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Mary Felkins: Writing a Fiction Series · The Daily Writer

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Saturday edition of the Daily Rider Podcast.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Each weekday, we bring you a short lesson that helps you live out the core practices of a great writer: creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Here on the weekend edition, we take a deeper dive into those topics through conversations with writers as well as teaching that helps us apply what we're learning.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And for more, you can visit us at DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've got a question for you.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought about writing fiction?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, have you ever considered how writing a fiction series might be a great way to expand your story world and give readers something really, really special?
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you have, you're going to love this conversation with my good friend Mary A.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Falkins.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Mary is an inspirational romance author, blogger, and contributor to writers' blogs and inspirational publications.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Her debut novel, Call to Love, is set in Hickory, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband, and they have four young adult children.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Mary is a member of ACFW, which is American Christian Fiction Writers, and my book Therapy.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Her purpose in writing is to reclaim God's intention and motivation when he created the world to enable readers to know his heart and experience his love.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think it's always fun to talk to fiction authors, and this conversation is definitely no exception.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Mary shares the benefit of a series, how to keep detail straight between books, some challenges to writing a fiction series, and a lot more.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I first got to know Mary through our mutual, wonderful friend Eric Elder, who you've met here on the podcast before, if you've been listening for the last year or two.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Eric is just a really, really wonderful guy.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to make sure and give him a shout-out.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And a huge thank you for connection to our great mutual friend, Mary.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So prepare to learn a lot about fiction, writing a fiction series, and writing overall.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is a very fun and inspiring conversation.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that you're gonna love it as much as I did.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: So here's my conversation with Mary A.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Falcons.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Mary, I'm so glad to have you on the Daily Writer Podcast.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is actually your second appearance.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Your first was a few months ago, I believe, when we had you and a couple others on.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you are officially part of the two-timer club.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a real thing.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm just making it up, so it's a real thing now.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: So you need my address for like a gift card or something, really.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Something like that.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do you prefer Starbucks or no Panera Bread?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, seriously, Bath and Body Works.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: If you say that, that's that's really serious business for me.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's where I go when I need a break and I just think go, I gotta go buy another candle.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I'm gonna do.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: I need to go get out of my rider head and get out of the house.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it is fascinating because when you go into that store in particular, you're just overwhelmed with sensory input.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you know, smells.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, they the people who organize the stores are excellent at what they do.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And as a man, I know I'm not supposed to like going in there, you know, according to kind of like cultural, what people think of culturally, but but truthfully, I I honestly do.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: I love candles and um it's just a very relaxing place.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: It is, and they they do powerful marketing.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, there's a men's line.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll do that.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'll grab a couple of those shower gels for my sons, and I think, man, I can tell you've used that because it's really that's not a it's not a girls' place.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So well, their marketing is is really good because when you go in, maybe you're gonna buy one thing, but they always have like this, you know, buy three and get a certain percent off or whatever, and you come out with this huge basket of stuff.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't mean to spend$75.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: When you walk in the store, especially on candle day.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: Why do I know about that?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: Don't ask.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: I know about candle day in December, and they hand you a big bag that has the crate.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's like an egg crate that has room for at least six of these candles, I think.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, okay.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, um, guess I'll fill these up because I don't want to have this off balance.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that is genius.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've never heard that before.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, so all right.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: I guess I should get on get on to the topic of our conversation here.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I haven't had any caffeine yet today, and it's Monday morning, so maybe I should have done that.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: All right, that's okay.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: I've had enough for both of us.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay, that's good.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, all right.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we are here to talk about writing a fiction series, and I'm so excited to talk about this because a lot of people want to write stories, they want to write fiction, but they don't know how to do it.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you've already done it once, and well, actually twice.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the second one I know is in process, and and you're working on the third one as well.