You never really stop being a writer...
Did everyone here my scream of delight this morning when I discovered the most fabulous news?You didn't? Well, that's just wrong.
What was all the shouting about? To tell you, I have to back up a few (or ten, or twelve) years and explain my fascination with all books written by L.J. Smith. And don't you dare tell me you never heard of her, because that's just not right. Before we had Stephanie Meyers and Serena Robar's vampires, we had Stefan and Damon from The Vampire Diaries. L.J. Smith wrote paranormal YA back when it wasn't necessarily the thing to do. She wrote a trilogy about a coven of witches (The Secret Circle), one about psychics (Dark Visions), shadow people (The Forbidden Game), and a world where all paranormal creatures walked among us (The Night World). I devoured her books as quickly as I could find them. Then I read them again. And again. And again. Until at one point I was using scotch tape to hold the bindings together, since the books were falling apart in my hands. The Night World books began releasing back in the late 1990's with the promise of a fabulous finale.
Only the finale never came.
In the days when the internet was in its infancy, rumors floated around with no real place to go. Fans pulled together and created their own website (and no, I wasn't one of them) and even attempted to contact Mrs. Smith. Notes were posted informing us she was ill, but she'd be back working on Strange Fate soon. Months passed. Then years. I moved, the books stayed behind, and I forgot about them.
Sort of.
Part of me still wanted to know how the series ended. It was a small part, one pushed to the corners of my mind out of the way. It lived there with along with the questions about another series I loved as a teen that abruptly ended. Illustrating once again how influential books can be to a reader.
It remained in the corners of my mind until the other day when I walked into B&N and saw a two book collection reprinting The Vampire Diaries. Holy moly! Did my eyes deceive me?
So this morning, bleary eyed and uncertain, I opened my web browser and googled her name, barely letting my hopes up that I'd find anything worthwhile. What I found reminded me once again that writers never really stop being writers. We may take a break. We may walk way, but it's always a part of us. As it turns out, they aren't just reprinting TVD. No, they're also planning to re-release The Secret Circle books later this year, along with The Night World books in preperation for...duh, duh, du-uh! The release of the final book in the series. Something like almost a decade later the final book to a wonderful series will be released.
As it turns out L.J. Smith has been through a hell of a decade. Illness took over her family, and she struggled to move through all of it. Her story isn't proof of the publishing industry as a whole. Frankly, more often than not we're warned that if we stop producing we might as well kiss our careers good-bye. Obviously we don't know the details. Maybe Strange Fate was already contracted and her editor gave her an extremely generous extension. Who knows. Frankly, does it really matter? This woman proved she can write, that she had loyal fans waiting for her books. Numbers speak in the publishing world, and she must have had them.
I think the story also that if the story is big enough, strong enough, people will wait decades to read it. Looks like the wait is almost over.
Labels: books, L.J. Smith, writers aren't crazy, writing
posted by Erin @ 7:36 PM
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