On-line voting results for Kate and her baby

The online voting is complete and resulted in two votes for Kate and her unborn child to survive and two votes for Kate and her unborn child to die. I guess that leaves me with a license to do what I think is best. My original planning for 'The Jim Buchanan Novels' was for Kate's death to be a deeply regrettable and recurring memory for Jim as well as an 'OMG' moment for the reader. However, as 'Montana Harvest' evolved (which is what most writers will tell you occurs as they write) Kate became a character with complex attributes and a steadying force in Jim's life. In other words, she has charisma.


Now I'm torn between killing off a great character in 'Montana Harvest' or keeping her alive. The end result of Kate surviving would be the termination of Jim's romantic interest in Linda since Jim has too solid of a moral fiber to be unfaithful to Kate. Now, as any writer will also tell you (and which is why I love to write) there is always a creative alternative.

My new plan is to take a number of my plots for future novels and modify them so that they fit into Jim's life prior to Kate's demise. This will work out very nicely since the series begins during Jim's second year as Sanders County Sheriff and Jim also spent two years before that as a Montana Highway Patrolman. This allows me to write a number of novels that conceivably can span that three year time frame during which Jim and Kate were married. I went through my novel plots and have selected six potential novels that can occur during the time that Jim and Kate are married and before she meets her destiny in 'Montana Harvest'.

Once I have completed 'Montana Harvest' I will then begin work on those six novels that take place during Jim and Kate's years together.