We’ve gotten a lot of comments (and complaints) on where Inheritance ended.

We expected them.

Expecting them didn’t and can’t change how I create a story, how I write a trilogy. (Poor Laura!)

Inheritance ended where it ended because it needed to. Creatively, for the individual story, for the trilogy, for the characters, that’s exactly how and where  it needed to stop. I have reasons, and they’re good ones. I can’t share all of them as that would have to include spoilers for The Mirror.*

I have, always, looked at a trilogy as one big story in three parts. YMMV, but I’m the one writing them. Yes, at one time each book came out in six months, not a year.

But.

Those were paperbacks, smaller stories, and not as complex as what I’ve done since I had the idea for Chronicles Of The One in 2016. In those paperbacks I had six main characters who would couple up, one per book. The only resolution in those trilogies was the relationship. Technically, except for the relationship element, most of those also ended on a kind of cliffhanger. The storyline, the plot, the external conflict was NOT resolved until the last book.

It couldn’t be, or it wouldn’t be a trilogy.

I can’t and won’t write any faster than I write. My publisher schedules the books, and I write them to meet my publication deadline. After I finished Inheritance, I wrote the next Robb, the next stand-alone Roberts, the NEXT Robb, then started on the second book of the trilogy. I turned in the ms of The Mirror* in last month.

It must be read by my editor, then line edited—yes, line by line (and mistakes still happen). A cover must be created and approved. The managing editor must read, it must be proofread (and yes, mistakes still happen.) I have to read and proof the galleys (and yes, still mistakes slip through because we’re all human).

The book must be formatted, for print and electronic editions, the audio book must be produced, the book must be printed.

It’s a long, laborious process. It takes time.

I can’t write faster. The publisher can’t produce faster.

I can’t ask readers to stop asking me to write faster because that’s pointless. But it does amaze me that the demands keep coming. Writers are not machines. We’re human beings who have lives outside the work, who do the best we can do. I write every day, hours a day, and this is it, people. This is all I can do.

I love what I do, or I wouldn’t do so much of it, I wouldn’t sit at the keyboard hours a day, every day.

Frankly, writers aren’t obligated to meet reader demands (which vary anyway). We’re, to my mind, obligated to write the best book we can at that time. To, again to my mind, meet our deadlines barring illness or serious emergency. To listen to our editor if revisions, rewrites, changes are requested.

Now, as for the ending. It was not meant to be cruel as some have suggested. It was not the first time I’ve done this in a trilogy, as others have claimed.  I did not just decide “done writing now” – which is, honestly, insulting.

It ended where it did because that’s what I planned, Because that event, that story thread, can and will weave through the next book—that’s the big story in three parts. Where it ended matters for the second book. Where the second book ends—and some will not be happy—will matter for the third and final.

These are creative decisions.

To paraphrase one of my favorite characters from Game of Thrones. This is what I do. I drink and I write stories. (Not at the same time!)

Many, many readers commented that they read the book in a day, within hours, stayed up half the night to finish. This is incredibly flattering. We write to pull readers into the story, engage them, entertain them, compel them to turn the next page. It’s incredibly gratifying to feel I succeeded.

But I can’t write as fast as you can read! What takes a reader hours takes me months, and then months more for the book to go through the editing and publishing process. This is the reality.

I’m sorry there are some who are upset or angry or disappointed. Surely not the goal. But I can’t tailor my writing process, my story telling, my schedule or the publisher’s to meet those demands and expectations.

I’m doing the best I can, each and every time. It may not be good enough to suit you, but it doesn’t change the fact it’s the best I can do.

Inheritance was incredibly hard work, and terrific fun to write. So was The Mirror*. So, I hope, will be the final book—not telling you the title yet, though I know it. I planned it because this is what I do.

It’s a trilogy—three parts. And though it’s also pointless, I’ll ask please, please, when the time comes, don’t ask me for a fourth book. The story will be told. Finished. Done.

I hope, sincerely, this explains some things, makes some aspects more clear.

And, I wish you all the very best of holiday seasons and happy, happy reading.

Nora

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*(Laura note: yes that’s the title of Book 2. It will be in stores in late November 2024.)