It may seem insane to be working on sequels to a book that hasn’t been published yet, but that’s where I am right now. When I was writing Venus, I didn’t think of sequels–I was too caught up in the story. But when I got to the end, I felt bereft! I couldn’t spend any more time with my characters, and I’d spent so much time and effort creating them, and the town they lived in. I wanted to go back there! Fortunately, I’d endowed the hero with three brothers (without actually planning it out–I swear). The first sequel, working title Wedding Bell Blues, was an easy one to plot out. The hero and heroine of Venus wanted to get married, which meant reintroducing all the characters I’d created before, along with the brothers. Actually, it wasn’t all that easy. I had to get help from my “plotting workshop” compadres to get it all planned out, but it’s now done, waiting for my final edits before I send it off to be looked at. Right now, I’m working on sequel 2, working title Be My Baby. Much harder, as it turns out. But hey, I still get to hang out with all the folks in Konigsburg, Texas, my make-believe town. I’ve even got plans for sequel 3, since I’ve still got one more brother to take care of. I think that’s the origin of sequels, really. You fall in love with your characters and you don’t want to leave them. Or you want to know what happens to them after you write The End. Or you think you’ve left them with unfinished business that really needs to be cleared up. I’m sure writers like Jo Beverley and Julia Quinn are much more systematic than that, but not me. I just want to stick around in Konigsburg.