Trilogies and cliffhangers…and some book news!
Before self publishing offered authors a chance to strike out on their own, I always wrote books with the thought that it could be a series or a trilogy. I jotted potential storylines or subplots in notebooks that could continue in other books, some thread from the previous story that could be explored.
Personally, I don’t care for cliffhangers that end the story in the middle of a climax. In fact, sometimes, it annoys me so much that I don’t keep reading book 2 or book 3. I like each book to be a complete story. The kind of cliffhanger I don’t mind is the one where the story is wrapped up, but some new element or question or shocking reveal is introduced, one that keeps me thinking about the book until the next one is published, or at least one I remember when the next book is published.
How do you like your endings and cliffhangers?
On that note, Vanishing Point, A Circle of Spies novella has been published. This is an adult novella, revealing the secret past of Marisa Bent, Savvy’s mom.
Lies can be deadly.
Before Paris, before Greece, Marisa Bent was nothing but a bored housewife, willing to do anything to protect her family. When she learns that espionage runs in her blood line and that a family of assassins are her archenemy, she’s willing to do anything to protect her husband and daughter and keep them in the dark. She even follows Will, the young, arrogant assassin, into the heart of trouble.
Using a mother’s instinct, she becomes the hero. More than once. This only seems to prove to Will that she is indeed a spy, bent on ruining his family’s enterprise. In the defining moment of her life, she must make the biggest sacrifice a mother can make.
Finally, the untold story of Savvy’s mother. Learn why she disappeared from Savvy’s life and the sordid details of her past with Malcolm’s family.
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And, to finish off the series, Twist of Fate ( book 3) will be out in October. Add to Goodreads.
Thanks everyone! Tell me your good news!
Congrats on the release of your novella! I don’t mind the cliffhangers in book 2 of a trilogy. But I do want book 1 and 3 to feel complete, though the first book has to also show there’s more to come.
I guess I could tolerate a real cliff hanger in book 2 – it depends on how it’s handled. 🙂
I agree with you. I prefer each story to have closure. I do think that in YA books, a cliffhanger in Book 2 has sort of become the standard. In MG, however, a complete story arc for each book is preferred.
At least, those were the instructions given to me when I started working on a MG series.
I’ll have to pay attention to more book 2s and see about that cliff hanger. I realize book 2 is hard to write, kind of like that sagging middle but I’ve read some that are really well done and that made me realize the others weren’t as well done. 🙂
Hurrah and congratulations!
I’m with you on cliffhangers – I want each story to be complete, and then the next one pick up some loose threads I maybe didn’t even know were there. Especially in series; I give trilogies a little more slack.
Congratulations on the new release! Will mention Friday.
I like a wrap-up. I’m not very patient.
Love the covers!!!!
I’m with you, Laura, on cliffhanger endings. They drive me nuts. At least with self publishing you don’t have to wait long for the sequel (most of the time). With trad publishing, you could be waiting a year or longer for the next book.
Congratulations on the new release! I think it’s cool that you wrote from Savvy’s mom’s pov.
I have a love/hate relationship with cliffhangers 🙂 I wrote one in my first book, but it’s after the story is tied up, but it does open up the next book. Most readers have enjoyed it, some have not. But I’m unsure how to otherwise write a series (which is one story in three parts), and entice the reader into reading the next book.
Huge congrats on the new release! 🙂
Love the series!! When will book 3 be out exactly? I’ve blown through books 1 & 2 in rapid succession and can’t wait to read the conclusion. 😉 So exciting!!