It's the most lucrative taaaiiime of the yearrrr! by Catriona

Have you ever themed a book or a story around a holiday or a specific time of year? What do you think about writing something aimed at a certain holiday or event? Are you limiting your audience or taking advantage of the season like a singer releasing a Christmas album or a TV show doing a Halloween themed episode?

Have I? 

I have. But I didn't mean to. When I wrote SCOT FREE, the first of what was supposed to be the Last Ditch Motel trilogy, all I wanted was to start off with Lexy Campbell changing her mind about having immigrated to California and fixin' to go. As she'd never say. She had her ticket bought and her bags packed and she was outta here. As she'd also never say. It occurred to me that the funniest day to leave America was the Fourth of July. So that book opened on a holiday.

Then, in an entirely unrelated creative decision, I started SCOT AND SODA at a Halloween party. It had occurred to me, you see, that it's the perfect day to carry out a murder in the US, if you need a bit of breathing room before dealing with the corpse. All you have to do is prop it up on your porch and leave it there. The grislier the better.

Then came SCOT ON THE ROCKS. I wanted Lexy to be feeling her singleness and grumping about all the blissed-out couples in her life. Valentine's Day seemed lke the perfect day for her mega-pout.

So book-by-book and completely by accident my series had a theme. Kinda. The books aren't always about the holiday to much extent but they do open on holidays. And that was when I decided: after book three.

Although the very next one, SCOT MIST, opened on an anti-holiday, a low day and an unholy day, Friday the 13th of March, 2020, the day they shut Disneyland and cancelled the tax deadline. Yes, I wrote a lockdown comedy. Not a pandemic comedy, though - and there is a difference.   

Busines as usual for the next installment. SCOT IN A TRAP opens on the morning of Thanksgiving, with Lexy ranting about the menu like a pumpkin-spiced Grinch, especially the number of pies, especially given the amount of brown sugar and number of marshmallows innvolved in the so-called savoury course preceding. This was Lexy's opinion. Lexy Campbell, a fictional character. Nothing to do with me.

Then, for HOP SCOT, the last of the second trilogy - which might have been the end of the series -  I went for my favourite holiday of all, Christmas, and took the Ditchers to Scotland for some snow (well, slush) and some fun (well, murder (obviously)). Because if that was the end there was no way I was going to let it happen without Lexy getting the chance to rant about the &%$@ing cinnamon. This was less strictly fictional. Because Oh. My. God. The cinnamon!

But then I signed another contract - yay! - for another trilogy - yay! - and SCOTZILLA opens on the Midsummer Solstice and Lexy's wedding day, with her most eff-infested and heartfelt rant yet. Lexy, as the title suggests, has not responded well to the pressures of being a bride.

Then what? Well first came love, then came marriage, and here comes a bundle in a baby carriage. Right? Wrong. For a start, Lexy would call it a pram but also it's not working. The new book, coming in December is called SCOT'S EGGS and opens with an Easter morning disappointment, requiring super-plus tampons.

And I've got one more in this third trilogy to go. I know what it's going to be about and I'm looking forward to the opening scenes, but I'm not going to talk about which holiday is in my sights. I will say it's not Memorial Day and it's not Labor Day. In fact, I'm not sure I get what their essence is or how I could make a rant about one of them entertaining.

Could I write a fourth trilogy? Are there enough imagination-sparking holidays left? I haven't touched the equinoxes yet. What about Cinquo de Mayo? Cesar Chavez? August Bank? President's Day? Whitsun? No idea. I could start recycling. I could have an American Christmas and a Scottish Thanksgiving aka Thursday. I could, I suppose, stop starting the books on holidays completely. Who's going to stop me? (Me. I'm going to stop me. That would bug me to death.) 

For now, it feels good to have the eighth book in the trilogy coming soon and to know as much as I know about number nine,

Cx