I knew I wanted to tell Jack's story the minute I typed "The End" on Alex's Destiny. Though the racing saga had ended, Jackson Sterling was still hanging in there, and truly, I'd fallen in love with Pennsylvania and the eclectic Noland Family. After Alex's story was published, I had the same wave of questions I'd had when I'd published her parent's book, Carter's Treasure. Michael Sterling, readers wanted more of him, to which he spun off into the Finding Perfect series. Yet, Jack was still lingering, haunting me. But I'd ended the series, how did I go back and open it up? Would readers even want more?
Immediately I texted Jessica, bouncing the crazy idea of going back to the family in which it all began. We brainstormed, because she asked about Levi as well. I knew I'd left Levi with a starry-eyed ballerina falling for him. But just two books? No, we needed a third. A trilogy. A finite number of books, only the stories of those still untold in the RTL saga. Enter Cody Stark of course. Years prior, he'd been a rookie racer when Carter, Jesse and Eli were on the pro Motocross circuit. Did it drive Jesse crazy that his baby sister went goo-goo over the racer? Hell yeah it did. But then what?
The kicker is, there was a very large time lapse through the Racing to Love series. Jack and Levi have grown up. I know their stories, and they will go back to hard subjects. I've always tried to take real life, but shift it into reality, not all drama, but not easy. There has to be humor and they will both have a happy ending, as will Cody. However, Cody will be my first book I write about a middle aged man. Say what? Yeah. He's aged as well, and aged well haha! He's not much younger than Carter, Jesse and Eli. But how?
What was his story going to be? How would I link him back into the family? And how would I deal with his age? Answer---thank you country music lyrics. Multiple songs make up Cody's playlist.
I'm hoping these books will go back to full length novels as the Racing to Love series was. But I won't force them if they aren't. The Finding Perfect series--those books weren't, their stories were fulfilled in less pages, anything more would have been silly filler.
Now that they're falling into place, my "plan" is falling apart. I'd always assumed Jack would be the first, however, their stories are all fighting to be told first. What will I do? The same thing I did with RTL and FP -- write them at the same time. Did you know that? Did you know that I wrote Mike's Way Back before I wrote Alex's Destiny? Crazy how it works out.
So who's book will release first? Honest to God, I don't know. Whoever tells me their story first. When I had no clue what I'd do with Cody, he's suddenly the one I know the most about. I will admit I've got to scan Alex and Carter to get some ages correct and get my math perfected. I need several character's ages actually, including James and Karen. Geez lol. You'd think I'd have this somewhere, but the reality is, I have notebooks full, and scanning them would be just as time-consuming. Haha.
So as I wait for next week's release of Wild Winter in the Mari Carr Wild Irish kindle world series, I'll be gathering more and more info for the upcoming trilogy. Stay tuned!
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