Do you like to read books in which the characters are interconnected, e.g. in a community or church or family? Do you like to read a series in which each book features a sibling, a cousin, best friend, or someone in the family?
I thought I’d share with you a glimpse of how I planned Savannah Sweethearts, my longest series (which I completed last year), and how I put the families together. I picked this series for today’s blog post because it’s Christian beach romance, and it’s summer time in the northern hemisphere. Summer and beach vacations seem to go together.
When I first plotted and outlined my Savannah Sweethearts series about 6-7 years ago, I had concocted the idea that I would write two books per family group. I had only planned for six books, but somehow ended up with eleven, including a prequel.
The Wei siblings appear in Books 1-2. I thought it would be interesting to feature two Asian American siblings in a Christian romance.
In Know You More, Heidi Wei captures the heart of her church pastor, Diego Flores. Years ago, they met at the University of Georgia, before Diego graduated and went to seminary to answer the call of God to be a pastor. Some years later, they reunite at Riverside Chapel in Savannah, where Diego is now Heidi’s pastor.
Question #1 for you: Do you know anyone who stays in graduate school for years, earning degree after degree, but never leaving the university?
In Tell You Soon, Heidi’s brother, Aidan Ming Wei, falls in love with his colleague’s sister, Sabine Hu, a real estate agent who is selling his beach house for him. It’s a tiny cottage, but the backyard leads to the Atlantic Ocean. Can you imagine selling such a house? But Ming needs the money.
Question #2 for you: Do you like to vacation on the beach?
The Dupree siblings appear in Books 3-4 of Savannah Sweethearts. They come from a multiracial family that owns the multi-billion-dollar Hot Dupree hot sauce company based in Louisiana.
In Draw You Near, Abilene Dupree is the secret billionaire who doesn’t flaunt her wealth. Instead, she takes up a job as an art teacher in Savannah and lives in a very small townhouse with her cat, Bradley. There she is, minding her own business, when a rich London tourist walks into the picture. He has bought a painting of hers, and now he wants to know more about the woman in the painting. Will Abilene tell him?
Question #3 for you: Do you like to travel to other countries?
In Cherish You So, Abilene’s wheelchair-bound older brother and CEO of the family business comes to town to visit his sister. Because Abilene is pregnant now with her first child, she has to be careful with her cat. Abilene’s church friend, Nadine Saylor, agrees to feed the cat and clean out his litter box. And that’s how she meets Dante Dupree again, whom she hasn’t seen since Abilene’s wedding.
Question #4 for you: Do you like cats or are you more of a dog person?
Somewhere in the middle of the series (Books 5-6), I took a side trip and wrote two books about people who returned to their hometowns. The characters attended the same church, so there was continuity there. And then I went back to more siblings and cousins for the rest of the series.
In Books 7-8, I decided to feature Indian Christians living on Tybee Island. The cousins both attend Riverside Chapel.
In Kiss You Now, Priyanka Patel has an interesting job at the Savannah Senior Living Resort. She is a people walker. Do you know what that is? Have you ever heard of this type of job? While doing her job, she meets the great-grandson of one of the senior residents. Hunter Jacobs is an “author in some distress.” That is to say, he has writer’s block and can’t write a word.
Question #5 for you: What oddball/strange jobs have you heard of or have done?
In Find You Again, we meet Priyanka’s cousin, Dr. Roger Patel, who runs that retirement resort where she works. Roger’s story is a long time coming because he is first mentioned in Book 1 of the series. Roger has a secret he’s been hiding for years, and no one at church or in his Sunday School class knows. The secret shows up at his door one day, and he turns to his trusted friend, firefighter Cheyenne Endecott for support in this friends-to-lovers romance.
Question #6 for you: How easy is it for you to forgive someone of his/her dark secret?
Finally, it’s the holidays. In Books 9-10, I featured the Untermeyer family. Mrs. Untermeyer has three children, but only two are in this series.
In Wish You Joy, Amy Untermeyer cannot believe that her mother sold 51% of their Christmastown holiday decorating company to a stranger. Amy rushes home to figure out if there has been a trickery in the family business. However, the sale is legitimate, and Amy ends up having to work with her business partner, the very single Cyrus Theroux, in this office romance.
Question #7 for you: If you celebrate Christmas, how early do you prepare for the Christmas season?
In Call You Home, Amy’s adopted brother, Chef Isaac Untermeyer, comes home to Savannah for Thanksgiving. One thing leads to another, and he ends up working for his nemesis, deaf Chef Piper Peyton, who owns the famous Piper’s Place on River Street. While they have known each other since high school, a vendetta has separated them for twenty years. Will they get along in Piper’s hot and busy kitchen?
