Yes, it’s more than a week into the New Year. I admit I should have been here seven days ago, but what can I say? I was busy.
I just published The Vacillating Vigilante, I am in the process of getting The Wasted Womanizer published, and I am working on the draft of The Xanthic Xena. Then three more books in the final trilogy, and the Hot Dog Detective series will be complete. It is nice to be close to the finish line.
But like most long distance races, by the time you get close to the end, you start to have doubts. Do I have enough energy and drive to make the final spurt? In my attempt to finish twenty-seven books, will I let the quality of the final three or four books drop off? Will I put so much emphasis on getting through the task of finishing the series that I lower my standards?
I can only hope not. I guess it’s up to my readers to tell me if I fail in delivering a good product to them. I hope that the stories remain as interesting and challenging from the first book to the last. I hope that my readers appreciate the over-all story of Mark MacFarland and Cynthia Pierson. I hope that Rufus remains as much fun throughout the series as some found him to be in the first couple of novels.
One of the difficulties of writing a long series is that while there is often a lot of reviews of the individual books, there is often little review of the the series itself. Sure, readers will tell you they like the series, but that doesn’t really address how the series is progressing. And perhaps, that is because most series are simply a collection of books with no real developmental arc over the entire series. But I believe a series of books should actually bring the reader to a final place where he or she is satisfied with the over-arching story.
I hope the Hot Dog Detective series is more than a collection of twenty-seven mysteries. I hope it’s a story about several characters in whom the reader has some emotional investment.