Continuities
Mar 10th, 2006 by Sandra
Alyssa asked a good question: What’s a continuity? If you’re not immersed in the world of series fiction, you might be asking that question.
A continuity is a series of related stories that span several months’ worth of releases. Each book in the series is written by a different author and has a different heroine. But there are several elements that relate the heroines to each other. The first Athena Force continuity was a twelve-month series that started with friends who all graduated from the Athena Academy. Each had her special gift or skill, and each had her own adventure. One of the elements that related them was the mysterious death of one of their classmates.
At this point I have to admit that I’m a slacker and haven’t read them all…. Guess I’ll be doing that this summer.
That was 2005-2006. Then there’s another continuity that spanned six months (I think) and the one I’m a part of is another 12-month continuity (the Arachne continuity). All of these continuities have to do with the Athena Academy, which was sort of a secret training facility for young ladies of special “talents”.
Karmela, can you jump in here and clue everyone in? Until I get caught up on my reading, I’m going to be useless….
The 6 month continuity you are talking about is the It Girls one, and it starts with Erica Orloff’s The Golden Girl.
I think the Madonna Key continuity–aka the one that started with the authors rather than the editors–starts this year too.
Thanks, May!
But Justine Davis’s Flashback starts another AF continuity, right? (I’m so confused, and I haven’t found a definitive one-stop source for all this information.)
I don’t know. I’m not a big fan of continuities, because… well, because I don’t enjoy the work of a number of the better-known Bombshell authors, so eventually it gets to one of them, and then I just quit.
I do know that Doranna Durgin mentioned something about writing another AF book (she wrote Checkmate for the first AF continuity) on her site or in her newsletter, featuring the same heroine she wrote previously.
And the Bombshell Authors website is so badly organized as to be useless.
Yeah, we do need to get NovelTalk to work on the BA web site. Part of the problem is that the site reps only some of the Bombshell authors — those of us who signed up with the site.
I’m curious about “what goes wrong” for you in books by better-known authors. Can you put your finger on that and share? I’m not asking for names, but concepts.
I can give names if you like, but I don’t suppose it’s a good idea to post it here. :)
Before anybody says that I’ve not read the good ones, please note, there are a few on my keeper shelves, and I’ve read close to 40 Bombshells already. Also, I do know they aren’t romances, and I don’t see anything wrong with that.
1. Just because she’s a CIA/FBI agent or cop/soldier with a black belt in taekwondo and is a champion marksman does not make a character a strong heroine. This is stereotyping, not characterization.
2. The heroes shouldn’t washout next to the heroines. The romance is a subplot, but that doesn’t mean the author can just stick a cardboard character in as a hero.
3. Tortured heroine does not equal strong heroine either.
See a common theme? It’s all because of laziness. Either that, or it’s because the author has to churn out a book every 2 months or so, she doesn’t have enough time to do a good enough job.
Frankly, if an author didn’t give the best she/he could for her/his book, then I don’t see why she/he thinks I should spend the money and waste time reading it.
I’ll stop taking over your blog now. *blush*
No worries, May! If I hadn’t genuinely wanted to know your thoughts, I wouldn’t have asked.
I think you’ve hit a problem spot-on: Relying on stereotypes doesn’t make for a compelling read. I think it’s really, really easy to fall back on some of those stereotypes as one way of “creating characterization,” and that’s something I’m not 100% good at avoiding. (I’m not sure anyone is, actually. We all have to work at it.)
But from the writer’s side of things — and I think this is a really healthy discussion we’re having — I have to say that it can be a very easy mistake to introduce an element (e.g., a tortured history or background) and then not develop it to its fullest so that it doesn’t feel tacked on or like “shorthand characterization”.
From my own experience, Dead Reckoning’s heroine has a bit of a tortured background that I’m only now realizing I could have developed more realistically to give her more strength today. Chris is already a strong woman — she’s had to be a fighter all her life, for many reasons — but had I spent more time developing her response to her own history, she might have had a richer story.
But, hindsight’s 20/20, right? :-(
Ah well. Thanks for sharing, May. I’ve got your note tacked to my wall as a reminder for my AF book. (Can’t wait to find out the title!)
Hi, Karmela chiming in here! I’ve read all the Athena books (Sandra — do you have them all? I could loan them to you if you need to catch up on reading) and some are definitely better than others. Here is my one HUGE beef with the Athena books, as so eloquently put by May:
3. Tortured heroine does not equal strong heroine either.
Yep, I wholeheartedly agree! This is my biggest beef with the 2 Athenas that were the weakest, IMHO. Sandra, I’ll email you offline to talk about this if you want, but I don’t think this is going to be a problem for you, if Jessie is any indication of your heroines.
The Athena continuity had that overarching problem they had to solve (Rainy’s murder), but by the time the final book came out, I was like, “enough already!” I’d gotten tired of the whole Rainy murder thing. It had just dragged on way too long. A trilogy on that plot point is all I could probably stand; not a 12-book series.
Sandra, if you want, I actually reviewed all the Athenas, if you want to read them. They’re just my opinions, okay? :-)
Let me know about the loaners!
Karm
Yeah, I forgot to add that I don’t think it’d happen to you, because I really liked Jessie!
I bought & read #5, Pursued, and feel that it is very good. So I have spent the last three hours searching for information on past and future titles. The Harlequin website is virtually worthless for this type of search, but Google brought up a lot of stuff for “Athena Force” and I have come up with the following list:
WEBB, DEBRA AF 0 THE PROMISE (an e-story available only in early 2006, at “http://www.eharlequin.com/cms/onlinereads/readsIntro.jhtml?pageID=040601rh01001″ ) (a prequel for the original series)
DAVIS, JUSTINE (JUSTINE DARE) AF 1 PROOF (Bombshell #2)
FETZER, AMY J AF 2 ALIAS (Bombshell #6; 0408)
GARBERA, KATHERINE AF 3 EXPOSED (Bombshell #10)
FLETCHER, MEREDITH AF 4 DOUBLE-CROSS (Bombshell #14; 0410)
MANN, CATHERINE AF 5 PURSUED (working title: THE PATRIOT; Bombshell #18; 0411)
WEBB, DEBRA AF 6 JUSTICE (Bombshell #22)
CASSIDY, CARLA AF 7 DECEIVED (Bombshell #26; 0501)
VAUGHN, EVELYN AF 8 CONTACT (Bombshell #30; 0501)
ALLEN, HARPER AF 9 PAYBACK (Bombshell #34; 0503)
WIND, RUTH AF10 COUNTDOWN (Bombshell #38)
DEES, CINDY AF11 TARGET (Bombshell #42)
DURGIN, DORANNA AF12 CHECKMATE (Bombshell #46; 0506)
DAVIS, JUSTINE AF13 FLASHBACK (BOMBSHELL #86; 0604)
FLETCHER, MEREDITH AF14 LOOK-ALIKE (BOMBSHELL #90; 0605)
GARBERA, KATHERINE AF15 EXCLUSIVE (BOMBSHELL #94?; 0606)
DURGIN, DORANNA AF16? COMEBACK (BOMBSHELL #102?; 0608)
CAINE, RACHEL AF18? TRUST (BOMBSHELL #?; 0610?)
DONOVAN, KATE AF ? (BOMBSHELL #?; 0703)
MOORE, SANDRA K. AF ? (BOMBSHELL #?; 0708)
AF # means Athena Force book #
Question marks indicate unknown or uncertain information.
The four digit number after the semicolon is the publication date - yymm
This list is still under construction; any additions would be welcome…
Huge thanks for putting together a comprehensive list, Mark. That’s a lotta work.
As I discover more info, I’ll post it.