As a Sevenwaters fan, of course I’m thrilled that you’re writing a new book set in that world. But I won’t be disappointed if the ‘old’ characters don’t show up much - the plot and characters of the current novel are much more important because that’s the book I’ve paid to read. As for the “what happened to…” questions, those will be unavoidable. When a writer comes up with such memorable characters (as you’ve done), readers will always continue to wonder and think about the characters and their ‘lives’ long after ‘the end’. Even if you gave extensive details in the new book, I doubt you would be able to completely satisfy the rabid curiosity of your more rabid - I mean, loyal - fans. That’s just the way it is, I think.

And for what it’s worth, I liked the fact that you made Fainne less than perfect and I felt you did a great job in showing the reason she behaved as she did. Her actions were not always sympathetic, but her reasons were. It’s so rare to find a writer who’s willing takes such risks with a protag, and I think it makes the book stand out. I can see why Fainne would bother some readers - but at least with an unsympathetic protag, you’ll get a reaction out of your readers, which is better than no reaction. I guess no matter what we readers want (and we all want different things), it’s going to be YOUR book, so you’ll just have to write it your way. Trust your ability to make it the best book you can. And trust your readers to give it a fair shot.

Anyway, I’ll finish this very long winded post by wishing you good luck with the new books. I can’t wait to see them on the shelves!

Great discussion point, Juliet, as Therese has pointed out. I don’t generally like seriously flawed MCs of either sex, unless it is possible to redeem them and for me to see them being redeemed as the book wears on. Of course, you do get the odd really intriguing one - Hekat, the protag of Karen Miller’s latest opus, is a case in point. By and large, however, I do think we want a female MC to be a soul sister and even a role model, so we want her to learn about herself and her place in the world while having all sort of adventures we’ll never have ourselves! All your heroines have the capacity to do that for the reader, which is one of the many reasons I enjoy your books so much. Another is that you have the capacity to draw baddies very well, too. Breda in Well of Shades is a good example - but I’m glad you didn’t make her the MC:-)

“Generally, when the protag is female it seems more difficult to get away with giving her major faults of character. The majority of my readership is female. Does that mean we women are too hard on ourselves, I wonder?”

You know, this is an issue that’s come up in my critique group before. I do think people are less forgiving about faults in the female protagonist. It’s an issue worth exploring in greater depth at some point.

Thanks for a thought-provoking post, Juliet, and best of luck with your writing.

I’m sure it will be fantastic, as usual, and will have people flocking to bookstores to get more.

“One of the changes I made in the rewrite was to be ruthless in cutting out the stronger and more interesting of the ‘old’ characters.”

This sounds wise. One of the frustrations reading the last of the HP books was that Rowling had to trot out the whole cast of characters–which is my theory why she killed so many off. If they’re dead, they can’t come back.