Saying Goodbye Is So Hard To Do

Susan Sleeman here, hoping you are having as wonderful of a start to 2012 as I am. I am busy working on my new romantic suspense series for Love Inspired Suspense with Double Exposure the first book releasing in June.

I'm thrilled about the series called the Justice Agency—Law enforcement and family go hand in hand. This series features five adopted members of a family who all left careers in law enforcement and now work together in a private investigations firm to help people that traditional law enforcement have failed to help.

But with the release of a new series, means saying goodbye to the characters in my Morgan Brothers Series. With each book, I got to know them better and better and now I feel as if they are my friends and I don’t want to say goodbye to them.

I'll miss wilderness counselor Ryan Morgan and Mia Blackburn from High-Stakes Inheritance. Or should I say Mia Morgan now that she and Ryan are married. They both have such a heart for teenagers who've made mistakes and need a second chance in life and have dedicated their lives to giving them that chance.

Then there's Russ Morgan, a man who was so closed and broken over losing custody of son, but finds his way in Behind the Badge with fellow law enforcement officer Sydney Tucker. Sydney struggled with raising her sister and lamented the loss of a mother who didn’t want them. I rooted for both these characters to overcome their pasts as I wrote the book and was so happy when they found happiness.

And finally, my heart kept breaking for Reid Morgan in The Christmas Witness. Losing his wife to cancer, raising a daughter on his own and terrified of loving again lest he lose someone else. But he didn’t have a chance when I brought Megan Cash, his former love back into his life. Especially not a chance when her charming little daughter Ella suffering from a brain tumor wormed her way into his and his daughter's Jessie's hearts.

I loved writing the final scene of the last book when the whole family comes together on Christmas for that happily every after ending. I cried, I smiled, I laughed. And I eagerly waited for the book to release so readers could see the family find happiness. And now that the book released in December I have to say goodbye to all of these characters and it's harder than I thought.

I guess I should have expected this, as I love reading series books and hate saying goodbye when the series ends. I love meeting the characters for the first time, seeing their struggles and then seeing them triumph, then in future books see how happy they are. So why would it be any different for characters I created? Now that I know how hard it is, I will savor every moment of creating the Justice Agency books.

What about you? Do you like to read series and if so, is it hard for you to say goodbye to the characters, too?

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SUSAN SLEEMAN is a best-selling author of inspirational romantic suspense and mystery novels. She grew up in a small Wisconsin town where she spent her summers reading Nancy Drew and developing a love of mystery and suspense books. Today, she channels this enthusiasm into writing romantic suspense and mystery novels and hosting the popular internet website TheSuspenseZone.com. Susan currently lives in Florida, but has had the pleasure of living in nine states. Her husband is a church music director and they have two beautiful daughters, a very special son-in-law and an adorable grandson. To learn more about Susan visit her at her – Website http://www.susansleeman.com

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