Series! with Keri Ford

I love them. I really do. Family sagas, BFFs finding their way, military groups, different heroes and heroines per book, or a series of books featuring the same hero and heroine.

Some of my favorite series are Gaelen Foley’s Knights, Johanna Lindsey’s Malorys, Cindy Gerard’s…well ALL of those hot hunky military and special ops guys, and Nora Robert’s Bride Quartets, just to name a few.

So it was no surprise that when I start write writing ANY book, I think in terms of series. Always in the back of my mind I start partnering up secondary characters, deciding what to reveal about their personalities and so forth.

The only book I didn’t do this with was the first book I sold, Through the Wall. I wanted something small and contained to test out my writing with no limitations, no thoughts of “writing rules.” I had to constantly remind myself “don’t think big, Keri.”

And yes, that sold. And then soon after my editor was asking about things next and that series idea sprang back. But with WHAT? I purposely wrote a book with no series in mind! And now I wanted that. It took some tweaking, adjusting, some adding of secondary characters, flushing out a bit more of the setting and ta-da! My series, Uninhibited in Apple Trail, Arkansas, was born.

The Apple Trail books are not your standard series, though. Rather than being linked by the characters’ relationship, it’s more strongly linked by town. As the series continues, you begin to get a little history and arrangement on the town. That doesn’t mean the characters don’t know one another.

Apple Trail is a very small town. Everyone knows everyone! But instead of having a series of best friends where they each know one another through and through, it’s more like gossip the characters know. Beauty shop like GOOD gossip.

Things like, “I think Stephanie and Parker were bumping uglies when she was still married. You remembered how he looked at her all the time.” … “I heard he was cheating on Stephanie and that’s why they divorced. She and his friend Parker didn’t hook up until after the fact. I know Stephanie, and I know that good girl wouldn’t have been cheating while she was still married. We all saw how devastated she was when they separated.”

And also, “Did you hear that Riley Hamilton has finally set his eyes on a girl?” ... “By who?? That man rarely sees any girl, pity that ’cause he is so handsome. While just last week my Jenna-Jean was giving him the eyes and he only politely nodded back!” … “Some girl from out of town is all I know.”

The gossip runs rampant at Apple Blossom’s Beauty Parlor, telling stories and what ifs about Apple Trail.

What are some of your favorite series? Which series tropes catch your eye?

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On The Fence is second in the Uninhibited in Apple Trail, Arkansas, series by Keri Ford.

If Shellie Chambers has to hear one more condescending comment from her mother about life or men, she might scream. She packs up and takes a trip to see her long-missed high school friend, Riley. He’ll know exactly what she needs to loosen up. But instead of the girl-chasing jock she remembers from their youth, Riley’s gone country, keeping up a farm of his own.

Riley Hamilton has settled down on a farm his uncle left to him. Not the life he ever envisioned, but after getting a girl pregnant in college and then watching helplessly as the baby was aborted, he learned the hard way it was time to settle down. Shellie’s reentry into his life reminds of his wild past and it’s a fight to ignore the tempting woman Shellie has become.

For more about Keri’s books and just about anything, please visit her website: www.KeriFord.com.