So on top of the new house, the new puppy, and the new title, there’s even more new news. No, not a new contract (but wouldn’t that be nice? Maybe soon…) Instead, we have some new author photos, taken by amazing photographer Guarina Lopez on the National Mall:

And then some variety, as needed (full body shots, different “moods,” etc.):

This one is my father’s favorite:

I really wanted a variety with this set of author photos, as well as some outdoor, colorful shots, since I already have my studio black from the last set (photographed by amazing photographer, Tara Kearney). I chose the memorial to evoke the Roman setting in Rampant. I think this one would be perfect if I were only holding a bow:

TAP AND GOWN

Wish I could say that I came up with it myself, but, like ROSB before it, TAG is the product of intense brainstorming sessions with me, my agent, my editor, and the other brains at Bantam Dell.

Now all we need is a cover. Oh, and the polished manuscript to go inside.

Rio likes ice cubes:

Also, the sock monkey our new neighbors got her:

She is not, however, that into baths. Here is her first one:

Well, she might not think she looks good here, but I was dying of cuteness poisoning. And here she is resenting me afterwards:

But all is forgiven after a round of tennis:

Mmmmmmm, yummy yummy tennis balls!

That’s my girl!

So since I got the good night’s sleep last night, it’s my job today to go grocery shopping and finish packing up our old apartment. The moving process has been made very difficult by the fact that the week we moved, our apartment had a HUGE fire in the garage, so the area where you throw stuff away is off limits, and they’ve made us move all our cars while they pressure wash the entire place. Which meant I moved my china out in a SEA of sooty mud the other day. My cool slip on sneakers are destroyed.

So that makes two pair of shoes destroyed this week. Oh, yeah. Rio’s a chewer. SB and I have the marks on our noses, ears, feet, and hands to prove it.

Still, she’s a doll face. A dollface with very sharp little milk teeth. We have been working very hard on convincing her what she can and cannot eat. We’ve got a house filled with chew toys to hand to her whenever she starts getting mouthy with a “forbidden” item. She’s already discovered the two best places to sleep in the kitchen: over the AC vents. She’s mad about a peanut-butter filled kong (though we have learned a lesson about giving her one too late at night, lest we bear the wrath of Hyper-puppy!), and she has already made friends with all our new neighbors. Today, SB and I took her over to a nearby park and played hide and seek with her in the jungle gym. I can’t believe she already knows her name! She loves to come running to us. She follows SB wherever he goes, and whines every time he’s out of sight. She loves other dogs and children. She loves to chase and be chased when it comes to other dogs. She loves frisbees.

So between Rio and writing, my house is still in boxes. Unfortunately, we knocked over one last night and broke a whole bunch of our dishes. YIKES!

Right, back to packing…

Isn’t she gorgeous? My baby girl! I’m in love.

Sailor Boy and I brought her home yesterday. She’s an eight week old Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever (”Toller”). Longtime (and I SERIOUSLY mean longtime) readers of the blog know that we’ve had our eye on this breed forever.

We’re so excited. And if you think I’m the only one afflicted thusly, you should see Sailor Boy. I think I’ve been usurped in his heart.

I can’t believe how much I hate packing.

I can’t believe Sailor Boy and I have over 20 boxes of books and we’re still finding the heavy little buggers around every corner. Lift up a sofa? Book. Move your dresser away from the wall? Book. There was even a book in my underwear drawer. A thin one, but still. How did that get there?

Since the consideration of what to take and what to toss is a lot harder than the one about where to pack it, I’m leaving all that stuff to Future Diana and Future Sailor Boy.

But as Blog is my Witness, I am getting rid of it.

Just not today.

In my approximately 7 seconds of free time today, I followed one of the many “H.I.M.”-related Google alerts I get regarding Under the Rose, and thus spotted this series of plotting posts by fantasy romance author Joely Sue Burkhart:

Raw Data

Ask the Questions

The Journey

Getting Stuck

Seek the Tone

Come Full Circle

I haven’t read her Keldari books, but the posts got me vastly intrigued. Reminds me a bit of Dune and also of C.L. Wilson’s Tairen Soul series, both of which I love. I’m a little in awe as well, since Burkhart’s books are apparently novellas. How does she get all this worldbuilding into a novella? ::Looks at >100k fantasy novel heading to typesetting as we speak::

It’s fascinating hearing about another author’s process, especially when you see in it echoes of your own. For instance, reading this, I was far more fascinated of the story she crafted for the heroine of her piece than for the hero, though the original inspiration talked more about the hero and didn’t even know who the heroine was. So often, you only get to see the end products of an author’s story and the creation bits, those wiggly, nagging bits of “raw data,” as Burkhart calls them, are lost to time. People are always asking me where I get my ideas. There are certain bits I remember — I remember coming up with the name “Rose & Grave” or remember when Amy let on she was afraid of water — but so many others that I don’t. By now, they just are — fact, once and future. I don’t always know where I got my ideas. Did I ever consider another name than Bugaboo? Where did I come up with Clarissa and Jenny? And Poe? Him I remember least, because he wasn’t supposed to be a significant character. Shadow #2. That was him.

