As a reader, I often hit the end of a book and don’t want to let go of a favorite character. As an author, sometimes I think I’m done with a story, but some character’s voice is loud and insistent in my head. And sequels happen.

I admire the authors who plan out series, but that has never happened for me. The Rebuilding Year was supposed to be a stand alone, but the somewhat tentative HFN ending had Ryan nagging me for years to find out what actually happened with his birth family and his coming out, complete with kids. So I wrote Life, Some Assembly Required three years after the first book, to bring my men and their little family more closure. And then, equal marriage became the law of the land, including in Wisconsin, and a few readers really wanted to see John and Ryan fulfill their promise to get married. And Building Forever happened.

Last year, I wrote Magic Burning as part of the Carnival of Mysteries series. It’s related to my Necromancer books, but set 60 years later, introducing new characters, and a world that has changed. It was intended to stand alone for new readers. Except…

This year, I was invited to join in another season of Carnival of Mysteries. In the meantime, some readers had asked “What was Alan’s magic actually good for?” And Sunny the conure had more to say. (Sunny always has more to say.)

And I found myself writing Magic Escaping. This one is a sequel. You do have to read Magic Burning to follow it (found on Amazon and in KU.)

Some other authors’ stories in the second series are also sequels. (I jumped on the preorder for Kim Fielding’s Rook’s Time, which is a sequel to her excellent Crow’s Fate.) Some are new stories. I am looking forward to all of them, starting in July.

It’s a ton of fun to dive back into a known world, to turn loose characters I’ve already come to care about, to tell me their continuing stories. I never know when that will happen, or what will trigger it – an event, a reader suggestion, a passing idea. Since I write a short story a week for my Facebook group – Kaje’s Conversation Corner – obviously I create a lot of men whose extended story will never be told. But sometimes, they insist. (That was what happened to the “short story” that became the Necromancer series.)

In this case, Sunny’s loud beak and Alan’s (and readers’) wondering about what good he could do with his magic led to the new sequel. I hope readers will have fun spending more time with these guys.

I really enjoy the unplanned sequels and tie-ins and add-ons that my brain comes up with. Leaning into the unexpected in my “discovery writing” (my favorite term for panster) keeps the whole thing working for me.

– Kaje Harper

June 2024