This week, I started developing Vampire Alley, the sixth Sunshine Walkingstick novel, in earnest. So far, I have a strong beginning and a strong ending, but the middle part is still a bit fuzzy. It will come, eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later as this is one of the books I want to get out to readers in 2023.
Sunny popped into my head fully formed sometime in August or September 2014, when I was still a baby writer figuring out how story worked. I was deep in the middle of two other series at the time, a Contemporary Fantasy Romance series called the Daughters of the People (my first, published under the pen name Lucy Varna) and an Erotic Dark Fantasy series written under a third pen name.
Sunny was a surprise. While both previously named series were set (mostly) in Georgia, as Sunny's stories are, Sunny herself was clearly different: just as strong and independent, yes, but also clearly Southern and backwoods.
At the time, "Southern" had become synonymous with "villain" in Hollywood. If you wanted to show that someone was a bad guy, give them a Southern accent and bad teeth; no other character development was necessary.
That rankled. Southerners are not evil. We're also not the racist misogynists so often portrayed in mainstream culture. On a recent writer's retreat to Alaska, where writers from all over the US gathered, I described my father's charitable work through his church, where he runs the food program. The other writers were shocked. To them, Southerners, and particularly Southerners who are conservative Christians, are small-minded bigots without a thought for their larger community.
This is simply not so. Nowhere else will you witness the kind of support offered to the community than that found in a rural church.
But I digress.
When the choice came to either keep Sunny the way she appeared to me or homogenize her, I chose the former. Sunny therefore speaks through her native Appalachian dialect. (A proper dialect, mind you, not "slang" or an "accent" as critical reviewers have stated.) She serves as an apt counterpoint to the mainstream portrayal of Southerners as wicked, ignorant, and narrow-minded.
At any rate, it turns out that there's a demand for authentic Appalachian characters immersed in authentic Appalachian settings, with a hint of the paranormal thrown in; a good thing, considering that Sunny has grown to five novels (almost six) and more than half a dozen shorter stories.
Sunny's Future
Which brings me to Sunny's future and readers' most frequently asked question: will there be more Sunny stories?
The answer is...complicated.
The series was designed to have natural breaking (i.e. stopping) points after every third book. I could've stopped at Cemetery Hill (Book 3) and been just fine.
Likewise, Vampire Alley, as the sixth novel, could easily stand as an end to the series. Completing it would allow me the freedom to write a few extra short stories and compile them into a short story collection, so readers would have all those lovely extras in one handy book.
Do I want to stop there? I don't know yet. I keep a running list of potential story ideas on hand for Sunny and company, including ideas for two additional novels. Book 7 would return Sunny to her home and the native myths and legends found there. Book 8 would tie back into something that happened in Book 5 (Devil's Branch) and would bring Sunny to an important and potentially devastating decision about her life.
I'm not sure what would happen in a potential Book 9, only that it would involve her taking one final case.
A Different Direction?
The question remains: do I want to write an additional three books? And to that, I have no real answer.
What I do know is that it's time for a change. Sunny has been living in my head for eight and a half years now. She and I are both ready for something new.
To that end, I'm developing a couple of new series, one of which will be set in rural Appalachia. I'm not ready to reveal the exact details yet, as it may take months to go from tiny seed to full-blown story. But I can say that it's a humdinger of an idea, one I've been toying with since this past September.
First, though, I'd like to finish Sunny's sixth novel.
Even if I decide not to write any additional novels, I do have several short stories I'd like to write with her in the lead. She's been such a fun character, and I hope readers will enjoy her stories for years to come.
One Final Thought
There is one more thing I'd like to offer as a nod to Sunny, and that's branded merchandise. I've wanted so badly to have t-shirts, bookmarks, and coffee mugs (at least) to give away to readers, but until Nocturne Art designed the newest cover for the omnibus, I didn't have anything to tie those things to the books.
Now, I do. The key symbol for that cover is a knife set on point, bisecting a magical circle. It would look so good on a black t-shirt! And I even have an idea for a coffee mug that I think readers will enjoy. (The title of this post is a huge clue!)
So that's something I'm working on and hope to have available later this year or possibly the next. I'm honestly very excited about the possibility of a t-shirt in particular, as I would love to have one to mark the time Sunny and I have spent together creating her stories.
Right now, though, I'm developing Vampire Alley, which I'll focus on after completing the next Vanessa Kinley, Witch PI novel.