Interesting read…

I am packing up for my move into my new house.

I am shopping for sundries for surprise #3.

I am writing SSG4.

I am staring at approximately 53, 425 unread emails in dismay.

I am likely not going to be around much online for these reasons.

Wish me luck with those knots and stuff.

People all over the internet are discussion reader satisfaction as it pertains to series conclusion. It’s on blogs, on lists, and in more private emails and IM conversations than can be counted. One of my favorite discussions is at Justine Larbalestier’s blog. What does the writer of a series (book or television or movie or what have you) owe to a fan of that series?

Justine is of two minds. As a writer, she says she owes the reader jack squat. As a fan, she thinks the writer should do what she wants them to.

As a writer writing the last book in her series, this topic has been much on my mind. I know what my readers want me to do with the series. They make no bones about telling me. I also know what’s going to happen in my book and have known for, oh, at least a year in some cases, a lot longer than a year in others. I’ve known the events of Rites of Spring (Break) since early 2006. This is somewhat different from a writer of a TV show, who can react to fans on the fly and change things in a series every few episodes. Better? Worse? Nah, just different.

A lot of people are arguing about whether or not it’s a “good” thing for a writer to respond to her fans’ desires. Is someone who does what her fans want her to do with the story a “sell out” or “slavish” to that particular portion of her fan base? (Because in any fanbase, as many people as want you to go with option A, you’d better believe there are some who are begging you to do just the opposite.) What if the writer has already decided that is what she’s going to do, unbeknownst to you all?

I do believe that we, as writers, have a contract with the reader. We have promised them certain things in our series. And what we have promised is as follows:

A writer, in fulfilling her contract with the reader, should write a story that is consistent with canon, character, choices, and consequences, and closure.

To break it down:

1) Canon: A writer must follow the rules of the story. If you don’t, the reader has been betrayed. There’s no point in reading something if the world you have been investing in suddenly fails. Imagine if you were playing a game and suddenly every rule you’d been following was thrown out the window. You get more than four downs. Don’t bother dribbling. Pick that soccer ball up with your hands. Don’t pay when you land on Park Place. Move that rook diagonally.

Would you find any point to the game after that?

Now, the flip side of that is the reversal, which is totally valid, even if it “violates” canon. The prime example of this reversal is the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Throughout the series, the myth of the slayer is that there is only one girl. One slayer, and when she dies, a new one is chosen. But they also play with the definition of this myth from the very first season. At the end of the first season, Buffy “dies” for a few minutes, but is resuscitated. Who do we meet in season two? The “other” slayer who was chosen during her death. This “other” slayer (and her “descendant”) reappear in every season that follows. So when the denouement of the entire series is a massive effort to “break” the one Slayer rules and imbue all potential slayers with slayer powers, the reader goes along with it. It doesn’t violate canon — it’s a reversal for which the purpose of the canon was created.

2) Character: A writer must be true to the characters they have created. Of course they can have layers, and reveal previously unknown depths, but they must remain who they are. Vain people are vain. Cold people are cold. Jokey people are jokey. If you turn your characters into something else entirely, the reason your readers have been following your series– your beloved, fabulous characters– vanishes. In Under the Rose, when the cold, sarcastic, harsh, angry Poe is forced to join forces with Amy, does he stop being cold, sarcastic, harsh, and angry? No. He is all of those things, just working on her side in that book.

3) Choices: Throughout the series, your character has been making choices. They have believed things, valued things, wanted things. And though these beliefs may have changed over the course, of the series, they can’t change on a dime there at the end. It needs to be a regular, established arc. In addition, the choices the characters have made should not be negated or forgotten. Readers are savvy folk. If a character has chosen A and then, in a subsequent book, they keep talking about how what they really did was B, the reader will call you on it. And they’ll have every right to.

Update: Above deleted because, though I do believe these things, I don’t necessarily think they add much to the conversation about series, as it’s kinda covered in the character and consequences consistency.

3) Consequences: Hand in hand with all of the above, the writer must be consistent with the consequences of their story. If a vampire dies in the sunlight (canon), then you can’t suddenly have vampires walking around in the sun. A character must suffer the consequences of having that personality (vanity, cowardice, etc.), as well as the consequences of the choices they make. And, most of all, there must be consequences. If nothing changes, what’s the point?

4) Closure. Annie put it best: “I also think the writer owes the reader some kind of conclusion of all minor plot points throughout the series (I’ve read series where minor arcs were left dangling and it drove me insane).” Now, of course, not everything everything everything will ever be completely complete. But a writer should do her best, and if she leaves some things hanging, well, you should get the sense that it’s the way she meant it to be (or that it doesn’t really matter). Of course, try saying “that doesn’t matter” to a fan of some small part of your story.  J.K. Rowling tried to show us all the future lives of her characters, and I was all, “What about Neville?” I get a lot of people asking me about Gus Kelting. (Oddly, no one ever asks about Howard.)

But an effort is appreciated. Leave too much hanging, and again, you get readers asking, “What’s the point?”

And maybe that’s the simplest rule of all. Have a point.

____________________

What does a writer owe to the reader? Nothing but consistency in the story they’ve been telling.