June | 2024 | jenjsilver

I’ve never written ‘The End’ on the final page of any of my novels. My feeling is that it’s not the end of the story unless all the characters have died. As I’m writing romances there is always a happy ever after, or at the very least, a happy for now. Both of those options leave the story open for a continuation.

In March I joined two of my Affinity colleagues on their podcast…Triple A Storytelling…to discuss series and spin-offs. Both Annette Mori and Ali Spooner have written many more of these than I have. But we had a good discussion and I talked about The Starling Hill Trilogy, which began as a one-off story. It soon became apparent that other characters needed their stories told, so books two and three took off from there.

Changing Times, published in 2022, was a spin-off from Changing Perspectives which gave me the chance to explore the development of a new generation of characters – as well as revisiting the old ones. The first book was set in 1993, so I moved the story on thirty years. The younger people inhabit a different world. In the early nineties, not everyone had personal email accounts or mobile phones. The now all-pervasive social media didn’t exist.

In Changing Perspectives, Dani Barker is a graphic designer for an ad agency. She creates storyboards manually, but computers are starting to take over. I included a scene where she tries to familiarise herself with some design software. (She’s not convinced it will ever catch on!) In Changing Times, the ad agency is now a mixed media company run by Dani’s niece, Holly.

The best part of writing sequels and spin-offs is that the settings and characters are familiar, giving me the chance to delve deeper into their stories.

My next book, due out in August, is a one off. (For now.) Title and cover reveal coming soon.

Well, that’s all folks, for now anyway.