Finally! It only took eight years, but my collection of stories focused on Mr. Z’s Toy store is now categorized as a series on Amazon. If you haven’t had a chance to read these stories yet, here’s a description of what this clean romance series is all about:
Mr. Z’s Toys is a local institution, serving generations of children and adults with wholesome games and toys for all to enjoy. Every Christmas, people flock to the store to see its traditional holiday displays and hopefully come inside to buy a gift.
Don’t Wait For Me (book #1) is set during Christmas and tells the origin story of Mr. Z’s, including the tragic love story of Edwin and Mary Klein. Better Not Love Me(book #2) follows Amelia Cook, as the series concludes over a summer. An Easel For Avery (#book 3) is a prequel novella that returns us to Edwin and Mary’s love story.
I originally wrote Don’t Wait For Me in 2012, intending it to be a short story given away for free on my website. The story grew into a full novel, and I was overwhelmed by its success and readers' enthusiastic reactions. I found that writing clean love stories was a genre I enjoyed. The story was special to me because I set it in my hometown of Spokane, Washington. I could invite the audience into my world, even if some of it were make-believe.
I followed up Don’t Wait For Me with Better Not Love Me in 2015. Back then, I was dead set against the book looking like a series. I wanted the stories to stand alone, but what I’ve discovered, painfully so, is that I made a mistake. The sequel didn’t find a substantial audience because I didn’t engage my best resource – my readers. It’s also true that three years to wait for a follow up is a pretty significant gap for a reader to remember your original story. Again, my mistake.
Recently Amazon allowed indie authors to market their works as a series. Of course, many have done this for years, but now it’s simple and easy for a reader to see all books in chronological order or related books in a larger series. Coupled with my 2014 novella, An Easel For Avery, the Mr. Z’s Toy Store Romance Series is now a complete collection, which I hope will help it continue to find an audience.
Revisiting my older stories has me wondering what other Christmas stories I should tell. I have a few ideas. You never know. You might just see some additional holiday tales in the future.