About Spinoffs—or Just Call Me Shirley by Liz Flaherty

About Spinoffs—or Just Call Me Shirley

by Liz Flaherty

I’m deep into promotion for The Healing Summer, my…I don’t know…severaleth book, and a question I’m asked on every review site and in every interview is Is this book part of a series? I’m embarrassed to admit I’m not sure I’ve mastered its answer. So I waffle. Well, yes, sort of, but…no, not really. I mean, the first book came out in 2012, the second in 2019, and there probably won’t be a third—does that qualify?

No, it does not, my friend Nan Reinhardt assured me; rather, my book is a spinoff. This revelation had my mind doing a little dance of its own, one of those that’s perpetually out of step because you can’t hear the beat. My books are nothing like Mork and Mindy, for heaven’s sake. As great as that show and its protagonists were, there was really no relationship to Happy Days, its parent show. 

I’m not particularly comfortable in this time of so many series, although I acknowledge that readers and writers alike love them. I have written one, as well as several novellas for a Christmas continuity series, but my attention span has both narrowed and fractured over the years I’ve read and written romance. These days, I find that I’m in love with standalones that don’t require me to have a cast sheet and a series bible to keep up. I’m good with taking for granted that secondary characters will have their own happily-ever-afters with partners hinted at throughout the book. They either couldn’t get along or couldn’t keep their hands off each other—or both, certain indicators that All Will Be Well.

And yet, like everyone else, I’m fond of the people in my books. In many ways, they are as real to me as my own family and friends. Like those family and friends, when I’m finished with the books, I’m glad for the people in them to go home. Not that they’ve worn out their welcome, but I’m tired of seeing them every day. And maybe just a little bit bored. If I were one of those writers who write very fast or work on more than one project at a time, this might not be the case, but I am neither. 

And then, somewhere down the road, there comes a time. In 2007, The Debutante’s Second Chance introduced me to Taft, Indiana, a small town on the Twilight River in Southern Indiana. Nothing new there—I always write small towns. But there were people and places there I wanted to see again. The sheriff, the pastor, a doctor, the River Walk. So they showed up in 2013 in Jar of Dreams.

It was good to be back there, but also good I didn’t have to worry overmuch about continuity. It didn’t matter in the least which book you read first. 

In my spotty career, I wrote one inspirational book, A Soft Place to Fall. Several years later, we visited a small town from that story, in a non-inspirational novella called Summer in Stringtown Proper. We said hello to a few of the people from the first book, but their connection was slight. There have been other mentions, other carryovers, over the years. They’re fun for me, especially when a reader sees Wish Mountain and remembers it from Back to McGuffey’s, or meets someone who showed up in a Christmas Town story.

I intended to write a series called the Peacock Chronicles about a little Tennessee town I’d invented. The first book, regardless of some contest wins and placings, didn’t sell. It was a hard one to let go, but when the manuscript was lost to corrupted floppy discs, I had no choice. But I still loved Peacock, so I wrote the second book, using some of the same people and all of the town I could remember. In 2012, One More Summer was released by Carina press. It did well, and a few years later, I wrote the next book.

It didn’t sell. Well, crap, I said, and a whole lot more besides, and I shoved it under the virtual bed with a bunch of pouting and not a little force.

Eventually, though, I took it out and dusted it off, and I remembered why I’d written it. I did some updating, and seven years after the first Peacock Chronicle, the second and probably last one, The Healing Summer, is being released in October by The Wild Rose Press. 

Another offshoot from Happy Days was Laverne and Shirley, the ongoing life stories of two girlfriends from Milwaukee who worked in a brewery, shared an apartment, and fell in and out of love nearly every week. It was way different than its parent show, but it maintained the setting and its gentle vibe. Along with the laughs, there were a few broken hearts, love and warmth between its characters, and happy endings. A few characters in common moved between the shows, comfortable there but still living at home. 

The Peacock Chronicles will never be a series, but I’m happy with One More Summer having a spinoff. I’m the writer—I hope you read them both, but you don’t have to. They each stand alone. Kind of like Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley. 

***

Retired from the post office and married to Duane for…a really long time, USA Today bestselling author Liz Flaherty has had a heart-shaped adult life, populated with kids and grands and wonderful friends. She admits she can be boring, but hopes her curiosity about everyone and everything around her keeps her from it. She likes traveling and quilting and reading. And she loves writing.

 

Email: lizkflaherty@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorlizflaherty/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LizFlaherty1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizkflaherty/

THE HEALING SUMMER

When Steven Elliott accidentally rides his bike into Carol Whitney’s car at the cemetery, the summer takes on new and exciting possibilities. Long friendship wends its way into something deeper when their hearts get involved. Feelings neither of them had expected to experience again enrich their days and nights. But what happens when the long summer ends? When Carol wants a family and commitment and a future, Steven isn’t so sure. He’s had his heart broken before—can he risk it again?

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing