If I were Margaret Mitchell, the first thing I’d have done
after the runaway success of “Gone With the Wind” (okay, the second; the first
would have been to hire a cleaning lady, the indulgence I currently dream of),
the second thing I would have done is write a sequel.
And not just for the money (though, you know, good cleaning
ladies don’t come cheap). In fact, it
wouldn’t have been for the money, at all.
It would have been because, as a reader and as a writer, once I fall in
love with a set of characters, I want to know what happens to them next.
I suppose it’s my background of watching – and working in –
soap operas. There’s always a what
happens next in soap operas (well, at least until an actor decides to leave the
show, or that they can’t stand their leading man another minute – but, even
then, a new face on an old character can sometimes still keep the story
going. But, I digress).
Why can’t books be the same way?
I want to know what happened to Scarlett and Rhett after the
door slam heard ‘round Atlanta. I want
to know the fate of Anna Karenina’s children, and whether the second Mrs. De
Winter ever wised up and left her wife-killer husband, and especially how
Wesley and the Princess Bride managed to keep their mutual promise never to die
first (I have very eclectic tastes in literature).
Read my entire guest blog on the subject at Darlene's Book Nook, and make sure to leave a comment!
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