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In this episode Laurie Buchanan and Lori discuss:

• The nuances of writing respectfully outside of your own experience.
• Pantsing through an eight book series.
• Maintaining a character’s story arc across multiple manuscripts.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Laurie Buchanan

Laurie writes the Sean McPherson novels—fast-paced thrillers set in the Pacific Northwest featuring a trifecta of malice and the pursuit and cost of justice. As a photographer and avid reader, she carries a laptop, book, and camera with her wherever she goes. Growing up, she wanted to be a magician, international spy, and mad scientist. There’s still time! She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her pilot-husband, Len, where she enjoys yoga, bicycling, and camping. She loves to travel and take walks—long walks! She walked across Scotland, a 211-mile journey from the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. At the mid-point, she climbed Ben Nevis, the highest point in the British Isles.

You can find her on her website or follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Indelible: A Sean McPherson Novel

When a sniper killed his partner, Sean McPherson was injured in the ambush. Now an ex-cop, he takes a job at a writing retreat in the Pacific Northwest. At Pines & Quill, he hopes to heal and put his life back together in the Zen-like capacity of groundskeeper and all-around handyman.

Sniper, Jason Hughes, blames McPherson for the loss of more than ten million dollars’ worth of heroin—and he wants revenge.

In the guise of a New York City limo driver working on a sizzling tell-all memoir, Hughes arrives at Pines & Quill along with three other writers in residence: a bohemian psychic taking a break from grueling work as a forensic intuitive, a bitter divorcée who wants to open herself to a new life, and a vibrant and resilient potter navigating life from a wheelchair.

With conflicting agendas, uncertain loyalties, and romantic entanglements at play, Hughes finds it difficult to get McPherson in his sights. Gradually, he forms a different plan, one that threatens the lives of everyone at the retreat.

Iconoclast

Burdened by the pressing weight of survivor’s guilt, Sean McPherson, an ex-cop, is desperate for redemption. At Pines & Quill, a writer’s retreat in the Pacific Northwest, he and his fiancée, Emma Benton, are planning their lives together. He wants to go back into law enforcement. She plans to walk again.

Georgio “The Bull” Gambino, head of a Seattle-based crime family, has a long reach. Like cockroaches, his minions infiltrate even the most inaccessible of places to do his bidding. With Seattle to the south, the Canadian border a stone’s throw to the north, and Bellingham Bay—a gateway to the Pacific Ocean—immediately to the west, Bellingham is the ideal location for the Gambino crime family to traffic drugs, weapons, and humans. But McPherson’s in Gambino’s way, which means he must be eliminated.

The writers in residence at Pines & Quill include an Afghanistan War veteran, a professional photographer, a civil rights attorney, and a gourmet chef. But McPherson suspects that there’s more going on than the joy of creating plot twists. Is one of them conspiring murder outside the pages of their manuscript?

Impervious

In the village of Fairhaven—nestled between Washington state’s Bellingham Bay and the Cascade Mountains, home to writers’ retreat Pines & Quill—friends and family have gathered for the union of Sean McPherson and Emma Benton. Sean has been working with the FBI and local police to help solve crimes, particularly murders bearing the mark of crime boss Georgio “The Bull” Gambino. Emma, who has just learned to walk again, has begun to feel at home and hopes to one day raise a family.

But just as the festivities begin and corks fly, an explosion shatters everything, killing one and injuring others. From Bellingham to San Francisco and New Orleans, the chase is on to discover who’s dead set on ensuring the newlyweds don’t live happily ever after.

The writers currently in residence at Pines & Quill include a vineyard owner, a Bryn Mawr College professor, a special education teacher accompanied by her seeing-eye dog, and an intuitive who can’t—or won’t—identify the killer. Gambino has a knack for finding people in even the most inaccessible places to do his bidding. Could one of the writers be on his payroll?

If you decide to check out one of the books, we hope you’ll do so via these Amazon affiliate links: Indelible, Iconoclast, and Impervious, where, if you choose to purchase via the link, DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 453

(Right-click to download.)

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 453: Turning One Book into Eight: Planning and Writing a Thriller Series – Interview with Laurie Buchanan appeared first on DIY MFA.