I’m sure that by now everyone’s had a chance to read Jennifer Ashley’s blog and is familiar with the Immortals’ storyline – five immortal brothers, born of a human father and some aspect of the mother goddess, called upon by the Coven of Light witches to save the world when it is threatened by an ancient demon.
When I accepted the offer to participate in this continuity, I did so knowing that there would be more challenges than trying to write a third book when I only had time to do the two I was already contracted to do. Still, this was a great opportunity – so I joined Jennifer and Joy Nash on the project.
One challenge Joy and I faced was developing our stories while remaining in the framework of Jennifer’s overall story arc. (Did you know that the concept of the Immortals was Jennifer’s brainchild?) It was important to all of us that we stay true to the initial concept and not try to change it. It can be difficult to play in someone else’s world, but Jennifer allowed us a lot of creative freedom to make the stories our own.
Another challenge – maybe more for me than the other two – was that I’m much more comfortable writing science fiction than about magic. I had to do a lot of research into magic spells, witches and magical creatures.
The biggest challenge, I think, was entering into a collaborative project with two writers I’d never met before. And it wasn’t just that I didn’t know them – they hadn’t met each other. You hear about situations like this that turn out disastrous – but ours was far from it. No divas in our group. We immediately set up an email loop and dove straight into world building and character development.
I think the end result turned out well and I hope those who’ve read the books will think so as well.
Hi Robin! I usually end up disappointed with multi-author series. However, after reading the first 2 books (I bought Joy’s and it’s calling to me), I’ve found The Immortals to be as yummy as a gi-normous bag of M&Ms!
A couple of questions: You said you are more comfortable with sci-fi, so how did Jennifer select you (and Joy) for this series?
And I’m really curious about this… The three of you worked out most of the worldbuilding details, the basic storylines and characters, sequence, etc. Then you each went off and wrote your books, probably with some more group planning sessions. So now everyone is done with their first (or second) drafts. Now what? Do you read/critique/edit each other’s manuscripts or is that the job of only ONE of you? Or do you all send them to the same editor who makes sure there are no continuity problems? Or both?
Really good questions, QB. I’d be curious to know myself. I figured an editor picked the other authors out.
Hi BevL –
How did Jenn find me and Joy? Joy was currently writing Celtic romances for Dorchester and so as The Awakening has a definite Celtic flavor, she was a logical choice.
The second book of the Immortals series was to revolve more around the vampire underworld – with lots of action scenes. Since I write a vampire/chupacabra series for Grand Central aka Warner, that made the second book right up my alley. And it helped that my first book,a sci-fi action/adventure romance – TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN – was published by Dorchester – which meant that Leah – the editor – was familiar with both Joy’s and my work.
I’m smiling here as I read your last question – about whether we all ready each others’ books before submitting our final draft for publication. In a perfect world, that’s exactly what we would have done.
The reality, however, was that I was trying to fit the writing of the Immortal books in between other projects. I think Jenn was doing the same thing. She and Joy were able to write their books faster than I could write mine, so we relied heavily on our email conversations and the wonderful talent of our editor to keep the continuity across the series.
Good questions! Thanks for asking.
To chime in–we talked to each other the entire time we were writing the manuscripts, through every stage. If there were any doubts whether what we wanted to include fit the series, we had long discussions and brainstorming.
If I had been more anal and organized (ha!) I would have had a concrete outline for the series and the story arc, but actually I liked the free-flow of ideas and think it worked better than me dictating what Robin and Joy wrote. The whole series evolved into something deeper and richer than my original idea by all of us working together.
As for how the authors got chosen: I did give my editor my “wish list” (which included Robin and Joy), and then we discussed it before she made the offers. I am very happy with how things worked out!
Jennifer, you’ve made me curious about something else now.
As Robin explained, The Immortals was your brainchild. Was it originally planned that you would be the sole author of the series? If so, how did it evolve into a multi-author series proposal to your editor? Or did you conceive it as a multi-author series right from the start?
