Discovering the Story by Paty Jager

Now that the first mystery is off with critique partners, I've started doing the research and "stewing and brewing" for the next book. I would like to start the next mystery, but, my western fans have been asking for more Halsey books. So, I've decided to do a trilogy with the boys from the Halsey books. Jeremy Duncan, Darcy's brother from Marshal in Petticoats; Colin Halsey, Aileen's son from  Miner in Petticoats; Donny, the blind boy from Doctor in Petticoats.

I know where to start with Jeremy. At the end of Logger in Petticoats, Darcy was worrying because Jeremy had gone to Alaska looking for gold with another person. His story will start in Alaska. Books on the Alaska gold rushes are piled around me and I've started digging into the history around that and forming a skeleton of a story for the heroine and deciding which facts will be in the books and how I can make the story work. This is the "stew and brew" stage. I'm still working on how and where the story will start. Could be another day or two before I actually start writing the book as I scribble notes and make my character sketches.

Another thing I have to factor into this is how I can tie the titles to the books together when I've only so far "mapped out" the first book. I'm thinking I'll need to do a little more "stewing and brewing" on the next two as well. I'd thought of using Gold or Golden, Emerald, and... Opal. But I'm still working on it.

The Gold or Golden has to do with of course gold in Alaska and the fact the heroine will prove her worth. The Emerald, has to do with Colin's birth in Ireland, and Opal, will most likely be the name of the heroine in book three. But then I'll still have to give them more a of a title. That's one more thing on my list of "to do's" for this trilogy. And my husband wonders why I can't go to sleep at night!