Hello friends! Sagan here. Welcome back to Indie Author Weekly, where I share my behind-the-scenes journey of writing and self-publishing books.
If you’re new to this podcast, I am a productivity strategist for multi-passionate creatives at SaganMorrow.com: I help people manage their time and energy effectively, through customized, actionable strategies that work for your unique life and business. When I’m not teaching about productivity to solopreneurs, I spend my time writing romance novels, and occasionally, business books. And that is what this podcast is all about: the adventures of the author life.
Now let’s get into this episode of the Indie Author Weekly podcast. Today, we’re continuing with the author commentary from last week! As I mentioned last week, I always reread previously-published books in the series when I’m writing a new novel in the series, to ensure everything is consistent with characters and plot etc. And since I’m currently writing Book 7, I figured it’d be fun to share with you my internal thoughts while I was recently rereading the first 6 books in the series.
Tune into Episode 61 to get my author commentary of the first 3 books in my Polyamorous Passions series. That episode features Emma’s trilogy. So for this episode, we’re doing a commentary of Helen’s trilogy, Books 4 - 6. This trilogy is dedicated to my spouse, Mr Science.
By the way—if you want to learn more about the background to this series, I answered some FAQs in Episode 51 of this Indie Author Weekly podcast.
Now, there may be a few minor spoilers here and there during this episode. I’m trying to make sure that the commentary provides you with an overview and a few teasers as we go through it chapter by chapter—I don’t want to give away spoilers! But just a head’s up that if you hate spoilers of any kind, then you might want to pause this episode, and listen to it in sections after you read each book. These novellas are all quick reads, so you could finish all three of the books in a single day if you like.
Grab your copies of these books at your favourite e-bookstore, or visit SaganMorrow.com/books. I even have a virtual boxset at SaganMorrow.com/books which will give you access to all future books in the series, as well as the complete series to date.
Okay, let’s get right into today’s author commentary, starting with Book 4: She Wants More.
This story features gender role reversals & self-acceptance of new realizations.
Chapter 1: The fantasy erotica that Helen is reading at the beginning of this chapter is totally something I plan on writing and publishing in the next couple years! Helen is a really fun character to write. I love how judgmental and hypocritical she is. I mean, who has an internal rating system of everyone they meet?! Wow, Helen, just wow. Oh, I adore her.
Chapter 2: The conversation Helen has with a client about control—um, hello foreshadowing of a couple books from now. By the way, Helen and I are on the same page about wearing the colour black. 100%. And her internal monologue is… highly enjoyable.
Chapter 3: Oh my god, the masquerade wedding social, the mistaken identity that happens as a result… I am so into it. Aw, I love the conversation between Emma and Helen at the end of this chapter. It’s so supportive and no-BS.
Chapter 4: The relationship between Helen and Ben feels incredibly raw and realistic. I think anyone who has been in a longer-term relationship, or has just spent a bit of time observing another couple, can relate to it. It’s an interesting contrast to Emma’s experience in Books 1 - 3, where her relationships are all quite a bit newer, so there’s a lot more of the honeymoon period for her.
Chapter 5: Given that I’ve gone through a business partnership dissolution of my own, I had a good chuckle, writing the part about the ex-business-partnership at Helen’s work retreat. Oh, and the bet that Helen makes with a coworker regarding her boss—that’s pretty cute.
Chapter 6: Helen barging in and blaming her premarital therapist for the problems that she and Ben are having, is just… a very Helen moment. I have to say, Helen has probably been my favourite character to write so far. She’s so obnoxious in the best way possible.
Chapter 7: So wonderful that Helen has a frank conversation with Emma’s boyfriend John about opening her relationship with Ben. Helen and John have some very similar viewpoints, and I kind of want to explore their friendship in a future book. Anyway, they address a super common dismissal I hear again and again: “Oh, polyamory is fine for you, but my partner would never go for it.” That is the most common thing I hear from people who say they wish they could be polyamorous. I think John handles things really well in this conversation with Helen.
Chapter 8: Oliver’s Cocktails is based on Winnipeg’s cocktail lounge, Langside Grocery, and MONTHS after this book was published, I happened to be at the lounge waiting to meet a friend, and they were legit doing a cocktail photoshoot. It was a pretty wild moment of life imitating art, except that I didn’t get approached by a cute guy. Damn. Ha! But I really adore the sexual tension between Helen and her wedding photographer, Grant, in this scene.
Chapter 9: Unexpected information comes out about Ben in this chapter! Hello. The fact that we didn’t see this coming says more about Helen’s character than anything else, in my opinion. Especially given Scarlett’s reaction to the news. By the way, this is one of my favourite things about writing this series from the three points of view between Emma, Helen, and Scarlett: it shows just how much of our “facts” about the world are really based in our personal perspectives and biases.
Moving along to Book 5, Being Good…
This book is probably the sexiest in the series, and it focuses on opening up an existing long-term relationship.
Chapter 1: The comment Helen makes in her internal dialogue: “I guess I was wrong,” oh my god, hi, foreshadowing.
