Accidental Series

I asked Steve Liskow to tell us how he developed his Zach Barnes PI novel series.  Here's his interesting story. 

KM Rockwood

Steve Liskow with Ernie, who provides advice on chases,
fights and other matters on which cats are experts.

Accidental Series by Steve Liskow

Back Door Man, my sixth Zach Barnes PI novel, came out in November. I never intended Zach to

have his own series.

In 2006, a friend suggested I try writing a romance instead of a mystery. She recommended a few authors to read as models, and I developed a romance that morphed into a romantic thriller.  Over the next two years, most agents sent form rejections, but when I got advice, I tried to follow it. Late in 2009, after 68 rejections and a title change, the book finally sold as Who Wrote the Book of Death? When it appeared in spring of 2010, a few reviewers said they looked forward to the next book in the series. A few readers sent the same request to my website.

Problem.

Zach Barnes was ridiculously handsome and psychically scarred. Beth Shepard was even more

beautiful and even more damaged. I thought I was writing a one-off pastiche and never planned to

use either character again, so I balanced them on the edge of parody. Now I was stuck with two cartoons that people wanted to see again.

I knew Beth’s backstory fairly well, but I hadn’t given Zach much substance except for a horrible tragedy. I had to go back and create backstories for both characters that would make them more human and still keep them sort of consistent.

I fudged a little. None of Beth’s family has appeared except in emails or phone calls since the first book. We know some of Zach’s backstory, but have never met his parents (I think they’re still alive. Don’t ask me about sibs). I actually define both characters more in terms of

their friends and associates. Zach’s college roommate is now a police detective in central

Connecticut, only a few miles from where Zach lives.

Beth attends book signings as the stand-in for Jim Leslie, a man who writes best-selling romance novels under a pseudonym. The readers think “Taliesyn Holroyd” is a woman, so Beth takes the role. Only the publishers know the truth. Jim and Beth are close friends, and Zach’s old classmate and researcher, Svetlana Melanova Thirst, is now Jim’s lover. Svet is as over-the-top as Zach and Beth, but Jim is so normal he anchors the rest of them.

As the series progresses, Zach and Beth have become more conventionally domestic. They play down their physical beauty with sunglasses, old hats, faded jeans and loose sweatshirts. Beth is the

only one of four siblings with no children, and she wants to be a mother. They’ve bought a house. They’re both learning to cook better. Beth is working on her second novel after publishing dozens of short stories under her own name.

The best thing about Beth and Zach’s domesticity is that I can contrast their concerns with the issues in Zach’s cases. This is how I develop subplots. In Back Door Man, Zach investigates Jack Fisher, who was accused of killing his

fiancée years ago, but the police couldn’t prove it. He changed his name after the scandal, so his new identity is a parallel with Beth’s alter ego. He’s trying to develop a relationship with Trisha

Straithorne, and their concerns mirror those of Zach and Beth. Trisha Straithorne is trying to write

songs for her band, just as Beth is struggling with her novel. Rasheena Maldonado, a lesbian detective on the Hartford PD, is involved in Fisher’s cold case, and is considering moving in with her lover. All the subplots involve parallels with a relationship and creativity (or children).

Does it always work? Not on the first draft. 

Link to Back Door Man on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Back-Door-Zach-Barnes-Book-ebook/dp/B07KDJ3TR3/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1549162762&sr=8-2&keywords=Steve+Liskow