Tania Crosse on Writing A Series
Tania Crosse, winner of Best Saga in the Romantic Novelists’ Association Awards 2020, talks to Women Writers
I was delighted when Women Writers asked me to contribute to their online magazine. Thank you so much for inviting me!
Being the first recipient of this new award means so much to me, especially being a special year for the RNA as it celebrates its Diamond Anniversary. It has also given me the opportunity to talk about writing, and I’d like to examine the importance of series in the fiction industry. I’m a writer of saga, but no matter what the genre, readers do like to follow a series.
Take my ten-strong Devonshire series, set on the western side of my beloved Dartmoor and the surrounding area. Each novel illustrates different aspects of the region’s fascinating history, and each one stands alone, with the exception of Cherrybrook Rose and its sequel, A Bouquet of Thorns. (I have recently re-worked this into one story as it was originally, and this should be re-released as The Gunpowder Girl in the coming months.) Nevertheless, a thread runs through all the books and fans often remark how they love seeing the return of characters with whom they have built up an emotional relationship.
Of course, it works both ways, as when an author has lived every moment of a character’s story, you don’t want to say goodbye, either! Having put them through the mangle and rescued them at the last minute, you want to see them enjoying a peaceful future. However, there is always good reason for their return.
Take Adam Bradley in my debut novel, Morwellham’s Child. A sea captain from London, he is a man of strong mind and principle. Not that he doesn’t make mistakes. He wouldn’t be human if he didn’t. He and his beloved (I won’t name her as it would spoil it if you read the book) reappear in book two, The River Girl. I create a feasible link, and Adam uses his influence to help the new set of characters. In The Gunpowder Girl, he plays an even more pivotal role assisted by The River Girl characters, and so on and so forth.
The downside is that when a series covers a long period, there comes a time when you really do have to say farewell. I cried buckets when Adam dies of natural causes in The Ambulance Girl, but it had to be done.
The advantage of writing a mini series, however, is that you’re unlikely to need to kill off favourite characters due to old age. I can’t say people don’t die, but so far in my Twentieth Century sagas, I’ve not despatched a much-loved hero or heroine. For example, in my Kent mini series, Nobody’s Girl is set during the 1920s and 30s. It’s a stand alone story, or you can follow the same characters through WW2 in the sequel, A Place to Call Home.
Finally, I come to the Banbury Street mini series. I lived in the street as a small child, and many of my distant memories are entwined in these stories. The Candle Factory Girl is set in the 1930s and is based around nearby Price’s Candle Factory, and the tale involves many secrets and lies, robbery, stolen diamonds and murder. So, yes, I do kill off one person, at least!
After a happy ending (naturally!), most of the characters move on, apart from matriarch of the street, Eva Parker, her husband and four youngest children. Eva is pure gold. She’s right cor-blimey, slovenly and arguably the worst cook in the world. But she’s everybody’s confidante, and my, can she keep a secret! She might call a spade a spade, but she’s the one you turn to in a crisis, knowing she’ll be there to help in whatever way she can.
Eva was the main reason I set a sequel in Banbury Street, The Street of Broken Dreams, the saga that won the award. I loved Eva so much in the first book that I really wanted the opportunity to explore her further. When we lived in Banbury Street, we shared the house with an elderly widow we called Nanny, and Eva was inspired by her, mixed together with her elderly friends and a big dash of my own imagination.
It’s 1945, and WW2 is drawing to a close. Eva’s two youngest are still living with their eldest sister in Surrey, but the two middle off-spring, Mildred and Jake, had returned once the Blitz was over. Now, Eva sees trouble ahead, for how well does Mildred know the fiancé to whom she got engaged so hastily before he went off to war? Eva is also concerned about a new family in the street. They have obvious problems, but Eva senses they are hiding a terrible, devastating secret – and she’s right. When it’s finally revealed, can she be the only one to help?
Eva became the absolute linchpin of the drama that unfolds, and it was fitting that Chapter One should open with her, and that she should have the final words, too. Am I ready to say goodbye to her yet? Well, I’m working on something different at the moment, but do you know what? I reckon Eva’s two youngest might have a tale to tell in the future, which would make three books in the series. And yes, their mum would most definitely be at the heart of it!
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Tania Crosse was born in London and lived in Banbury Street, Battersea, the setting of her two latest novels, The Candle Factory Girl and The Street of Broken Dreams. Later, the family moved to Surrey where her love of the countryside took root. She wanted to be an author since she was a child, but having graduated with a degree in French Literature, she did not have time to indulge her passion for writing until her own family had grown up. She eventually began penning historical novels set on her beloved Dartmoor. After completing her ten-strong Devonshire series, she took her writing career in a new direction with four Twentieth Century sagas set in London and the south east, and is currently trying to decide between various projects she has in mind. She and her husband have lived in a small village on the Hampshire/Berkshire border since 1976. They have three grown-up children, two grandchildren and a variety of grand-dogs!
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THE STREET OF BROKEN DREAMS
In the summer of 1945, the nation rejoices as the Second World War comes to an end, but Banbury Street matriarch, Eva Parker, foresees trouble ahead.
Her daughter, Mildred, awaits the return of her fiancé from overseas duty, but how well does she really know the man to whom she so hastily became engaged before he went off to war?
Meanwhile, new neighbour, dancer Cissie Cresswell, hides a terrible secret. The end of the conflict will bring her no release from the brutal night that destroyed her life. Can she ever find her way back?
Under Eva’s stalwart care, can the two young women unite to face the doubt and uncertainty of the future?
Published in e-book and paperback by Aria Fiction, an imprint of Head of Zeus
Available to download from Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books and GooglePlay
Paperbacks available exclusively from Amazon
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Bjeg0g
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Kobo: http://bit.ly/2HaxIBD
Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing
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