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got all kinds of good things to teach us about this.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: So um give us kind of an overview.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let's maybe start here.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Give us an overview of your first book and how the other two books that you're working on fit into that and kind of give us the lay of the land in terms of your books, and then I'll get into some more specifics.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: So I will say, and I'm I may repeat this, but the the first book that I wrote was because I wasn't looking at it from the standpoint of I'm gonna make a career out of this, it was I'm gonna write a story.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I took all that I knew at the time and went to conferences and learned how to construct a novel.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: I wrote it all wrapped up neat and tidy.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: In my mind, that was it, that was done.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: And then in the middle of the pandemic, uh, so 2020, we all remember hard year, which is kind of trite to say that everybody had a hard year, but it was especially difficult on many levels.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of change for us, and my gym shut down, we sold our house, lost the dog, parenting issues were cropping up.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: So in July, I just fast drafted the story.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: But the challenge was well, I've kind of painted myself into a corner here because there I had to look at the cast and say, Who's who is not married?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: Because I I typically put married couples around the heroine or the hero so that they have a little glimpse of happily ever after what they could enjoy if they were willing to overcome their hangups about you know love and all these issues.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought, you know, it's the younger brother who's married in book one, whose life is in a very different place.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: He's very disillusioned because guess what?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: He's no longer married.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I I mean, if you had told me that with book one, I would have said, There's no way.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not I'm not doing that to Wesley, I'm not doing that at all.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: And so Wesley was kind of, well, yeah, this is what's happened over the couple years, and let me tell you why.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: So conveniently, I guess providentially, I went back and I thought, well, you know, he does have this wife, Abigail, but I never gave her any voice.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: And and I and I know that was God's hand, but I think I really felt like it's just too many characters going on.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: I want to try to narrow the whole cast of who you're trying to keep up with.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so it really worked out well for me to sadly create her into a little bit of a not so nice person, and it's all backstory, but so present day he's in a hard place.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um so then I not liking two, but liking the number three.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um now for Nana Rimo, National Novel Writers Month.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm constructing, attempting to construct in that same city of Laurelton, book three.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: So that's a major league baseball player that's just won the World Series and comes back to his little hometown to teach high school baseball, varsity baseball, and kind of what he's dealing with.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I thought, okay, well, I have the high school already established.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: So you just have to figure out what is out there, what have I created and go from there.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: So, and and same with this series that's coming out, the first one that's coming out in November.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: It was a standalone.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I threw in a secondary character that's a younger sister and said, let's just put her in there to show contrast and personality between the first heroine.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's a CPA, very regimented and orderly.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: And she's got this younger sister, two years younger than she is, that has a a bakery in the French Quarter, and she's just living the dream, and it's just to try to draw a contrast.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: And then sure enough, the younger sister says, Guess what?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: I want to, I want you to hear my story.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I thought, okay, I don't like two books, so I got to do three books.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: So book three is the half-sister they didn't know about.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: So my point of that is to say I had to go back to book one, the way I'd envisioned it for this one that's coming out, and put in figure out how did that happen and how do I hint at that so that it's realistic.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: She didn't just pop out of out of nowhere.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: And how do I make it that they didn't know, and on and on and on.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's complicated, but it's fun too at the same time.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to want to dive into a couple of topics.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for that, by the way.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: That it's really good to like get inside your head and to try and figure out how you're thinking about this as an author of a book series instead of a standalone book.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, one thing that I'm really curious about is how do you keep track of the details?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's what happens with me sometimes.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I will go back and read stuff that I wrote even three or four months ago for my podcast, or three or four years ago for a book or something, and I have zero recollection of actually creating that.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm reading it and it's as if it's somebody else's stuff.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know how you do that with fiction because there's so many details, and a really perceptive reader might read in book two or three about something and that that contradicts something that you said in book one.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: How do you keep all those details straight in fiction?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: What I that and I have asked series authors to give me their input and thought I would come up with one fantastic, this is the one right way to do it answer, and they didn't.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: So that leaves me to my process, which I learned about in the beginning of this year at a writer's retreat, is to keep what's called a story Bible.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know that I prefer that term, but basically you keep as you create a character, write it down so you could use a Google Doc.