Chapter 2: The way that Helen and Ben choose their *rather unusual* honeymoon destination is pretty cute.
Chapter 3: When Ben realizes that Helen has a crush on their wedding photographer, Grant—that’s one of my favourite scenes in this book! His reaction to it is funny.
Chapter 4: The tie scene between Helen and Grant! I love it. Oh, this story was so much fun to write. It’s pretty hot, not gonna lie.
Chapter 5: Scarlett’s present at the bachelorette party is my favourite thing. The scene at the wedding with the accidental marriage is something that totally was inspired by my own real-life events, fun fact.
Chapter 6: Who doesn’t love an ex-boyfriend showing up at your wedding? Oof.
Chapter 7: Wow, that is an AWFUL first attempt at non-monogamy that Helen and Ben have on their honeymoon… talk about cringeworthy
Chapter 8: Their second attempt at opening up their relationship makes it all totally worth it. I really like the exploration of sexuality that Helen and Ben have here, especially considering that’s not what you’d expect from these two people.
Chapter 9: Aw, the end of the chapter really emphasizes how important female friendships are. That’s definitely a major theme across all of these books.
Chapter 10: I loved writing the dynamics between Helen and Grant. Their first interaction when they can actually do something about their feelings is pretty great.
And finally, Book 6: Out of Control:
This story is by far the funniest in the series to date. It explores the challenges of being polyamorous in a happily committed relationship
Chapter 1: Helen’s internal monologue and the description of the rules she & Ben have for their relationship come across really nicely in this chapter. Something that can be challenging, when you’re writing a series of books, is to ensure that you provide enough backstory for new readers, without rehashing absolutely everything from the previous books in the series. I’m quite pleased with the approach this chapter takes, given Helen’s position of being in a job interview.
Chapter 2: Building off what I was JUST saying—this chapter features Scarlett having a cringe-worthy encounter with her unrequited crush, which gets us more invested in Scarlett’s story, which will be the next book in the series. Also, how much do you want to give Scarlett a hug in that scene?
Chapter 3: I loved writing the scene where Emma and Scarlett teach Helen about sexting. The comments about the selfie stick made me giggle during all the rewrites and edits.
Chapter 4: As an author, I enjoy writing the build-up, sexual tension, slow burn, all of that stuff. And I think this chapter is pretty representative of that… Helen has her husband Ben, and her boyfriend Grant, but some of my favourite scenes in this book are the ones that feature the underlying tension between her and her boss, Jack.
Chapter 5: The way that Emma, Helen, and Scarlett support one another and try to help each other figure things out on their own is really sweet. When I started writing this series, I knew I wanted to highlight all of the beautiful things that can come out of female friendships. Too often, women are represented as catty or jealous or mean in mainstream media, and it felt really refreshing to portray female friendships the way I’ve experienced them pretty much across the board my entire adult life: as incredibly supportive and loving.
Chapter 6: Oh! You can grab the Miss Time Management shirt from my store at SaganMorrow.com/shop.
Chapter 7: Helen reorganizing Jack’s filing system because “her way is better,” is just… incredibly Helen. Also, it’s pretty cute when she almost accidentally attacks Grant with a coffee mug.
Chapter 8: It was fun to feature Helen’s friend Anya in this book. I’m looking forward to sharing more background about her in a short story down the line.
Chapter 9: Okay, so, I really like including tons of homages in my books. Anya, for example, is named after one of my most favourite characters in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. And in this chapter, Scarlett mentions Rae’s Bookshop… which is a nod to the first book blogger who ever took a chance on me and read and reviewed my books.
Sidebar: the last scene in this chapter sets the stage for the next book, with Scarlett’s story! Yes, that sexy security guard that she has a run-in with becomes a major character in the next book.
Chapter 10: Helen is coming into her own! Between calling out her ex-boyfriend and getting a great pep talk from Jack, she’s definitely going places with her character development
Chapter 11: I hope you enjoy the homage here to *that* New Year’s Eve scene in When Harry Met Sally!
Okay, there we have it… that’s Part 2 of our author commentary while reading the Polyamorous Passions series. That concludes Helen’s trilogy in the 9-book Polyamorous Passions series, but of course we see more of her on the sidelines in the rest of the books.
You can read these books at SaganMorrow.com/books, or search Polyamorous Passions on your favourite e-bookstore.
Now, I would love to hear your thoughts on all of this: Did you enjoy this author commentary? Which of these 3 books, featuring Helen’s story, was your favourite to read? Do you have a particular scene that you really loved?
Connect with me on Twitter and Instagram, @Saganlives, to chat about it! And you can send me a message on either of those platforms if you have requests for future episode topics, too. The more you tell me what you’d like to see more of on this podcast, the better that I can accommodate that. You can also submit your questions or topic ideas anonymously at SaganMorrow.com/question.
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By the way, you can access complete word-for-word transcripts of this episode and all past episodes, plus sample chapters of my books and a few other bonuses and goodies, on the “secret” version of this podcast. Get access to all of that at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast.
Thanks so much for tuning in to the Indie Author Weekly podcast, and I will see you in the next episode.