I seldom write short stories.  I wrote one for a friend about a woman who loves the circus so when the circus train goes by her by her backyard she wakes her family and drags them to see them set up..they meet the ringmaster and ride the elephants.  But like you, I can’t stop writing, so I wrote a companion story about a hitman at the circus taking out his target.  But that wasn’t enough, so I wrote a story about the target.   Somehow a simple sweet story turned into dark trilogy. 

I know most people consider it an alternate lifestyle. I  have had gay friends since junior high (shh – that was in the early 70s)  It wasn’t until I was in college did I realized people had “opinions” about it. 

When I started writing in my genre I had to remind myself the reader wants the characters to have a life outside the mystery.  I fought it at first, but once I conceded I had no choice, I began to enjoy it.  Now I am just as excited deciding what will happen in their personal lives in the next installment as I am what trouble they will be getting into and out of.

Not looking for an opinion on the query.  (And I know it is rough)  Just used it to answer your question. 

Do you write anything other than novels?

Yeah, but how many times can a person not in the investigative field, or the law field in any way, run  across dead bodies – and still have friends (I know I would stay clear).  Granted I do have a short story that she is in.

And when did I start writing short stories…I don’t know.

I’m not gay, but I don’t consider gay an alternative lifestyle. 

I can’t just write by the seat of my pants with Rachel Shorte.  I need to know the law, the elements of each crime.  I need to build a foundation for the trial.  And most importantly, I need to make sure that the foundation and evidence and testimony, etc, is there not only for Rachel to argue and her client to endure but for the attorney arguing on the other side and the police to investigate.  It has to be balanced, it can’t be too slanted in either direction.

I will email you the query to my standalone.  

I have a friend who is a food stylist so I get to hear the trials and tribulations that go with the career.  I also figure that should I want to take the series past the three stories I have in mind, I can always have her cater something…where bad things happen.

No Reese isn’t gay, she is the Dominate head of a household of four adults, BDSM.  I love researching but I have to admit that researching for that series has led me places I am not sure I wanted to go.  Balancing explicit sex, with an everyday life, with murder – embezzlement – kidnapping, isn’t that easy, and you would think it would be.

I also have a standalone that I am working on.

So how do you handle two series at once?  I find I go back and forth.  For a week or so I will do one and then I am typing away when something hits me for the other series and I switch gears.  What gets me is that I know the completed stories: have outlined to excess, researched to death – and in some cases have written the ending – it’s the middles that get me.

I have a confession to make, so I might as well make it here to you.  I NEVER noticed the comment page before.  I see I have comments going back to 2011.  Yikes.

I enjoy writing legal mysteries.  My first series centers around RACHEL SHORTE, she’s an attorney.  I try hard to not make her me.  I like to play with the nuances in the law, it’s not as black and white as people often think.  In the first book I use the Safe Haven for Infant Laws to show its good intentions but how an individual can find themselves in a real mess when trying to do the right thing.  All the books in that series deal with some issue like that – how far is too far undercover,  what if one is the sole survivor of a suicide pact, can one be forced to become a citizen?   While she is practicing law she develops a relationship with the detective – who I never intended to survive the series, but hey – I like him.   And somehow for such a nice kind woman, she makes a lot of enemies. 

My Reese Millridge series came out of nowhere.  I have a friend who lives an “alternative lifestyle” for lack of a better word.  She was complaining that whenever she reads something regarding her lifestyle it is always front and center and the rest of the story is just filler.  I started with the intent of writing her a story.  Now, somehow I have three different novels going on in my head.  All involve crimes – a murder investigation,  a serial killer, etc.   Making her a food stylist might not have been the best choice at the time… J  She is becoming Jessica Fletcher – everywhere she goes people are dying.

I find writing two series to be both a challenge and a blessing. 

Marja, get over to the latest blog posted and make a comment about marketing.

Marja,

I've been a member of She Writes for close to a year. I guess we've just never run into each other. :)