And thank you both for answering my questions. It sounds like the three of you had a creatively satisfying working relationship. Did any of you have to make any serious adjustments to your writing process or habits in order to accomodate the others?
I hope you don’t mind that I’m not asking any of you about specific story elements/characters. As I said before, I’ve got Joy’s book here, so I’m avoiding any potential spoilers.
All good questions! The original germ of the series swam around in my head for years while I was busy with other books. I thought of Immortal warriors who save people a lot, but I’d not planned for them to be brothers, and I’d planned to write a separate adventure for each, not connected to the others. I had thought to involve some time travel as well.
One day in 2005 I mentioned to my editor that I’d really wanted to be in on the Crimson City series, but knew I was too busy for it so I didn’t even ask. I then asked if Dorchester had any more continuity series in the works, and if so, could I write a book? She responded that if I had an idea for a whole series, I was free to pitch it.
So I dusted off my Immortal warriors and thought about how I could make them into a multi-author continuity series. By this time the idea was several years old, so it had gone through many mutations (as I entertained myself in the middle of the night with it). I pitched the main idea (four warriors, one rogue, their witches, etc.), and my editor loved it.
I fleshed it out some more, leaving the individual advantures open-ended so the other authors could play with it.
It was just luck that Dorchester was looking and I happened to have a suitable idea lying around at the same time.
QB asks: “Did any of you have to make any serious adjustments to your writing process or habits in order to accomodate the others?”
Maybe not *serious* adjustments on my part, but some. I write by the seat of my pants–I have an idea and plunge right in with the draft (I jot some notes as I go along, but no outline). Then I rewrite and polish until it’s done.
Well, you can’t do that when other authors need to know what’s going on in your book beforehand! So I had to hammer out the major action and the setup of the story arc first, and then not change it too much while I wrote the draft. Challenging for me because I change and fine-tune my books all the way up to the day I turn them in.
But it worked out, so it was worth it. This didn’t change my work style on my non-Immortals books. I’m still plunging right in sans outline.
Sorry gang – that pesky day job is keeping me busy or I would have posted sooner. I would agree with Jenn on the adjustments we made in our writing. I needed to stick to the “rules” and events the three of us discussed and agreed to so no going off on tangents without checking with the others first.
I think the other big adjustment I had to make was the big ending of the story. I’m used to my hero and heroine defeating the Big Bad to get to the happily ever after and if you’re not writing the last book of the continuity, then you have to let the Big Bad get a way – so then the challenge is, how do you let your hero be the hero of his story and still let the bad guy get away? It was an interesting challenge.
Thanks for all the interesting background information on the creation of this series. I would like to know if any of your characters were modelled on anyone in real life, such as an actor or actress? Also, any chance of another collaboration between the three of you in the future?
“Also, any chance of another collaboration between the three of you in the future?”
Funny you should ask. We’ve all just gotten the go-ahead for even more Immortals books, which will be out next year (in addition to the one I’m doing on Tain). Details will follow when we come out of our huddle (give us a few weeks).
“I would like to know if any of your characters were modelled on anyone in real life, such as an actor or actress?”
I can only speak for myself, but I never model on a real person. The character starts in my head and becomes so real to me that I can never find anyone in real life who looks like them or acts like them. I *can* be inspired by a picture of a gorgeous man 😉 but no one specific.
Woo-Hoo! I’m off to grab the books and start a wish list of secondary characters that NEED to have their own books! Although, I would just bet that my list will end up being pretty close to yours. You all wrote some of the secondary characters so delicious that I have to believe you like them as much as I do!
congrats on the spin-off. I seriously need to get read these book. I have the first 2 in my tbr pile. Now if I can just find the time.
“Funny you should ask. We’ve all just gotten the go-ahead for even more Immortals books, which will be out next year (in addition to the one I’m doing on Tain). Details will follow when we come out of our huddle (give us a few weeks”
Ah that answers my question in one of the other threads here – great to hear!
I think I have a lil bit of info to post on this… had to do some work stuff but I will put it up shortly.