What happened next?
That’s what I always want to
know. That's what keeps us reading, and, when a book really gets under our skin, keeps
us wondering about the characters long after THE END. Did Scarlett win Rhett back? Were Christina and Mark happy? How did Darrell and Sally get on at St Andrew's? I've only just realised that Kitty Barne wrote a sequel to one of my favourite childhood books, She Shall Have Music, and I can't wait to read it.
Sometimes on school visits,
readers ask me what happened next to some of my own characters. Often I don’t know,
though I always have a fair idea. When I judged a writing competition in County
Clare this spring, based around my historical novel Name
Upon Name, I got to see what other people imagined happened next to those
characters. Which was Very Odd. (In a good way.)
When the 13th
started to loom this month, I wondered, as I always do, what to focus on here. There are plenty of
debates going on around children’s books, libraries, YA fiction, Europe… Things
I care deeply about but don’t much feel like writing about here. ABBA is the only place online where I tend to get a bit more personal. Some would say self-indulgent. So I decided to
write a sequel. Two, in fact.
In March this year I blogged
about what it feels like when your writing career seems to have stalled.
http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/marching-on-without-my-shimmy.html When the rejections are flying in so fast that you’re still reeling from one before the next one hits you. When you start to fear that your last book was your Last Book. I hated every second of writing that post; I very nearly didn't post it. It felt so -- naked.
http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/marching-on-without-my-shimmy.html When the rejections are flying in so fast that you’re still reeling from one before the next one hits you. When you start to fear that your last book was your Last Book. I hated every second of writing that post; I very nearly didn't post it. It felt so -- naked.
But I’m glad I wrote it,
because – as so often with ABBA – it clearly struck a chord with other writers,
and I’m looking forward, at the upcoming Charney retreat in July, to sharing some insights about how to keep going in those disheartening circumstances, and to learning from others.
The sequel to that post?
Well, I’m about to sign not one but two contracts. My last book was not my Last
Book. I can’t say more than that just
yet, but oh! the relief!
Last month I blogged about
my plum tree, the sad fate thereof. http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/a-glut-of-plums.html
And the sequel to that?
3 comments:
Good to know that new leaves flourish, in all sorts of ways.
Good news indeed!
I wrote some terrible sequels as a kid, possibly the worst being an attempt at a Jilly Cooper sequel... but I'm glad yours have turned out to be much better! Here's to next year's plum glut!
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