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: What I because I use Scrivener, I just keep all that in a table.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think, okay, I just made up a character, Joe Blow, who owns the hot dog stand, put him in there.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: Hell, if it matters, establish their ages, because if if you're just going to roll into the next book and it's been a couple of months, that doesn't matter.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: But I tend to have thing a period of time, six months to a year, sometimes two between.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm thinking, just even in that example, okay, well, with Wesley's story in this Christmas novella, if that's been three years, heroin, if she was 28 and she was had a small child, guess what?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: She can't still be having a small child in book two.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: So basically just documenting it.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: Some so some might keep hard copies, but I just as I think about it, I'll go down into my scribner file and and and include that information, put their age, and then I use an actual calendar too, so that I can look at it and see just a hard copy of those those aspects to the story.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: And and then describing your interior and exterior, I have to say that it's helpful to have sometimes draw that out so you can actually see so that there, unless there's been major restoration or change or this place burned down, and you can then recreate another location or coffee shop, describe where was that counter.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: First time you said she was to the left, now the cashier is to the right.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: You it's so so those types of things, it's it's it's challenging.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: But again, if I can keep it within the same program that I'm using so I don't wander off.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that makes total sense.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: Because if I start, could I started going to this Google Doc and thought, well, that's genius, we'll do that.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: But then I'm then I'm on YouTube looking at Donnie Osmond videos or something.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, wait a minute.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: My mother-in-law she had a thing for Donnie Osmond.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it was my mother-in-law.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she's she's been passed away for several years.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was Donnie Osmond.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because my wife and I were laughing about that just a couple months ago.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he was, you know, such a major heartthrob.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: For teen girls, you know, was it back in the 70s?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, uh, 60s, 70s, 80s.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's kind of interesting you mentioned him.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: He's interested, he's got a great story, has nothing to do with series, other than the fact that in all honesty, it is a great story.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: And you read interviews and you get kind of weepy thinking about what a what a golden life.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: But when you talk about the the life that he had as a little boy that was really painful, that he just wanted to play in a sandbox with his friend Scott.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: And no, we're the Osmonds, and you're the big reason why.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: We gotta go now, we gotta go live in LA.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: I want to stay in Utah.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: No, so it's it's really and and that he's continued to overcome a lot of obstacles and a lot of rejection, it's very inspiring to think about it.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought about that a lot with with Michael Jackson too, about how you know you have this family and you're kind of like the centerpiece of the family.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, if we take all the sort of allegations about Michael Jackson, let's set those to the side for a second.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: But even if you just look at his psychology and the fact that he was kind of an odd character, but wildly talented.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I always come back to the idea of how can you possibly have any sense of normalcy in your life when you're a a worldwide celebrity from the time you're what, five or six or something?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: And they actually, Donnie Osman and Michael Jackson were buds.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, similar for they were, and and Donnie will talk about it.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: Makes for great backstory.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: So there's legitimate reasons why you can go back and listen to an hour-long interview of Donnie Osman and think, oh, that's a great uh dark moment story to use for my character.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, he said that Michael Jackson got in the car.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: I guess he picked him up from the airport or something one day, and Michael had this cassette tape for those of you that know what those are, popped it in the car.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it may have been thriller or one of those.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: And he was like, Listen to this.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: And but Donnie was in a real dark place where he was not doing well, he was no longer the cool guy, he was really trying to maintain his reputation.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: Donnie and Marie show had been canceled after three years, and he's like, What do I do?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: And Michael Jackson said, It's your name.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: You you gotta change your name, it's poison.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, people hear Donnie Osman and they go, Ooh, he's like, I I can't do that, I cannot do that.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: And it's it's served him well.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, he sells out shows in Las Vegas at 63 years of age.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: I just it's amazing.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's cool.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Following it's really cool.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's following, but it's not been without a lot of heartache and yeah, behind the scenes, and so yeah.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me let me dive into something else.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this isn't related to series necessarily, but I'm really, really curious about this.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: I do have some more questions about the series.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: So help me understand what is the appeal of uh small town excuse me, of small town life in so much fiction, particularly romance and and that kind of genre.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because uh, like I I watch Hallmark movies with my wife occasionally.