Drury Lives!

A few years ago, burned out from trying to write for two different publishers, I made the decision to write for one house only, for a number of reasons (you can read more about that here.) Unfortunately -- and this was the toughest part of the decision, actually -- that meant leaving behind two male characters I had really come to like: Sir Douglas Drury, barrister and baronet, and Lord Justinian "Buggy" Bromwell, an expert on spiders.

However, I felt a choice had to be made, so I made it.

I don't generally get a lot of reader feedback, and it would be months before the last Regency was published, so I figured people might wonder a bit about Drury and Buggy, but that would be all.

I was wrong. It seems my regular readers, as well as new ones who perhaps don't like medievals, liked those guys, and Drury in particular. I received several emails asking me if and when I was writing about him. I'm still getting them, although it's been years since my last Avon book featuring Drury was published.

Oh, man, I had NO idea this would happen. I usually feel like I'm writing into a great void, or for an audience of about ten (exceptionally marvelous and clever) people. Seriously.

Anyway, long story short: having just received another query about Drury, and having written synopses for Drury and Buggy's stories, I decided to "resurrect" those two young men by posting the synopses on my website. I even found pictures of guys suitable to represent them. (Okay, so I'm ga-ga over Richard Armitage -- what can I say? He does work as Drury!)

But here's the thing I hadn't counted on: upon rereading the synopses, I like them. I really like them. I had forgotten the heroines, and Drury's especially seems like she'd be fun to write. Now I want to write the books. There's nothing that says I can't, but one publisher isn't usually keen to take over a series without holding all the rights to all the books. So there's that. The other thing is, I'm committed to four other books that I also really want to write. I have a feeling, though, that Drury and Buggy aren't going to go away. They're going to haunt me, lurking on the edges of my imagination and trying to seduce me.

I can think of worse fates....