Anne here.
Lately I've been thinking about the world of a story — I don't just mean the setting or the geographical location, but the world in which the story takes place, the world created by an author. Each author, even if they set their story in the London of Regency-era England, will create a slightly different world. Georgette Heyer's Regency-era London is different from Stephanie Laurens' or Julia Quinn's, or for that matter any of the wenches. We might use the same historical events, the same streets and buildings, some of the same activities and pastimes but still, each 'world' carries the unique and often distinctive stamp of its author.
It's seen as commercially desirable to write books in series. I know when I sold my first book to Berkley, I was shocked when my editor asked which sister was next. The editor at my previous house disliked series, and actively discouraged them, so I hadn't expected it at all. But I found I enjoyed coming up with stories for each of that first heroine's younger sisters.
It's part of the appeal of a series — that each new story takes place in the same familiar world, often with some continuing beloved or familiar characters, and where events that occurred in previous stories have an effect that plays out in the new story or stories.
Some authors are strict about the number of books in any series they write — sticking to trilogies or quartets. Others can write numerous books in a series and not run out of steam. Readers love going back to that world and love revisiting those characters and learning what's happened to them; it's a bit like catching up with the news of distant but much-loved family members, or the people of an old home town you left. Others run out of steam, or rather the series seems to.
I was at a writing festival in another state last year where one of the keynote speakers was an internationally bestselling crime writer famous for his crime series with one central main character. At the author signing the line of people waiting for his signature on a book stretched out of the door. Clearly it was a very popular series.
A few months after that event, I was cleaning out a pile of ancient writing magazines and naturally I had to flip through each one before I tossed it, and there was a picture of this author, looking much younger, being interviewed about his first book. In the interview he said he had no plans to write another book with the same main character, because what would be the point? There was no challenge in that. (I'm paraphrasing from memory.) I think he's up to book #13 or #14 in that series starring that same main character.
But I'm sure it's not just commercial imperative and readers enthusiasm that makes writers continue to dwell in their worlds they created. I think authors fall in love with their worlds just as much as readers do. But what happens when a series comes to an end?
I was at a book launch last night where the author was launching the much anticipated third and final book in a trilogy. She was very clear that there would not be a fourth book in that series — but she also talked about the grief she felt when she sent off that final book to her editor. She wept —really wept for half an hour afterward — and she's not normally a weeper. It was real grief.
Having dived into the world she created, I'm very sure that her readers will put her under pressure to keep writing stories in that same imaginary world. It will be interesting to see whether she does or not. She said at the event that she had already written a few short stories set in that world and would publish them later in the year.
I know how she feels. I recently finished the last book in my "Chance Sisters" series. I didn't weep, but I did feel bereft for quite a while and it took me ages to write up the proposal for my next series. It's already contracted and the idea for it had been floating around at the back of my mind for ages. It's an exciting process once it gets started, but in the meantime, snatches of conversation from the previous characters keep popping into my mind. Clearly I haven't quite left that world yet.
So what about you -- what are some of your favorite "story worlds" and series? Any books you're still waiting for? (I know I wanted Elizabeth Lowell to write Eric's story — from her Untamed, Untouched and Forbidden trilogy. And yes, I know she wrote Eric's descendant's story, but it's not the same.)
(Note: It seems that in the comment stream none of my apostrophes have come through in my replies to comments. I'm slowly going through each comment on line and adding them back in, but wanted to assure everyone that I DO normally use apostrophes.)