Delicious Scandals on Park Avenue

Hi Wayne, Hi Ladies!

Thanks for inviting me to this shindig.  Man, this series was so fun to do - and different.  Love the different! 

I also love writing about New York.  I lived on Long Island for a time and was in the city quite a bit.  It has such an energy, a movement to it - even when you yourself are standing still.

The story I wrote was Trent's and Carrie's, and it turned out very different than how I had invisioned it.  These two completely took over - a first for me - and had their own idea about how their story should be told.  With humor.  Not my ususal fare...But hey, you can't fight the insistant people in your brain, right?

In a nutshell - Trent and Carrie live next door to each other and come from very different worlds, socio economically, but they need each other.  They make a bargain, marriage for a year and they each get what they think they want out of it.  But as they live together and really become friends, they start to see that what they thought was their heart's desire was merely the catalist in bringing them together.

Sound interesting?  A little?  You know you want to

Lollll... 

Be back later!

Laura Wright 

Thanks, Wayne!

One of the elements I found most compelling about MARRIAGE, MANHATTAN STYLE was the struggle of a couple to conceive a child and the profound impact that can have on a marriage. 

Elizabeth reacts by trying to get closer to Reed, while Reed tries to protect Elizabeth from the stress of their lives, unintentionally drawing away from her.  The situation is rife with conflict, emotion and misunderstanding, and those things provide terrific opportunities to craft a story.

Add wealth, scandal and Manhattan to the mix, and the writing becomes a whole lot of fun!

Barbara

Hi!

As for me, it's harder to write a continuity because it's not my story and I have to work to make it mine. We have a little leeway with the storyline itself and how we handle our characters. 

But that said, we MUST complete all of the continuity points given for each of our stories. And we have to work together to keep our characters sounding the same in each of the books. Thankfully, there's an editor whose main job it is to read each of the books in turn looking for continuity errors!

Maureen 

Must admit didn't read any of the books yet. They all sound very good and I love NY City.

Q:Did any of you ladiies got the same idea for the story, then had to change it, and if you did how did you find out?

I have the last book in the series.  THE BILLIONAIRE IN PENTHOUSE B coming in December!  I had a great time writing Jacinda Endicott/Jane Elliott and Gage Lattimer's story--as well as wrapping up the steamy Park Avenue Scandals series by revisiting with previous characters! 

I'm a native New Yorker and love the energy of the city, so it was fun conveying the atmosphere of New York at the December holidays (when it's overrun with tourists!) in this book.  Plus, this is the first book I've written that had a main character masquerading as someone else.  It was entertaining thinking through the ways that she keeps the hero--and everyone else--fooled.  But when the hero does discover who she really is...watch out for the fireworks!

I enjoy writing books in a series with other authors.  Certain elements are set--the main characters and general storyline--but fitting it all together in a compelling story is like solving a jigsaw puzzle.  It's a challenge but also really satisfying!

 Anna

Hi all. I adore working on these series. My book, PREGNANT ON THE UPPER EAST SIDE? doesn't come out until November, but it should be available on eHarlequin Oct. 1. And then we have to wait until Nov. 1 to order the December book, Anna's finale.

Question for readers:  Do you buy all the books in a series and save them to read them together?  Confession, I often do because I get too impatient waiting a month for the next installment.

Tina,
The answer to your question is yes, the authors do share bits and pieces of other characters in their stories. Some of that is because the editors ask us to. Some of it just comes out as we authors email each other on the loops we open for the duration of writing the series. 
The email loops are the best part of writing a continuity. It's like having coffee with fellow authors. You zip off a question and get an answer.

This series was fun because I've been to Manhattan, but I'm dying to go again. So as I did the research I made a list of places to go (and eat).

Emilie

Lee, this was my first continuity and I was surprised by how enjoyable it was to take characters and a setting that had been invented by someone else, and make them my own. And although the main bones are there we do have a lot of leeway with how the story develops and how the final ending happens. It's a fun challenge. 

Tina, yes, many of the tenants are in each book. We get to see how they're doing once their story is over, or we get glimpses into their lives that forshadow upcoming books. For example the Reeds have a couple of scenes in my book, which hint at the problems they're going to face in Barbara's book next month.

Ivka, since the plots are all developed by one person there's no chance of them being the same. That theoretically would be more of a problem outside a continuity, when we're all coming up with ideas by ourselves. In general though, each of us has such a different approach to plot and characters and a different voice that if you gave six authors the same plot all the books would come out totally different anyway

Jen

These all sound yummy. My TBR list just increased!

Pamela,
Usually the editors and their assistants come up with the continuity concepts, but sometimes that job can be farmed out to someone outside of the Harlequin offices.  That "someone" is often a former editor who is now staying home to raise children or something similiar, but who has kept his/her hand in the business by free lance editing.  In other words, it's someone with qualifications, knowledge of the line and a familiarity with Harlequin. And even then, the line editors will tweak and edit the final version.

With Melissa now gone Krista will be the one to guide the upcoming continuity stories. She's done this kind of thing before with Harlequin, so no worries there.

In general, the editors come up with the overall setting and the story that carries through all the books (the continuity element). The authors are given 2 pages that gives them the gist of their story (ex. a secret baby plot) and their characters' names, occupations and vital statistics. That gives us 220 pages to make the story and characters our own.

It's that discovery part that's so much fun.

Emilie

I think it shows how fantastic you are as a writer when you can write a book in a continuity.  I would think it would be much harder than writing a single.  I have the first four books but haven't read them yet as I decided I had so many other books in my TBR pile I'd wait until I had the complete set before reading them.