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've uh got a friend who's written a couple of those, and you know, most guys would probably they sort of laugh at those, but I'm really fascinated by Hallmark because they know their audience so well.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, every movie's kind of the same a little bit, but they throw in enough twists and details to make it really interesting.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: But almost every Hallmark movie features a small town.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is it about this small town setting that draws people emotionally and psychologically so much?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: I would say it, I think it's a it's a sense of comfort, it's a small family feel.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: People know each other.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, there's an author, Robin Carr, who wrote the Virgin River series, and that's a T that's a TV series that my craft partner, Patty, up in Washington State, said you really need to watch this TV show.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't realize it was based on a book.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: And she wrote that at some point soon after 9-11.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: And part of her success was people were just from Manhattan to I need something small town, comfortable, cozy.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: I want a place where everybody knows who you are.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's gotta have a coffee shop.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so I really think that people have it's emotionally very appealing.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: It just kind of feels like a warm blanket.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_02: And yet shootings can happen.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: I've you know, that that can happen.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: There's there's people where you have people, there's gonna be crime.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: It just depends on your genre.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: But I I think it's just a sense of coming home and belonging.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: You feel like, hey, I could really see myself sitting over here in this bookstore.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: And and so that's probably, in my opinion, I think what what people really like about it.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: It makes sense.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: It totally makes sense.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: Wrap your brain around it a little bit more than and I and I had a hard time.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's part of even with this series, The Heart of Moreland Manor.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: So it takes place.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: I it's kind of hard to say if it takes place in New Orleans or Napoleonville.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: If any of your listeners know where Napoleonville is in Louisiana, I will be shocked, but it's right on the bio biofouche.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: And but I love kind of going back.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: There's this think of New Orleans and French Quarter and Vibe and Jazz and all manner of licentious behavior, too.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: But then no, not in New Orleans.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, yes.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm shocked.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so just just I think emotionally for me, having this little place an hour and a half to the west, southwest, where it's quiet and it's historic and this amazing home that has lots of stories to tell.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: The characters are drawn to that, and and I think readers will too.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: I you know, I like a little, yeah, I want to, I want a pastry in the in the French Quarter.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: That that's great.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: I like the jazz, but I really want to get back to this quiet place, a place of refuge.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: And in book three, it's kind of a place out of the public eye where this professional model doesn't want people to know where she is.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: She's like, I can't get a hotel in New Orleans.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: I need to go someplace quiet to spend breakfast that maybe people don't know about.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I just think it's emotional.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a cozy, comfortable, safe place.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe you wouldn't feel like crime would happen.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe you know, again, it just depends on the genre, but I think it's a sense of certainly nothing really terrible would happen here other than maybe a theft or and maybe there's a reason because the world is so crazy right now.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Anything that we find comfort in, people are going to go to even more right now.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that sense of perceived safety in a small town, a small community.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and I will say I'm just gonna toss this in the whole issue of if you have any listeners who are thinking about writing a book and haven't yet and are doing it present day, and and I would caution very, very much against including a pandemic.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe that's a no-brainer, and you know, we're just not ready for that.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: You can talk about yellow fever, you can talk about 9-11, you can talk about another depression era, but we are not ready for that.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: And so even though I've used a 2020 timeline so that I can keep my facts straight and kind of look at what may have happened if I'm pulling from real events, there's no mask, there's no social distancing, just in the stuff in fiction.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and I and I read a book by a friend who asked me to read it and for a review, and it was a great story, but I was really put off by and surprised by wait, they're wearing masks and they're sitting far apart from each other and they're putting together a wedding shower.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: It just felt really uncomfortable.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: So, again, back to the small town community.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh just yeah, I wouldn't if in 10 years from now, sure, toss in a pandemic and have your characters all wearing masks.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: But it didn't work well in romance either because masks get in the way.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's true.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: That is just strategic, strategic kiss scenes that are in there that are in my genre very clean.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: But so yeah, just a thought.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let me turn back to to this topic of a series for for a minute.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: What are some of the advantages of writing fiction in a series versus standalone books?