Question #8 for you: If you celebrate Thanksgiving, how far do you travel for the Thanksgiving holidays?
Well, that’s a glimpse into my author thoughts when I planned the Savannah Sweethearts series. What do you think? Feel free to comment. One random commenter will be entered to win a copy of Know You More, which kicks off the series I used as an example today. The giveaway ends on August 10, 2020 (Monday).
Have a wonderful summer!
In Christ,
Jan Thompson
USA Today bestselling novelist Jan Thompson writes clean and wholesome multiethnic contemporary Christian romance with elements of women’s fiction, Christian romantic suspense with an air of mystery, and inspirational international thrillers with threads of sweet Christian romance. Join Jan's mailing list for her latest book news: JanThompson.com/newsletter
Hi Jan! Informative blog with unique questions. #2 – Fortunate to live a mile from Lake Michigan, so a daily walk on the beach makes everything better. #3 This retiree has been blessed. I have traveled coast to coast – 26 states and 9 foreign countries on three continents. #4 – Personally I am more of a cat person. We have had Mimi, Smokey and Abbey. Hubby is a dog person. We had two Shelties – McBeth and Penny. #7 – As a German American, I celebrate Christmas from December 1 thru January 6. I enjoy celebrating Advent with an Advent Calendar and Advent Wreath. We also celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 6. Leave my tree up till Three Kings Day. #8 – Thanksgiving is an American holiday we embraced. For 40 years I hosted Thanksgiving Dinner, since I had the kids it was easier to have Thanksgiving at my house. In the 1980s my parents enjoyed traveling from Michigan to Chicago for the holiday. No need to include me in the giveaway. Enjoy your weekend.
Great post! I can see my TBR stack is going to be growing again! Your questions: 1. Yes, I do know of someone! #2, No. I live about 15 minutes from the beach, depending on traffic. I’d rather vacation in the mountains! 3. I’ve never been out of the US, but maybe someday! 4. Definitely a cat person, though I like dogs, too. Don’t know about 5 and 6. 7. The earliest I start decorating is the day after Thanksgiving. I’ve been known to start buying things in June, though not this year! 8. We travel about 15 minutes away for Thanksgiving, as we go to my sisters house beachside, so the kids can go in the pool, and sometimes to the beach, depending on how “cold” it is.
Reading books about interconnecting family or town is my favorite reading. It is like visiting family.
#1 no, #2 I love to vacation at the beach #3 yes I like to travel to other counties #4 I like dogs but I am more of a cat person. #5 I can’t think of any strange jobs #6 I easily forgive but unfortunately I don’t forget #7 I start preparing right after Thanksgiving #8 Sometimes I travel 110 miles and sometimes 0-5 miles
Wow, great blog, for me 1 no, 2 no, 3 I used to, now I love travelling virtually and no not because of covid, rather so I can sleep in my own bed. 4 either but probably slightly more a dog person. 5 never heard of a people walker but my neighbour was a turtle walker, the little guy was so tiny the main responsibility was making sure no one trod on him. 6 Other people’s choices are their business not mine and it is rare that I’m unable to accept them, though if asked I will share what I think. 7 I start before Christmas the previous year, I organise the cards for the next year so when I send the current years, next years is sorted and ready to write in. I collect items/ideas throughout the year for items/services that can be rehomed/upcycled/created throughout the year. 8 We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here. Have a great weekend :)
Your book series sounds so good! I love books about family, siblings, I love to read of them growing up and how they are up to and I love read what they made of themselves. I love it all! Thank you so much for sharing about this awesome book series! Have a Great weekend and stay safe.
#2) Yes, love to vacation at the beach #3) I’ve been to Canada and Mexico, but don’t have any great urge to go any further! #4) I like both cats and dogs. We had to put my cat of about 15 years down this spring=( now we have a young Cocker Spaniel. #5) My husband and I own a laundromat with a Wash/dry/fold drop of service! #6)
I do enjoy series that have a familial connection to the stories.
Fun interview. It looks like my To Be Read pile is going to grow again. LOL
Thank you, Renate! That’s wonderful that you can walk on the beach daily. Wow. I used to be able to do that, but now I’m landlocked. It’s fun to travel all over the world. I am hoping to visit the UK soon.
You have more cats than I do! I only have one cat. I used to have dogs, but I think cats have less maintenance. :-)
I am hoping to celebrate Christmas all December long too. Might as well, right. Hope this year we will have our tree up early. We shall see who has the time to do it.
