From Thug Love to Little House and Nancy Drew (Because that's how my mind works)

So, I've been reading my very first book that I'd classify as "street fiction." I don't normally go for the more commercial paperbacks, but I was offered copies of two of Wahida Clark's books to give away for the Diversity Rocks challenge and I thought, I should know what I'm giving away. So, I started reading and here's what I've been impressed with: the dialogue. I can hear these characters talking so vividly, even though their mannerisms are very different from the people I hang out with. It's gritty and sharp and real. Also, there's no holding back on the cussing.

Clark started writing the first in this series while serving an 8 1/2 year prison sentence for money laundering, wire fraud, and mail fraud. Working in the prison library inspired her to give writing a try, in hopes of making enough money to support herself and her children when she was released.

Here are some thoughts from Ms. Clark on how what started as the desire to get one book published evolved into what's now a four-book series:

My latest, Thug Lovin’, is Part 4 to a series that came about unexpectedly. When I submitted my first book, Thugs and the Women who Love Them, it had so many pages, that the submissions editors’ first response was, “we have to turn this into two books.”

The way I ended Part 2, I had no choice but to do a Part 3. There are four couples who are all intertwined, but lead lives of their own. My readers love them, and I make sure that they always want to know what happens next. Added to that, the series took on a life of its own.

In my experience, the pros of writing a series surrounds the characters. In a sense, you don’t have to develop new characters and character profiles. I hate that task!

The cons are you have to make sure you develop your characters more. You have to grow with them. You can’t keep them stagnant, and in doing that, your characters may change…and sometimes drastically. When the fans have grown to love them as they were in book 2, but now in book 4 or book 5 their favorite has done a complete 360, the readers are at their wits end screaming, “What happened? Who is this imposter? Ms. Clark how could you do this to me???

I remember as a kid being taken aback by all the changes Laura in the Little House books went through over the course of the books. When Laura got married, 9-year-old Ali was floored! On the other hand, the Nancy Drew mysteries drove me crazy because Nancy and her friends never aged, never changed, and yet had far more adventures than anyone had a right to have in one lifetime.

Have you ever read a series where the characters changed too much or too little for you tastes?