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Advantages for you as an author and a storyteller, marketing advantages, reader advantages.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: What are all the reasons why we should consider writing in a series if you're doing fiction?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: I believe if you do have a reader fan base, if you just have one that's out.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: There, when I only had the one out there, there was a lot of really quick, swift readers that said, So, so what do you have?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: What do you have after that?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: I had nothing.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: So, you I think it's if you have a reader fan base, they they like your style, they like the genre, they want to either continue to stay in that town or be among characters that they're familiar with.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: So and it gives you continual work too, is as well.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, standalone is great because it can give you a lot of entry points where someone might read a standalone and then think, oh, what else do you have?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: And then they could pick up on a series and hopefully be super pleased with with that.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: But but I think that's just an advantage.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, there's the the question of which is more popular, which is really not a fair question because you know, I like a good standalone.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: I I follow some authors like Francine Rivers and Kristen Hanna, who write really amazing epic books, and they they're they don't necessarily fall into a series, but but I think people are really divided about that.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's the same question of paperback versus ebook.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: You're not gonna find anyone that's gonna give you one overwhelming answer.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: So it's really a preference, but I I like to be able to have something that I'm offering.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: And then even another aspect to Sirius that's really popular is to offer a Christmas novella in between.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: If you are traditionally published, I've noticed a lot you you can still publish on your own in between.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so you're at the mercy of the publishing house.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: And if they say this isn't coming out till spring, like I'm actually a in pub self-publishing a prequel to this.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: So even though it's out of order, I'm gonna have that ready for people to have to read.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's actually a reader magnet before book two comes out.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: So you have that option.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: Just people just like to kind of stay with the town and the character.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: And Anna and I I too see an advantage for this series where one of my greatest joys is to be able to show the reader.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: So we got to meet Sally Sue in book one.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's not about her in book two, but you're gonna get to see how she's doing.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: So in book one, everything, her the transformative process that she went through, she's still doing okay, or maybe she's not, you know, and so you find that out.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: You just you kind of want to know how people are doing.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: The the idea is there a way to have a a middle ground where so I'm thinking of Stephen King.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: I read a lot of his books over the years, and he does, you know, there he has the uh gosh, what's it called?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: The Dark Tower series.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: He may have another series, but I can't remember.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think he does.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: He somebody will correct me on that, I'm sure.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a theory that all of his books actually take place in the same universe.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: So is there a middle ground between standalone books and a series where you can have books that are they're separate stories, but they do take place in the same universe.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they even share some of the same characters or settings, but you're not confining yourself to following up this specific story with another book that continues that exact story.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Is that is that an approach that a lot of writers take?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, definitely.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: I think so.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, in my head, a lot of my characters, I could technically make them all be related somehow, but you don't need to know that necessarily.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: But when I'm mapping it out, and it may not even play into or affect this this story, but I like to think, well, you know what?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: I bet that was his uncle over in Laurelton, and now I'm just using his same last name over here in this series.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: So if yeah, absolutely.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: And and that makes sense to me that you do have one big universe, and and even with real people, you you stop and think, you know, you're riding a bus downtown, you may be related to somebody.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_02: If you really dug and and found out a little bit.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I think that that has validity to it.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, uh, one final question to throw out here.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: This has been great, by the way.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: I could chat about this stuff all day because you have thought about this so extensively that it's it's really fun to kind of probe into your thoughts about this.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of what you're saying also applies to nonfiction as well, particularly writing books in a series.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of nonfiction authors do that.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: What is a piece of advice that you would tell another writer if they are considering writing a series?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we touched on it, I guess, a little bit.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: First of all, to this to the best of your ability, decide if that's what you're gonna do so that you don't paint yourself into a corner.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: You could have written, I could have written a standalone and thought there's just no way out of this box.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm stuck.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I and I interacted with Lisa Carter, who's an award-winning author back in February.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Have you ever just what do you do about that?
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever gotten into a situation where you wish you hadn't written it this way?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: And she just had this really funny look on her face.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: It was kind of made me laugh.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: She just said, Well, yeah, that was convenient.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: As she's kind of picturing a scene in her head where she placed something somewhere and she just had to work around it.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: So advice is to try to determine either this truly is going to be a standalone leaving it alone, or leave loopholes, allow for your world to grow.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_04: And that's good.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then create create a cast of characters from whom you could give them their story, even if even if you don't.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_02: So, and to not have them all be married.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: Again, I'm I'm speaking to to romance genre, maybe in particular, where that they're not going to be able to have their love story if they're already married, unless you want to bust up a marriage that I had to do.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: So do what you got to do.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: So sorry.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: Just keeping track of the, you know, again, the age changes and really figuring out uh those aspects of it too.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: But is that hard for you to do emotionally?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because you think about these characters, it's almost like they're real people inside your head.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: And when you have to do things to them that they don't like, does that emotionally affect you as an author?