That’s amazing that you have hosted Thanksgiving for so many decades. I’ve done it for some years, maybe 6-8 years but some years we go out of town or we spend at MIL’s house.
Thanks again for your comments!
Thank you very much! When I wrote Book 1 in this series, Heidi was doing her 2nd PhD and then she was going to get more.
I live one hour from the mountains and I think of the beach, but when I was a child living near the beach, I wondered what it would be like to see the mountains!
I am hoping to get the Christmas tree up during Thanksgiving week this year but that’s been my goal every year and I think I’ve only met it ONE time LOL!
That’s so wonderful that you’re so close to the beach where your sister is. I remember one year we spent Thanksgiving in a beach house and it was about 40-45F outside with windchill so there went my morning beach walks. Brrrrr!
Thank you for your comments!
Thank you! Yes, it’s fun reading. And fun to write too.
Thanks again for your comments!
Thank you, Lori, for your comments. Wow that’s a long way to drive for Thanksgiving but at least it’s not 1000 miles! :-)
I’m a cat person now bc I have a cat. Growing up, we had dogs.
Thanks again for your comments!
Thank you, Dianne, for your comments. Wow that caught my attention re: turtle walker. That sounds like an interesting jobs!
re: people walker – In Kiss You Now, Priyanka Patel’s job is to walk in the garden, grounds, and greenhouse with the elderly residents of Savannah Senior Living Resort. The residents would reserve a time for her to get them from their rooms. Some are in wheelchairs and some can walk on their own. She would take them on daily walks and then back to their rooms again.
I love how you organize your Christmas cards! I need to do better. I put all the cards I receive into a bag with addresses and all so that next year I don’t forget to send them cards. However, last year I dropped the ball bc I could not find my new boxes of Christmas cards I had bought on sale the year before (so I had to buy more new cards at full price). We had rearranged the room and put away so much stuff and I totally forgot where they were. I did eventually find them in the Spring time… :-)
Thanks again for your comments!
Thank you very much, Alicia. Happy reading and have a wonderful weekend in the Lord!
Thanks again for your comments!
Thank you for your comments, Patty! So sorry to hear that your cat is gone but 15 years are a very, very long time for a cat to be alive. Hope your puppy is fun too! That’s amazing that you have a laundromat. Laundry services are so needed these days when people are so busy. Maybe it will help with mismatched socks as well, which is not a problem for many people BUT is a big problem in my house. LOL.
Thank again for your comments!
Thank you, Lori, for your comments. Happy reading!
always like the interviews to gain insight to the characters and the author
So many questions!
Question #1 for you: Do you know anyone who stays in graduate school for years, earning degree after degree, but never leaving the university? Well, not graduate school, but my sister switched from major to major, college to college, and earned three different bachelor’s degrees before finally settling on nursing. She is 38 and is finishing what is supposed to be her very final semester this fall. She’s been in college for almost 20 years, with a few breaks in between.
Question #2 for you: Do you like to vacation on the beach? Sure, but I rarely get to go on vacation.
Question #3 for you: Do you like to travel to other countries? I have once and really enjoyed it. I would love to go to more countries, but money is a huge issue.
Question #4 for you: Do you like cats or are you more of a dog person? I love both! I tell people that I like cats but love dogs. Right now we only have a friendly kitty since our dog passed away last November. We are planning to get a new puppy in a few weeks. We’ll see how the cat likes it.
Question #5 for you: What oddball/strange jobs have you heard of or have done? The summer before my freshman year of college, I wasn’t getting enough hours at McDonald’s to pay for tuition, so I got a second job at a furniture manufacturer. My whole job was stapling material to wooden valances. I didn’t even know what a valance was before then!
Question #6 for you: How easy is it for you to forgive someone of his/her dark secret? Not very. I have a hard time with forgiveness, but I’m working on it.
Question #7 for you: If you celebrate Christmas, how early do you prepare for the Christmas season? I usually start on Election Day (US). The year that Obama was first elected, I was so depressed that I had to find something else to do beside watch the News, so I decorated the Christmas tree. I enjoyed it so much that it became our tradition to do the first week or two of November every year since.
Question #8 for you: If you celebrate Thanksgiving, how far do you travel for the Thanksgiving holidays? We go to my in-laws every year (we moved close to them for the purpose of having our kids close to at least one set of grandparents), which is only 10 minutes away.
Hi.
#3 I love to travel but the world is large, so Yes! I enjoy traveling vicariously, too. I have read wonderful novels with destinations all over the world, and even other galaxies and times – :D.
