Sarah Brewer Aug 10, 2010 @ 15:56:24 asked: Do you know how many books will be in this series?
I get asked this question a lot–or at least I’ve been asked it a lot with the recent publication of Cast in Chaos, so I’m going to try to answer it here:
I don’t know.
Okay, that’s too glib, although it is true.
I started this series in the hopes that it would be like a mystery series or a continuing television show in terms of structure. I’m not always good at that, but that’s what I’ve been trying to do. Do I have a definitive end in mind? Yes. Is it possible that will change as I approach it? Yes. Some of the things that have happened so far cough Cast in Silence cough weren’t things I mapped out when I first started Cast in Shadow.
I like the causality of the unexpected, and the way it changes the world; for me it’s what gives the events weight and substance. I didn’t expect for Tiamaris to do what he did, and what he did do changes the shape of the fiefs in ways that suggest future changes, in a ripple-down, across the fiefs.
One of the things that occurs at the end of Cast in Ruin has ramifications for the future that I’m still assessing. I started writing a book that would deal with two things: the refugees in Tiamaris, and the Etiquette lessons. And while these two things are addressed, it’s not actually what the book is about, in the end. This is me trying very, very hard not to drop spoilers. I will only say that I didn’t expect there to be so much about Dragons when I first set these two simple goals.
Which is a digression, I know.
While there are still books I want to write in this universe–and there are several (The Dragon Court book, the Shadow Wolf book, the Aerian book–you can sort of see where this is going)–and while there are still people interested in reading them, I’m going to keep writing. When there are no more stories that I desperately want to tell, I’ll wind things up.
I know that some readers have been disappointed because things aren’t now clearer, and I apologize for that; I’m not trying to drag things out just for the sake of extending them. I honestly didn’t intend for the series to be structured as an -ology, with beginning, middle and end; I wanted it to be a world in which multiple stories and arcs could occur. The fact that some people are disappointed at the lack of answers probably means I failed to do that clearly enough.
I will try harder, I promise.
Michelle West & Michelle Sagara 
Recent Comments