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: It does.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: It does.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, it yes, yeah, which is good.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: And and then in fact, in some ways, the whole writing process is tapping into some things that are going on in your heart and mind anyway, but it is very difficult because they they are real.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: But if if I haven't changed, and then this is borrowing a quote from Susan May Warren, if I have not been changed as a result of the process, then I've missed the whole point of writing.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_02: So it has to be a change that happens in me, or a realization, or a maturity, or closer understanding of God, then it's not if there's no change in me, there's not going to be a change in the reader.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: And there are places that I'll read and I still get very weepy.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, like, Mary, you you you know this is gonna turn out okay.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I just get so weepy.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: So so uh it is definitely an emotional journey and it and it needs to be.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why you know, kind of hearkening back to Donnie Osmond, it's one of a thousand examples, but you really can draw from real people and in the research, a lot of difficult situations that people have gone through and really draw from that too.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: But it was therapeutic when I was writing Wesley's story very much.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: It was like a I know how you're feeling, you're very, very disillusioned.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: You're kind of have your jaw drop about what has happened.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: I get that.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: Let's let's find some healing.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_02: And and where's God in all of this?
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: You've done all that you thought you needed to do, and it looks like a mess.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: So, so where where can we go to to come to a better place?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: Where's the transformation in that?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I love this idea of of writing being sort of autobiographical, even if it's fiction or not, and maybe in some ways, fiction is more autobiographical because you can say things in fiction that you wouldn't really say in nonfiction.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just tell people if you want to know what I'm struggling with, read my books, listen, listen to my podcast and read my books because all of those in many ways are just they're just a way for me to work out my own issues and struggles.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and we're we're far too cautious too, sometimes.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm hearing a lot about that where and there's this big push to, you know, really want to try to go deeper.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: I hear that from authors, meaning they're confessing that they were a little bit too reserved in and people, you're exposing something that you relate to very deeply.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_02: Why do you relate to that so deeply?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well, maybe we could have coffee and I'll talk to you about that.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: But you even though you're not that same character, you may not have that same profession, obviously.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: But the emotional, no matter what your genre is, there has to be an emotional journey for the character.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: I I I believe very strongly, whether you're a plotter or a pantser.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: So absolutely so important.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Mary, thanks so much.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: This has been an absolute blast.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've learned a lot and you have shared some really good tips with our listeners.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: What is the best way for listeners to get in touch with you and find out more about your books, social media, and all the cool stuff that you're working on?
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I have a website, MaryFalkins.com, that I've had for a while and it's just recently revamped.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm I'm wondering if uh writing about a house restoration project had anything to do with that, but it was a little bit long time coming.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: So MaryFalkins.com.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's an opportunity to follow up quarterly with what's going on with uh we have an author newsletter, so I don't want to bombard inboxes with that.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: So just an update quarterly on what's happening in with books, and then uh you can also subscribe to the inspirational posts that are once or twice a month, and then I'll have book launch teams that I'll gather and try to keep the team to 20, 25 members.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: So whenever there's a book coming up, then I will try to promote that and invite people to follow me on social media, Mary A.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_02: So with me with social media, I put an A in between the Mary and the Falcons.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: So that's okay.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: One little um difference that you don't see on the website.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: So gotcha, gotcha.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks again.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: This has been an absolute blast, and I appreciate you taking time to be on this episode.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, it's a podcast, it's a blast.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: There you go.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I was saying.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: Ken Sanders has the podcast, it's a blast.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate your uh allowing me to to be here and to to talk, talk it out and hopefully get some people off on the right uh foot before they get started if they're thinking about a series.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: So it's been great.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's funny that you mention the podcast is a blast because uh a lot over the years, a lot of people have told me, they said you have a voice that's really calming and soothing.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: And um a few months ago I watched a Bob Ross documentary on Netflix.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yes.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know, fantastic.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I should lean into that a little bit.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so really the the sense that I that I want people to come away with from my podcast is a feeling of being calm and relaxed and um and all that.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: So it's funny that you talk about, you know, having a great podcast that affects people, but I uh you can take that to the other extreme where you make people fall asleep.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope I don't do that.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, no, no.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: But I do want him to feel good and relaxed.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, my my husband Bruce really loves Bob Ross, and I'll hear him.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, he's wonderful.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: He really needs to just be calm.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's where he'll turn that on.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: Usually if he's waiting for me to kind of settle down and for our TV time at night and happy little accidents.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: I said, did he just say happy little accidents as he's painting?
