Today, Gentle Reader, I introduce a new occasional series of installments of questions I get constantly.
How Could You End It?
I’m delighted you liked the series but it is finished. I believe in leaving a party while I am still enjoying it, and, perhaps more importantly, while others are still enjoying my company.
I’ve never been a “beat that dead horse, beat it!” kind of author.
Also, I like to have arcs completed in case I get run over. Far too many of my favorite authors have died on me without finishing their long running sagas. Or worse, been dropped by their publisher and never finished a series for lack of interest.
I’ve gotten bitter, I now rarely pick up a new series before the author has finished it. I know, this makes me the kind of reader authors and publishers hate. I’m embarrassed to admit it openly, but I’m a very emotional reader and I can’t help what disappointment has forced me to become.
So I finish may main character’s journey because I wanted the series to go out there and pull in new readers, like me, who would only pick up the first book with the intrinsic satisfaction of knowing there was a last one already available.
Parasol Protectorate
I hope you will forgive the few loose ends left in Timeless. If you want to know what happened to Biffy and Lyall, or whether Madame Lefoux ever got her girl, then you need to read The Supernatural Society series. Channing or any of the other werewolves? The Claw & Courtship series.
But what about the Hedgehog Incident? You want Meat Cute.
I did try to tie up as much as possible while keeping it realistic. After all, not everything in life ends with a comforting cup of tea.
Finishing School Series
Want more Soap and Sophronia, you get a glimpse of them working together in Meat Cute. Otherwise they are unlikely to be main characters again, but one or both of them often show up in my other books.
The other finishing school girls, Sophronia’s friends, enemies and in between, show up in the Delightfully Deadly series.
Please do rest assured that familiar friends and faces will turn up in my other series and novellas. There are many books and stories in the Parasolverse. One of the great pleasures of writing with immortals is that they are immortal, and so can show up throughout time.
Want More?
If you want to see more of any of my characters please say so in a review. I do keep an eye on them and it guides what I will write next.
I also blog about the writing practicalities in ending a series, and my emotional feelings on the matter.
Thanks again for your affection for my characters.
Want more behind the scenes sneak peeks concerning what I write next? Join the Chirrup
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Quote of the Day:
“These invalid carriages are furnished with comfortable couches, easy springs, abundant conveniences; and have the great advantage that they secure absolute privacy, and that they do away with the trying changes from one train to another, since the whole carriage is simply uncoupled from one engine, shunted to another line, and taken up by the new train.”
~ Lillias Campbell Davidson, 1889
Oh, as usual, dear. [takes off glasses and polishes them]
I thought that the Parasol Protectorate series had a perfectly appropriate, right and proper ending.
Yes, there were loose ends, but there are loose ends in the real world too. Not every story can be tied up into a neat little package; some of them have bits hanging out here and there. It felt as if life, or unlife in some cases, would just go on after the book ended. That works for me.
I'd love to read more, of course, if the characters want to be written about, but that is, as always, up to you, Dear Author.
I liked the ending with a few loose ends, as you said life doesn't simply end for the characters because the books have. It was open ended enough that you could go back to it one day if you really wanted, but finished off enough so that readers (me anyway) were satisfied with it.