I've been over the moon about the wonderful reviews coming in for Nightshade. Thank you so much to the thoughtful readers taking time to share their thoughts on my book - I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate it. It's hard to believe that Nightshade is actually being read by real people (other than my mom, hi mom!) and that they like it! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I'm flattered that so many reviewers and tweets talk about how much Nightshade leaves readers dying for book 2 - Wolfsbane. If you haven't heard it already, I'm here to tell you it's true; I leave you hanging by a thread at the end of book one. While it means the world to me that the end of Nightshade leaves readers so excited for Wolfsbane, I want to assure I didn't create a cliffhanger for the sake of being cruel.
Endings have been on my mind lately because I'm finishing up book 3 - Bloodrose - the only book of the three which does not end on a cliffhanger because, well, it's the final book of this trilogy. Also because Mockingjay, the ending we're all biting our nails to read, will soon be here!!! The conclusion of Catching Fire was one of my favorite, screech-inducing, cliffhangers ever. I guarantee I'll be up all night reading the night the Hunger Games finale is out.
I'm here to tell you that I don't write cliffhanger endings just to torture readers until they get their hands on the next book. Cliffhangers bring about the end of one plot arc while teasing into the beginning of the next. Nightshade, the trilogy, is a tale that spins out the lives of characters over the course of three novels. Each book has its own plot arc but all three arcs come together to create the entirety of the story - with each novel coming in around 400 pages, should all three installments come at once, you'd have a 1200 page novel. Though such books exist, breaking up the characters' journey into three connected, but distinct, pieces is a lot more manageable.
So I hope you'll forgive me when I string you along - I hope you'll find the wait well worth it, and know that there's a method to my madness.
You don't have to apologize! Great cliff-hanger, though a little bit agonizing. But I am sure Wolfsbane is worth the wait!
ReplyDeleteNightshade was amazing! Yes that was quite a cliffhanger, but since it leaves me wanting Wolfsbane NOW, it did it's job! :D Loved Nightshade!
ReplyDeleteYes, I definitely have to agree on the cliffhanger part when it comes to NIGHTSHADE (I won an ARC through a book blog last month and devoured it as soon as it arrived in the mail). . .but cliffhangers are great since they leave room for plenty of speculation. :D I would ask if WOLFSBANE has a cliffhanger as well, but I have a feeling you would just say, "You'll just have to wait and see!"
ReplyDeleteI tracked down an ARC of Nightshade and have stayed up all night reading--just finished, and holy crap, awesome. As cliffhangers go, I was pleased with this one. There was still the satisfaction of a completed story arc, and as you said in your post, it leaves us chomping at the bit for more. I read ARCS as often as I can because I'm so impatient for books I'm excited about to come out, but this was one of the first one that really lived up to its hype. So, so good!
ReplyDeleteAwesome cliffhanger, AC (I can call you that, right? we're in that place?)! Can't wait for WOLFSBANE! Question...was the original, pre-agent version of NIGHTSHADE written with a cliffhanger leading into a trilogy, or did you write it as a stand-alone and it was later changed to a trilogy? Just curious how ideas for series are queried. Thanks for the great writing!
ReplyDeleteYou guys rock! Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteJamie (of course you can call me AC ;P) NIGHTSHADE was a trilogy from the beginning - but I got lucky in that my agent (and later publisher) really loved it enough to invest in the books as a series from the get go. Most advice I've seen on querying as a debut author is that it's safer to write a stand alone that could become a series.
OK, I GUESS I can forgive you for Nightshade's ending...can't WAIT for Wolfsbane!
ReplyDeleteYou're shameless, Cremer. But you also rock, so we'll let you off the hook this time ;p
ReplyDeleteI just wanna say that I was reading another book series, a number 2, and it literally took me 3 chapters to figure out why I was so confused. The entire time I'm thinking, why are they doing that? That's not how it left off. Where is so and so? Who is that? Then at the end of those first 3 chapters I realized I was thinking about the end of Nightshade and NOT the first book of the series I was reading about. There are things to be said about cliffhangers...I guess that's a good thing ;-)
ReplyDeleteJeannie - That's hilarious :)
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