Rebrand, New Book, and the End of a Series

It took a lot longer than expected to go back to all the old files to revitalize the DeSantos Series content. At first, I debated rewriting much of it to bring it to the same heat level as the other series I write. There were two reasons I decided against this action. First was the time away from writing new content. The second reason was, I’m ready to close out the trilogy. The third book is finally finished and in edits.

That’s a good thing, right?

I honestly don’t know. I haven’t looked at the document since May because I wrote the bulk of the emotional parts of this book (not the plot – had that figured out a year ago) AFTER my dad died in December. It was my walk back into writing on a regular basis. That didn’t happen until late February. A whole TWO months of not writing. Grief does funny things to the creative process.

So, when this finally comes back from the editor (who has had their own Covid-related setbacks), I’m going to have to face all of that emotion I poured into the third book. Can I just say, I’m not looking forward to ripping off that band-aid? Oh, and a side note, since he had directives for cremation, we STILL haven’t had a memorial service. Covid sucks. Period.

Back on book talk, the title for DeSantos 3 will be “Where Evil Thrives.” About halfway through the book, I was ready to scrap the entire project. I sat back and said, why am I writing? What good is this doing? Lisa DeSantos, the fMC, is recovering from grief. I had to figure out how to give her hope when I was reaching the end of mine. I mean, all around there were people getting sick, getting laid off, losing income, losing loved ones, losing the opportunity to grieve because no one could gather to mourn less they risk killing someone else. In a lot of ways, Lisa finding a reason after her loss was my own journey.

One word stood out. Not hope, not joy, not an end to sadness… nope. The word I found was, THRIVE. We may not be whole, but we’re still breathing. But just surviving isn’t enough. Digging down deep inside and finding a reason to THRIVE despite harsh circumstances is an achievement. So is finishing a book mid-pandemic. And, wow, with it, finishing my first published series!

Then came the horrible news that my pen name was “unfindable.” To top that, my series branding was “all over the place.” Sigh. Sometimes the best news is telling a person what is wrong and what they’re going to need to do to fix it. Cue rebranding. Searching for the thread that ties all three of these books together.

There’s family.

There’s murder.

There’s surviving despite unconventional stories.

That’s this series. Each of the main characters are unique. Their stories don’t rely on each of the other stories to be told. They’re not cookie-cutter family romance tropes either (think seven brides for seven brothers). Starting with Tony’s story of younger man/older woman AND a single mother of a (gasp!) TEENAGER, moving to the WACKY way Chris DeSantos gets that stick out of his butt, to the final tale of how Lisa steps back into the world of the living, the tone varies from book to book. If you’re looking for the same thing each time, you definitely will NOT like this series. It never was my intent to write cookie-cutter novels.

But, if you like being uniquely entertained by a thread of novels that live in the same universe, with not-so-squeaky-clean heroes and heroines, then give these a try. Book 3, Where Evil Thrives will release in October.