Friday, January 28, 2011

Reader Gold – Series/Serials

Hey all,

This Friday's Guest Blogger has an awesome post about finding that special author who you fall in love with and want to collect everything they've written.  Check it out below, but first let's find out a little about the author.  Taige Crenshaw says this about herself...

Taige has been enthralled with the written word from time she picked up her first book. It wasn’t long before she started to make up her own tales of romance. With novels set in today, in alternate dimensions, or in the future she writes with adventure, fun sassy heroine’s, and sexy hero’s. Always hard at work creating new and exciting places Taige can be found curled up with a hot novel with exciting characters when she is not creating her own. Join her in the fun, frolic, interesting people and far reaches of the world in her novels.

Sounds great, right?  So let's see what she has to say about reading series and serials.  Please join me in welcoming Taige Crenshaw.

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I’ve been reading a lot lately and I love series/serials so I have been rereading my favs. I’ve written on my own blog about my love of series and serials. What they are and how I feel about them. Almost monthly there are so many books coming that are part of a series/serial.

First here are my definitions of them both:

Series ~ Taige Crenshaw Definition:
Novels that has a related story theme but each one is complete in and of itself.

Serial ~ Taige Crenshaw Definition:
Novels that feature/follows the same main character/s yet are still a fresh story each time.

No matter which way you slice it I find whether it is a serial or series I enjoy writing stories like this. It gives me room to stretch my mind, push my characters to give me more and wallow in there adventure even more. Although I enjoy these stories I don’t usually start writing with the intention of it being a series/serial sometimes it just happens to evolve that way.

I write what I love to read and I’m one of those readers that wondered what is next for such and such main character. Or what happened to this sub – character that I liked in this or that novel. I go hunting to find more and when I find it I feel like I’ve struck READER’S GOLD. I jump up and down and shout in glee. LOL.
I’ve been known to search for years to get that book to complete a series/serial I was reading. Hey I’m a dedicated reader and I want the complete set of my series/serial.

For instance I remember many years ago I picked up an author that I hadn’t tried before. The novel was great and imagine my glee that I struck reader gold and it was a series. I went back and bought all of their novels except one which was sold out. I searched and searched for years for this one book and couldn’t find a copy. Not even a used one. I even contacted the author to find out if the story was going to be re-printed. To my dismay it wasn’t at that time. Amazon even had over 200 people waiting for a copy of this book when I checked. I stopped checking the numbers after I saw the amount of people. No one was selling. A few years after looking I finally struck reader gold in 2005 when the book was reprinted and I was able to finish my collection. I know me and over 199 other people were very happy.

Can you imagine so many readers looking for an author? Searching for that Reader’s Gold. That is what I want my novels to be to my current and future readers ~ Reader’s Gold. No I don’t want you the reader to wait a long time for my books but I want you to be so drawn into the worlds that I create you can’t wait to see what happens next.

This is what Reader’s Gold is all about. As my thoughts of Reader’s Gold evolved I thought of all the author’s who have some wonderful series/serials that I feel are Reader’s Gold. They line my bookshelf’s (online and print) and I go looking for them when they are released.

I’m sure most of you have a little Reader’s Gold on your bookshelf so come on and share. Give me some new Reader’s Gold to find.

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That was such a great blog and one I can totally relate to.  Jonathon despairs of me because I have so many books and most of them are some kind of series.  So yes...my bookshelf is filled with JD Robb, Julie Garland, Elizabeth Lowell, and many many more.  But like Taige, I'm always looking for new authors, so if you have a series you just LOOOOVE, put it in the comments below.

Learn more about Taige by going to her WEBSITE or her BLOG.

And take a look at her latest story coming out this month.  Power of Attraction  - A woman whose destiny has been ordained from birth meets the man who has been prophesied for her--but there is more to him than meets the eye. With prophecies and legacies to fulfill, which way will she go: to a man who may be possibly her mate, or to a dark legacy that could take her life.  Buy January 31, 2011 at Total E-Bound

Hugs, 
CJ England










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8 comments:

Cassie Exline said...

Oh yes, give me a series anytime or a serial. Quite by accident I stumbled across Reader Gold. I saw a promo for a time travel story, a fav of mine, bought it and checked out the author -- Mari Carr. The book I bought was the second in a series and she has number three started. She's an excellent author. Yippee!! My latest release, Ruby's Deadly Secret, is book two of a four book contract. All written just waiting for edits. Series draw in the reader and we gotta get the readers hooked. Great post!

CJ England said...

Totally agree. I'll take a series over a stand alone any time.

Anonymous said...

Great post. "Reader gold" is a great way to phrase it.
Liz Arnold
Message to Love
The Wild Rose Press

CJ England said...

Thanks, Liz. I agree. She nailed it.

Anonymous said...

What a good article. I feel the same way about series. Serials sometimes I get tired of them afer the 9th or 10th book. I have family for that. :) But I could name several authors whose series I look forward to from month to month.

CJ England said...

Paperback Diva,

My favorite all time serial is JD Robbs, In Death series. I don't think I'll ever get tired of them. Every book just keeps getting better as you get to know the characters.

Phylis said...

I love the JD Robb series In Death! They are awesome! Mom and I reread them. In fact we will get these in hardcover when we usually wait for paperback. Reader's Gold is an awesome phrase. Fits perfectly.

CJ England said...

Phylis,

Isn't it? I think she nailed it. I'm gonna steal it, because it fits so well.