Many fiction writers include similar characters, settings, plot lines and underlying themes in different books even if they are not part of a series. This may be deliberate, if they have already found a successful formula and want to give readers more of the same. At other times it happens less consciously, and reflects personal experience or psychology.

In my last post I wrote about entering my eligible novels, through Draft2Digital, into Apple’s trial of digitally narrated audiobooks. Cardamine was first to be published in this format, and Carmen’s Roses is now available too. These two books were originally written several years apart, and until I listened to the previews of their first chapters I hadn’t quite realised that they both begin with an Englishwoman taking a holiday in New Zealand. Not surprising really, because such holidays were a significant part of my own life before I moved permanently to Auckland. Cardamine and Carmen’s Roses are quite dissimilar otherwise although their plots both involve a missing woman. This is the case in some of my other writing too although I don’t know why. I also realise that several of my novels feature unpleasant male doctors. These characters are not based on any one real individual, but are informed by various interactions I have had during my own medical career and as a patient myself. 

Cardamine, Carmen’s Roses and some of my other books can be found at https://books2read.com/jenniferbarraclough.