What to do With a Long Running Series by Vicki Delany

 

Eventually, if a cozy series is lucky enough to run long enough, the author will be faced with the question of what to do with it.

You want to keep the series interesting, keep appealing to long-time readers as well as attract new readers. At the same time, the author needs to keep herself interested in telling the story of her characters.

The question I posed above has been on my mind as regards the Lighthouse Library series I write under the pen name of Eva Gates. Book twelve, Shot Through the Book, will be released on May 6, Book thirteen is well underway. I like these characters and I like the setting (Bodie Island Lighthouse outside of Nags Head, North Carolina, and the town of Nags Head), and I’d like to keep writing them as long as people want to read them.

There are series that have been successful when nothing much happens in the characters’ larger lives, but I’ve tried to give the feeling of time passing, of characters ageing and (hopefully) growing. Enemies to frenemies to friends. Boyfriends to friends. Friends to boyfriends and eventually maybe even husbands. Babies born, children growing.

Some minor characters have come and gone when I felt there wasn’t much more I could do with them. I sent Charlene, academic librarian, off to her dream job at the Bodleian. I’ve introduced new characters, such as Tom Reilly, the mysterious man in Louise Jane’s life.

But most of all, I’ve tried to let my protagonist, Lucy Richardson, grow. When she first arrives on the scene in By Book or By Crook, she’s young, somewhat naïve about life. She grew up in a wealthy family and has been sheltered most of her life. Her big act of rebellion is moving to the Outer Banks to take  a job as a librarian. I am not young, and I am not naïve, but I enjoyed writing Lucy that way, with a sort of wide-eyed innocence. But she had to mature and develop personally, and by now I think she’s a good bit more practical. She still believes in the goodness of human nature, but that’s tempered by some of the things she’s seen over the years. She still believes in the importance and mission of libraries, and nothing at all will temper that!

She’s learned her way around a police investigation (not entirely what she might have wanted) and has earned the respect of the local police for her common sense, her sharp intellect, and her natural instincts. She’s had to learn when to trust those instincts and when not to let them lead her astray.

In the first books, Lucy lived on the fourth floor of the lighthouse in a tiny apartment she called her Lighthouse Aerie (yes, I know, unrealistic, but bear with me here). It was a great setting for having my protagonist on the scene when needed and, I think, made quite a charming home for her. But, if Lucy is to grow and change, her life had to grow as well and the studio apartment became too small once she got engaged to be married. Searching for the same sort of charm I created in the Lighthouse Aerie, I moved Lucy and her intended into a member of what’s called the Unpainted Aristocracy, historically valued and unique Nags Head homes.

I know my characters aren’t real, but I do enjoy watching their lives progress and I hope readers do also. As for what’s in store for Lucy and the gang, you’ll have to read to find out.

Readers: Do you prefer a cozy series remained trapped in time or do you enjoy seeing time pass and lives change?

 

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than fifty books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy.  She is currently writing the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year-Round Christmas mysteries, the Tea by the Sea books, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates).

She is a past chair of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. She is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing, and will be the Cozy Guest of Honor at Bouchercon in Calgary in 2026. Vicki lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.