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: That is phenomenal.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: And you you're gonna have accidents in your books and in your artwork and just relax about it.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's funny because that that's a persona that he crafted over the years.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, that that definitely was him, but I remember the documentary talked about how people people were responding to that to that aspect of his personality.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: So he just really leaned into it, which I thought was so interesting because he wasn't necessarily like that all the time in his in his regular life, but that's but on camera, he was very, very relaxed.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: Either maybe it could have been in his element as an artist, it could have been, you know, I don't behave always the same way uh when I'm at Walmart as I would when I'm in the middle of writing a scene and I'm in the zone.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_02: So, but yeah, I mean, I wonder, did he start out thinking, I'm gonna have this persona, that's what I'm gonna do.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: So, but it it's just uh it's very, very alluring.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: So, and I would I would definitely say the same for your podcast.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: Cool.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thanks.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for the time words.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Mary, thanks again.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: This has been a blast.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that was an absolute blast.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't Mary inspirational?
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you just love her take on writing and on fiction and just the way that she's really such an encouraging person?
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: I always love chatting with her, and I hope that you enjoyed that as much as I did.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: My main takeaway for this episode is this.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: I would love for you to consider writing fiction.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, fiction is not something that I have uh it's it's something that I've done, but I've not put any fiction out there.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: I've had on my bucket list for the last two or three or four years uh a couple of ideas for fiction books that I just haven't done yet.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: I just had honestly haven't had the time to do it, but I need to make time to do it because fiction is one of those things that is such an important part of who we are as people.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: It is so important that we tell stories and that we read other people's stories and that we support other fiction writers.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I am preaching this to myself just as much as I am to you, that we've got to we've got to consider writing fiction and take the plunge and put our work out there.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are already a fiction author, I know that this episode has probably inspired you to consider not just doing one book, but to consider expanding that book into a whole series.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Mary also mentioned that sometimes you write something thinking that it's gonna be one thing, then it actually turns into something else.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: And to be open to whatever you're writing to actually becoming a series.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought that was a really, really interesting concept because the cool thing about being creative and about putting your creative work out there is that you never know what's going to happen.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I oftentimes find that even when I'm writing nonfiction, is that when you are obedient to the act of creativity, when you sit down and whenever you write the words and whenever you do the work that's required to put your books out into the world, there's something about that creative process that is almost magical, where it becomes something other than just something that you're making.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of takes on a life of its own.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so I love these kind of insights that I get from having these guests on uh on the show, particularly people who are talking about storytelling and fiction.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: And this was such a fun conversation.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna have to go back and re-listen to this all over again because of all the insights that Mary shared.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that you really enjoyed this.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: I know I had an absolute blast talking with her.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you to check out Mary's website, which is MaryFelkins.com, and to grab free three chapters that she's making available to you.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, I want to say a huge thank you to Mary for making the time to be such an amazing guest on this episode.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure and check out Mary's website, and I'll see you guys in the next episode.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: I want to take a moment to let you know about our daily writer membership community.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the very best ways to develop better habits and impact more people's lives with your writing is to spend time around other successful writers.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're tired of feeling isolated and tasting success on your own, then I know you're gonna love the Daily Writer community.
• 38:00
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• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the features include weekly writing sprints, monthly community calls, book discussions, calls with guest experts, and much more.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: For more info, you can visit dailywriterlife.comslash community.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.