sob

[ewein2412]

"I really feel it’s important that each of my books stand on its own."  

Not only I am gushy and incoherent, but I'm UNGRAMMATICAL.  I could DIE.  This is published in this month's Horn Book Magazine.  A rare chance to hype my own book, and I sound like an idiot.  I have about four really's in three paragraphs, most of them in the final sentences.

The quotations from authors are a sidebar to this article, "Epic Fantasy Meets Sequel Prejudice," by Jonathan Hunt.

Anyway, my humiliatingly puerile statement will tell you a little more about why The Lion Hunter is only "half a book," as coffeeandink   calls it.

Comments

[sarah-prineas.livejournal.com]

No, you don't sound like an idiot! It makes sense and explains the situation very clearly. To tell you the truth, the ending of Lion Hunter frustrated the hell out of me as a reader, but also made me want to read on to find out what happens.

Thanks for posting the Hunt article--it's very timely for me. I just sent it to my editor.

[ewein2412]

glad to be of service. Having accepted and produced the ending of The Lion Hunter, I feel as though I shouldn't go around apologizing for it. But as a reader I do know how frustrating it feels.

And I think I've said before how much it means to me that you like the book, despite the ending, because you came to it without having read any of the others. It is such a huge relief to me to know that it can be read out of context, even if it doesn't exactly "stand alone."

[sarah-prineas.livejournal.com]

Yup, I thought you dropped in the backstory very deftly. I didn't have any trouble following any of it.

Cheers!

[sovay]

Anyway, my humiliatingly puerile statement will tell you a little more about why The Lion Hunter is only "half a book," as coffeeandink calls it.

. . . I still love it, though.

[ewein2412]

awwwww shucks.

xx

[mhari.livejournal.com]

<3

That is actually a good statement. :D

And as evil as the cliffhanger is, it's not like... Robert-Jordan-style evil. XD

[ewein2412]

what it reminds *me* of is the ending of The Riddle Master of Hed (I think that's the first book in the series). Which I must confess I threw across the room because the cliffhanger annoyed me so much.

[marguerlucy.livejournal.com]

journalists rarely make people sound coherent. Too bad really, when that is THEIR JOB. You know, unless they work for Enquirer.

[ewein2412]

can't really blame the so-called journalist in this case, as I wrote the damn thing myself.

However, I got a really nice note from Jonathan Hunt yesterday after I'd posted this (and I don't *think* he reads my blog, although I suppose he might) apologizing that one of my "really's" hadn't been removed! That's definitely what I call customer service. And he isn't really a journalist anyway. GOD, there I go, "really" again. I am going to have to purge the word from my vocabulary.

[marguerlucy.livejournal.com]

I realized that after I replied with that comment. LOL However I dont think you sound incompetent, I think you just sound excited about the work.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's cool.

It doesn't make me resent the as-yet-unpublished status of the Empty Kingdom any less, though. :P

[ewein2412]

trust me, I know. I'm sorry!

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

I didn't think the article was too terribly inconvenient, but I read it well past when I ought to have gone to sleep.

I think that calling The Lion Hunter half a book is entirely perfect. Cliff-hangers are maddening when the story is building like it's going to end, and then suddenly the hero is in mortal danger. The Lion Hunter didn't do that at all, so it bugged me far less than a surprise cliff-hanger would have. (I was also completely forewarned that it was coming, so it wouldn't have come as a surprise even if I didn't know how books were supposed to be paced.)

[meener.livejournal.com]

i loved your statement! not just because of the insights you offer for your own books but for your analysis of the golden compass. also, i don't know if i ever told you this, but the first book i ever read of yours was a coalition of lions. i think when i stumbled across it in the library, the winter prince had been checked out - so i didn't even REALIZE a book preceded coalition until much later! but that didn't spoil my reading experience in the least - in fact, it's just the opposite: going back and reading the winter prince while already knowing what medraut would be like as an adult made the winter prince that much more powerful and heartbreaking.

[ewein2412]

wow, that's a very interesting perspective.

I sometimes think that people who don't read The Winter Prince first actually enjoy the other books more honestly. People who read TWP first tend to go bonkers over Medraut and then get all disappointed to discover that he's not the primary focus of the rest of the series.

which bugs me, because I personally think TELEMAKOS is a much more rewarding character to be bonkers about.

[meener.livejournal.com]

perhaps people get bonkers over medraut because he's older? (i know that *i* am madly in love with him, for one. telemakos is love as well, but obviously a different sort - and a sort where it's harder to be wildly fangirly over, maybe, because it demands more articulation.)

[ewein2412]

well, you have a point. Don't worry, he will soon be aged to perfection.