Years ago, there was a report about readers that enjoy their story more when they know the ending. The tension, some feel, is too much. My daughter is exactly like that. She reads the last chapter and then starts from the beginning. She does the same thing with movies, googling the ending before we watch it.
She's under strict orders not to report that information to me. I love the tension. I want the surprise. I want to guess and pick up the clues.
In full disclosure, I did read the ending once. It was sort of by accident. It was a book called Genesis by Bernard Beckett. I'm such a curmudgeon when it comes to reading that I'll bail if the first chapter doesn't grab me. I was a couple chapters into Genesis and my interest was beginning to wane. I was going to put it down when (and I don't know why) I did something I've never done before.
I read the last page.
And that made all the difference. Beckett had one of the game-changers reserved for the very last page. And that is right up my alley. I read the book with this in mind and had an entirely different experience knowing the twist. It was wonderful.
After finishing the last book in the Halfskin series (Bricks), I sat down to plan out my next project. I'm too late to finish a Claus book for Christmas 2015, so I'm planning to return to that series in 2016. Instead, I came up with the idea of doing prequels for Foreverland, Halfskin, and Socket Greeny.
I am jacked.
These will likely be novellas that cover some bases before each of the series started. I'm currently working on the Foreverland, but the stories are coming fast so I hope to have them out in the next six months or so. Here's what's planned so far.
Seeds of Foreverland (Foreverland prequel)
The Making of Socket Greeny (Socket Greeny prequel)
One-Skin (Halfskin prequel)
Stay tuned.
THE BERTAUSKI STARTER LIBRARY is FREE!
Get 3 full-length novels and 1 novella.
Can't wait.
ReplyDelete