Here is the thing about junkies (romance, that is).

We always want more (romance, that is.)

After spending hundreds of pages struggling along with the hero and heroine, a simple Happily Ever After isn’t going to cut it for me.  I want to know what happens next.

If I was there for the tears and misunderstandings and angst of the courtship, I want to be there for the good times, and the honeymoon, and beyond.  (It’s the least they owe me, don’t you think?)

Maybe it’s because, in addition to writing romance novels for AVON and Dell, and figure skating murder mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, I also spent close to twenty years working for TV soap operas.  First for ABC Daytime, then Procter & Gamble’s “As the World Turns” and “Guiding Light.”  I got into the habit of sticking with “my” couple through thick and thin, be it a long-lost evil twin, a newly discovered child, or an inconvenient case of amnesia.

If I fell in love with a character, I didn’t want to set them aside as soon as the ink dried on the marriage license.  I wanted to move in with them!  (Or, at least, next door, where I’d still be privy to everything going on, but it wouldn’t be overly weird.)

I also wanted to have some say about what happened to them next.  (Hadn’t I been their biggest backer even when they couldn’t see that they were obviously perfect for each other?)

That’s why, when it came to my latest project, “Counterpoint: An Interactive Family Saga,” I took the two things I wanted to see in books, and did it myself.

“Counterpoint: An Interactive Family Saga (Volume One)” is out now.  At the end of it, there is a link to a Message Board and to a Facebook Page, where readers are invited to tell me what they would like to see happen next in the story.

“Counterpoint: An Interactive Family Saga (Volume Two)” will be out next month.  In it, I will incorporate your suggestions, and ask for more.  And so on with Volume Three, Volume Four, etc…

The story will go on for as long as readers want it to.  These characters won’t be abandoned.  They will continue living their lives.  Right where you can continue seeing them.

As far as I can tell, very few authors are attempting something of this nature.  Yes, there are series but, not only are they finite, they aren’t interactive.  I’m going to try and pull off both.

Will I succeed?

I haven’t the slightest idea.

Will people like it?

I don’t know.

But, on the other hand, with this model, where my readers can speak directly to me, I’m sure I’ll hear about it either way in no time!

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Alina Adams is the New York Times’ best selling author of soap opera tie-ins, figure skating mysteries, and romances, including Annie’s Wild Ride and When a Man Loves a Woman.  Her latest project is Counterpoint: An Interactive Family Saga.  In addition to turning her own backlist into enhanced e-books, she has produced enhanced e-books for others, including Dan Elish, whose middle-grade fantasy novel, The Worldwide Dessert Contest, now includes its own original musical score.  Learn more at http://www.AlinaAdamsMedia.com