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Wednesday, June 21, 2017

A Genealogy Chart for Characters?


BY CELIA YEARY

My new re-released series The Camerons of Texas have beautiful new covers and are now on Amazon.


The first is TEXAS BLUE, the story of Marilee Weston who marries Jeffrey “Buck” Cameron. She is the mother of Josephine (Josie) Weston who was fathered out-of-wedlock by Judge Douglas Paxton. Buck is the middle adult child of the original Camerons. Buck and Marilee move away from Nacogdoches to a ranch southeast of Austin. A daughter is born there, named True Lee Cameron.

TEXAS PROMISE  is Book II—The Camerons of Texas. This book tells the story of  Marilee and Buck’s older daughter, Josephine, who marries Dalton King in Austin, Texas. They locate two-year-old Laura Lynn Paxton, half-niece to Josephine, and adopt her. A son, Alexander “Alex” King is born in Austin.

TEXAS TRUE is Book III—The Camerons of Texas—The younger daughter, True, marries Samuel Deleon in Austin. They are awarded custody of Sam’s niece, Lacy Deleon, and nephew, Antonio Deleon. They move to the Deleon Ranch in South Texas. A son is born, named Jackson Rene Deleon.

TEXAS DREAMER is Book IV—the Camerons of Texas. This one is about Lee King, one of Buck Cameron’s nephews.  While in Houston, Lee meets Emilie McDougal, who is as much a dreamer as he. They form a bond, more like a business deal, until they learn they want more from the other.


From these four stories, I have the beginning of a Cameron Genealogy Chart. Although I haven’t written stories about the children born to or adopted these couples, I do have a chart created which shows how each is related.

At the moment, I could write ten more novels, each about a descendent of the Camerons.

Whew. Trust me, it’s only in theory.

In addition, I’ve toyed with another line from Sam Deleon, a character who didn’t fit in at first, but became one of the movers and shakers of early Texas oil. The series might be The Deleons of Texas.
Is this a common practice among writers of series? I wonder. If so, I’d like to hear about it.

Thanks for stopping by the PRP blog today. All my books can be found on Amazon under Celia Yeary.


 Celia Yeary

Romance, and a little bit of Texas




14 comments:

  1. I have several spreadsheets of genealogies for the characters in the SOTW trilogy. Hunter and JL have theirs as well. Because these stories span vast amounts of time and involve families, I kinda gotta. Best of luck on your series release! I think these will do really well.

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    1. I just knew others would have thought of this, too. It's almost a necessity to keep all the names and characters straight. Sounds like you have many more than I do. Good luck!

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  2. Very good advise. When doing a series this is important, as well as a detail chart - height, weight, hair, eyes, flaws, even give birthday. The "bible" to a series comes in very handy, especially when you are 10 years down the road!!

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    1. Yes, exactly..a Bible of sorts. The worst part is yes, the hair and eye color. Believe me, I've made errors!

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  3. Something I should do. Right now it's all in my head. Doris

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    1. Doris..If you're like me, if it's "in my head," I'm sure to get it confused.

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  4. I keep family trees and copious notes about my series. Congrats on the re-releases!! So exciting.

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    1. I thought you would be one who definitely would keep notes and family trees. Since I'm familiar with your books, I was certain.

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  5. Wow, gorgeous new covers. Celia! Good advice, too. I need to construct a family tree for my Texas Devlins if I hope to write about the offspring of the original three sibs.

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    1. Oh, I love the new covers! Livia outdid herself on these. Each one is perfect. And yes, start now with that family tree.

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  6. I love the Cameron series and I hope you seriously consider writing more about there descendants. You're wise to get that genealogy chart started. You'll find yourself referring to it often. I would have been lost without that family tree for the Wildings.
    I want to say congratulations getting this series back out. The covers are marvelous--I especially like the one for Texas Dreamer. I look at it and I think about your daddy. I don't know if he worked on an oil rig like that, but it's how I imagine him. Readers are going to love these stories. They're Celia Yeary Classics.

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    1. Ahhh, thanks so much, Sarah. Yes, when I wrote this blog, I thought about your Wilding family tree. I knew you did this, too, and wondered if others did as well. Oh, thanks so much on the compliment about the covers Livia does such a good job. I loved all of them. I especially love Texas Dreamer because the original cover featured the hero....which I thought was a good idea but it was not! When Livia came up with this cover, I almost cried. This is Emilie..Lee King's love. I absolutely love the cover with that old oil well. Thanks for you comment...as ever, it was right on.

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  7. Yes, I have used genealogy charts more than once. I look forward to finishing this series. Best wishes.

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  8. I create genealogical-of-sorts spreadsheets for my complicated storylines. With my less involved stories, I keep running notes of who, what, when, and where. It is so easy to get confused or forget a particular attribute of a character. I had an editor years ago who told me I switched eye colors on the hero. I told her to pick a color and let me know which one to go with. *grin*

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