long as I feel like I can do something fresh and new with the series, I’ll keep writing It. When I can’t anymore, I’ll wrap it up.

 Q: Seeing as how I’m not a fan of Sienna/Harry, what are the chances of Sienna/Scotty-Doo?''' '''A: Uh, low. They’ve moved on and Scott’s going to get a new girlfriend that’s better suited to him in the future sometime.

Q: When will the book after Cold be out?

A: I don’t know. I’m going to set the release date as June, but it’ll probably be out sooner. I’m trying to finish the next Sanctuary book and I have to write them between the deadlines for Sienna books, so giving myself maximal time is important because missing a pre-order deadline means Amazon takes away my pre-orders for a year. But I can move up a release date anytime I want.

Q: Working on that Sienna family tree yet?

A: Never! It would hem me in too much.

Q: How many more Sienna books are you planning on writing?

A: I don’t know. I’ve got about four more years plotted, and I’m quite content to write beyond that - provided I find new ideas and directions to explore. When things start to feel less than fresh, I’m going to end the series. So far, I’m still having fun, so on we go.

Q: I subscribe to Kindle Unlimited so I can read as many of your books as I want. Most of “Out of the Box”series was included, but the last 3 are not part of the unlimited program. How do you determine which books you allow to be part of the kindle unlimited and which ones are not?

 A: Good question. They’ll all be part of it eventually, in fact REMEMBER: Out of the Box 21 will join KU just as COLD: Out of the Box 24 is released. The reason the three most recent aren’t in it yet is because being in KU requires me to be exclusive to Amazon (the books can’t be sold on Nook, Google, Apple or Kobo). I built my fan base on those e-readers for Sienna’s series long before KU was introduced, so I feel like crapping on those readers by not releasing on their platform at all would be a hugely dick move.

Thus, the compromise as planned now - Out of the Box books will always be in KU but will trail three books behind the newest release. That way KU fans will get their fix but I don’t screw over the fans who read on those other platforms who have helped make sure Sienna has gotten this far. It’s not a perfect compromise (which would be Amazon getting rid of their exclusivity requirement - don’t hold your breath) but it’s what I’ve got.

 Q: Will Sienna co run the agency with Reid in the future or do they have separate paths? And will any of the rest of the gang split off to work directly for or with her?

A: Mmmmmmmaybe. (I don’t want to spoil the future story, so you’re going to have to wait to get a clearer picture of this one.)

Q: Where did you get the inspiration from when developing Sienna's character?

A: The biggest inspiration was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was my favorite TV show when I was a teen, and I really wanted to tell a story of a girl discovering her power.