So, I was just thinking about the way I sometimes finish a series and start writing a scene in my head that’s set in that world. Mental fanfic, I guess. The point is, a scene that I would have liked a lot isn’t in the series, or I’d like an extended epilogue, or maybe I have a clear idea where I’d like the story to go following the end of the book. I don’t know how many people do that, but since fanfiction undoubtedly grows out of the same urge, obviously quite a few.
If you were going to actually sit down and do that — if you could do that with relative ease, let’s say — your life didn’t have too many distractions and the words were going to flow and you were pretty confident that you could capture the tone and voice of the original — what would you find most tempting?
For me it would be The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison.
Here’s why:
–I have in my head, right now, a detailed plot arc involving Maia and his nephew Prince Idra.
–I also have in my head a basic plot arc involving Maia and his soon-to-be empress, Csethiro Ceredin.
–I want to deal with the problem of the military installation built on top of that holy site up in the north. That’s terrible. I want to build a metaphorical bridge to those people and get that problem sorted out.
–The actual real bridge sounds very cool. I would like to build it.
–I’m not particularly interested in Thara Celehar. His passivity and willingness to let people bully him turned me off in Witness for the Dead. I want Addison to go back and write the story I actually want to read. Or, if not that, then I want to write the story I want to read.
So, for me, this is a pretty easy choice.
How about it? Any of you wish you could drop other projects and write a sequel for someone else?
Please Feel Free to Share:
I always start and end with Bujold. Arde Mayhew was probably the least heroic character she wrote but I always wondered – what happened to him after he gave Cordelia a ride out of Beta Colony and before he met Miles. Or after Miles left the Denndarii. Armsman Roic is another under explored character. I love the novella Winterfair Gifts and I was so glad to see his point of view represented in Cryoburn. But there is room for so much more with him. And Byerly Vorrutyer. I read a few fanfics starring Byerly, so I know my fascination is not singular.
There was a romance author I loved to read when I was young, Laura London. I think it was actually a husband and wife writing team, along the lines of Ilona Andrews. Anyway, they wrote Regency romances, which have always been a soothing type of escape read for me. And they had a few with secondary characters that just begged to be the center of a book – I usually liked them better than the hero. My favorite book was The Windflower, and as I remember, there were at least three characters, all pirates, whom I had mentally composed entire volumes on. Naturally the heroine was a lot like me. Only cooler.
I have wanted to write a sequel to LM Montgomery’s Jane of Lantern Hill ever since I first read the book. (I actually did write a fanfic sequel ages ago, but I’d definitely rather do an “official” sequel.) Even though the ending of the book is perfect, Jane herself is such a unique and interesting character that I’ve always wanted to know more about what the rest of her life was like–even if I have to write it myself.
I would love to read a proper sequel to The Goblin Emperor–I share your feelings on Witness for the Dead–but I don’t have enough ideas as to how one ought to go to think of writing it myself. Your version sounds fantastic.
Ditto with Louise. Your sequel idea for Goblin Emperor sounds fantastic!
Wait.
I mean just… wait.
Did I miss a comment? Seriously?
I mean… am I the only person to vote for “Sunshine” as book Most In Need Of A Sequel?
Evelyn, it’s right up there! I want that sequel SO MUCH, even more than I want the sequel of Pegasus.