#5 I love books with characters with unusual jobs – I’ve read books with mortIcians, crime scene cleaners, an entomologist.
#6 Forgiveness. Unless it is a matter of unfaithfulness between a husband and wife (which would depend) or an ongoing evil, I figure it is my responsibility to forgive openly, as Christ has forgiven me. So I have a personal mantra that I say frequently – “Just let it go.” I say it until I can. If to me, something seems particularly horrible, I tell God my opinion and then let Him deal with it. And tell myself “Let it go.”
I do love reading stories that have groups of people in them, whether family members , good friends, or any number of other groups like this that have connected somehow. I think one thing I enjoy, is how they support each other through the good times and the bad times. Sometimes even being brutally honest (done in love of course) when someone needs a kick in the pants. I’d rather have a good friend tell me I’m doing or saying something wrong then sugar coating the truth. A friend/ family member should want to help you grow too!
I really enjoyed this post Jan, getting to know the inspiration behind a story is always a delight to me! No need to enter me to win a copy of “Know You More” since I read this for you a long time ago. I really got a kick out of watching Heidi & Pastor Diego fall in love….a good friends to more story is a top favorite of mine :-)
Thank you, Denise!
Thank you, Lila! Thank you for your comments! They’re great!
My son also changed majors a few times, so it’s going to take him at least an extra semester to finish college. I changed majors once (almost twice) but I went through summer school so that I could graduate in 4 years. In KNOW YOU MORE, my character Heidi stays at university several extra years, collecting her doctorate degrees.
That’s a cool idea to start Christmas decorating in early November so there are two months to enjoy the season. Back in March, some people were stuck at home during the early days of the COVID pandemic, and I saw news posts about how they started decorating their yard for Christmas in March.
Maybe if the kitten and puppy are still young, they can grow up together!
Thank you again for all your comments! Have a wonderful weekend!
Thank you, Penelope, for your comments! Yes, it’s amazing how time-consuming it is to travel the world.
I’ve only had one book with Priyanka doing an unusual job (people walking). But yes, I agree it’s very interesting to see books with all those careers!
God is good, for sure, regarding forgiveness. In FIND YOU AGAIN, Roger had to learn it the hard way and over a very long time. Needless to say the novel was very long and took me a while to write.
Thank you again for your comments! Have a wonderful day in the Lord!
Thank you very much, Trixi! Glad you enjoyed the blog post. I was so glad to finally finish the series. It took me 6 years to write from start to finish.
I agree about good friends! Truth matters so if they can be honest with you, that’s the best type of friends.
Glad you enjoyed KNOW YOU MORE. Heidi and Diego are the couple with the longest friendship in the Savannah Sweethearts series (since their college days). In FIND YOU AGAIN, Roger and Cheyenne have been friends for more than three years since they met each other at the Amsterdam airport. In CALL YOU HOME, Isaac and Piper were friends in high school but then they became enemies for 20 years, so my novel starts when Isaac returns to his hometown and meets her again…
Thanks again for your comments! Have a great day in the Lord!
I love reading books that are interconnected!!! The biggest series I read was The Callaghans & McFaddens, by Kimberly Rae Jordan!!! They’re my favorite books!!!
Now the questions.
#1 – I don’t know anyone that did this.
#2 – I live in a beach city called Caraguatatuba, São Paulo north shore . 🇧🇷
#3 🇺🇸 is the only country I’ve travelled to! But I’d like to visit tons of countries.
#4 – totally a dog person!!!
#5 – tandem hang gliding pilot! Which sane person would take someone free flighting over a City?!
#6 – I find it very hard to forgive a secret. Hypocrite, uh?! 🥴🙈
#7 – as a Brazilian I’m not used to prepare our home for Christmas, but last year , since my son was born, I followed an advent calendar and liked it so much!!! Can’t wait for this year Christmas!!!
#8 – again, it’s not something I’m used to, but I love seeing all things you guys make, it’s wonderful!!! I’m trying to raise a bilingual kid , so I’ll try to insert some cultural aspects, like Thanksgiving, to our home this year. Holidays in Brazil are usually spent in family. I don’t travel because I live in the same town as my parents and laws.
This was a fun post to read and interact!!!
Thank you for your comments! That’s cool that you’re in Brazil. For one thing, it means that when we’re heading towards freezing winter in the Northern Hemisphere, you’re having a warm summer — at Christmas!
Nice that you live on a beach. I grew up on an island, so I do miss the beach a lot. The closest beach to me is 5 hours of driving away, and that’s where I set one whole series plus other books in the the spinoff and sister series.
Thank you again for your comments and have a wonderful season!