Keeping Your Series’ Setting and Secondary Characters Fresh

Keeping Your Series’ Setting and Secondary Characters Fresh

Readers fall in love with settings and secondary characters, anxiously awaiting the next story because it means another trip to a place we all want to live or at least visit. Series are a special kind of escape for readers and writers. For me, as author, the warmth of Mac’s Riverside Diner, the fun of the Four Irish Brothers Winery, a tasty cuppa at the Tea Leaf Café, pastries from Paula’s Bread & Butter Bakery, or a stroll along the River Walk are just a few of the good reasons to keep telling stories there. 

But it’s not enough to use the same setting, the stories have to evolve naturally from it and the town must evolve with it. So new places should crop up in your old setting, disasters that affect everyone in the town will inevitably become part of a story, restoration of old familiar landmarks, like Aidan Flaherty restoring the River Queen riverboat in Christmas with You or Gerry Ross turning the old cotton mill into a boutique hotel in Meant to Be. With these changes, the setting becomes a developing character itself. 

The same is true for secondary characters, who may never have their own book, but unquestionably do have their own stories. Readers love to follow townsfolks to see just what’s going to happen next to background characters. In Book 1 of the Four Irish Brothers Winery series, we meet two secondary players, Carly Hayes, Sam’s uptight mom and Mac Mackenzie, a Cordon Bleu chef who owns the diner in River’s Edge. An unlikely pair for sure, but by the end of Book 2, Carly and Mac are an item, and although they never get their own book, their story progresses and we watch their romance blossom as the main characters’ stories are told. We’re still rooting for them in The Valentine Wager—the fifth book that happens in River’s Edge.

It’s important to introduce new secondary characters to interact with the old ones so the town and its stories don’t become stale, but putting old background folks into new situations is also a fun way to bring interest to your familiar setting and your stories. My new River’s Edge series, The Lange Brothers, tells the stories of three brothers who are all first responders. Each brother has his own book, but woven throughout the three books is their mother’s love story with hotelier Gerry Ross, whom we met back in Book 2 of The Four Irish Brothers Winery series. So Gerry and Jane become a seasoned romance in River’s Edge, adding just a touch more fun to our little town on the banks of the Ohio.

Each time we enlarge a secondary character’s story, we are inviting our readers further into our series, welcoming them into this fantasy world, where life may not always be perfect, but where a happily-ever-after is always guaranteed. 

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Nan Reinhardt is a USA Today bestselling author of romantic fiction for Tule Publishing. Her day job is working as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader, however, writing is Nan’s first and most enduring passion. She can’t remember a time in her life when she wasn’t writing—she wrote her first romance novel at the age of ten and is still writing, but now from the viewpoint of a wiser, slightly rumpled, woman in her prime. Nan lives in the Midwest with her husband of 48 years, where they split their time between a house in the city and a cottage on a lake.

Talk to Nan at: nan@nanreinhardt.com

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THE VALENTINE WAGER, Nan Reinhardt

He’s a notorious flirt, so she lays down a challenge she’s sure she’ll win.

When playboy police lieutenant Ryker Lange stops Kitt Boynton for driving on the wrong side of the road, his attraction to the feisty Irish lass is immediate. Yet, despite the sizzling chemistry between them, Kitt quickly turns him down.

Kitt has moved to River’s Edge for a fresh start and is ready to focus on her new marketing job at her cousins’ winery. She’s done with players, and vows she won’t let the local sexy cop distract her, but Kitt, a flirt herself, is definitely tempted. To keep her sanity as she prepares for several Valentine-themed winery events, she and Ryker make a bet: for the next three weeks, neither of them can flirt with the other.

The game starts out lighthearted, but when the town takes sides, Ryker and Kitt must choose between winning a wager or finding lasting love.

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Category: How To and Tips