Kelley Armstrong's Blog, page 164

Hi, I am a big fan of your books and was thrilled when I just saw that you followed me back! The Darkest Powers & Darkness Rising trilogies are by far my favorite reads and I look forward to and was wondering about any new upcoming books you may be working

Next up in YA is the Age of Legends trilogy, starting with Sea of Shadows (click title for details)

I need a decent logline for it. Right now, I just call it “high fantasy based on medieval Japan.” That doesn’t say anything about the actual plot, which goes something like “So, there are these 16-year-old twin girls, who guard the Forest of the Dead, where the empire’s worst criminals are exiled, and every year, they need to placate the spirits of the dead exiles, and this is the first year they do it alone and things go HORRIBLY AWRY (and, though, it’s not actually their fault, they need to deal with the consequences)” Yeah, I need a much snappier logline :)

It’s YA, but not “young YA.” Combine Japan & high fantasy and you get swords, lots of swords, meaning lots of blood and a high body count. The violence is on level with my adult work. So…not intended for 11 year olds.

Hi, I am a big fan of your books and was thrilled when I just saw that you followed me back! The Darkest Powers & Darkness Rising trilogies are by far my favorite reads and I look forward to and was wondering about any new upcoming books you may be working

Next up in YA is the Age of Legends trilogy, starting with Sea of Shadows (click title for details)

I need a decent logline for it. Right now, I just call it “high fantasy based on medieval Japan.” That doesn’t say anything about the actual plot, which goes something like “So, there are these 16-year-old twin girls, who guard the Forest of the Dead, where the empire’s worst criminals are exiled, and every year, they need to placate the spirits of the dead exiles, and this is the first year they do it alone and things go HORRIBLY AWRY (and, though, it’s not actually their fault, they need to deal with the consequences)” Yeah, I need a much snappier logline :)

It’s YA, but not “young YA.” Combine Japan & high fantasy and you get swords, lots of swords, meaning lots of blood and a high body count. The violence is on level with my adult work. So…not intended for 11 year olds.

Hi, I am a big fan of your books and was thrilled when I just saw that you followed me back! The Darkest Powers & Darkness Rising trilogies are by far my favorite reads and I look forward to and was wondering about any new upcoming books you may be working

Next up in YA is the Age of Legends trilogy, starting with Sea of Shadows (click title for details)

I need a decent logline for it. Right now, I just call it “high fantasy based on medieval Japan.” That doesn’t say anything about the actual plot, which goes something like “So, there are these 16-year-old twin girls, who guard the Forest of the Dead, where the empire’s worst criminals are exiled, and every year, they need to placate the spirits of the dead exiles, and this is the first year they do it alone and things go HORRIBLY AWRY (and, though, it’s not actually their fault, they need to deal with the consequences)” Yeah, I need a much snappier logline :)

It’s YA, but not “young YA.” Combine Japan & high fantasy and you get swords, lots of swords, meaning lots of blood and a high body count. The violence is on level with my adult work. So…not intended for 11 year olds.

Hi, I am a big fan of your books and was thrilled when I just saw that you followed me back! The Darkest Powers & Darkness Rising trilogies are by far my favorite reads and I look forward to and was wondering about any new upcoming books you may be working

Next up in YA is the Age of Legends trilogy, starting with Sea of Shadows (click title for details)

I need a decent logline for it. Right now, I just call it “high fantasy based on medieval Japan.” That doesn’t say anything about the actual plot, which goes something like “So, there are these 16-year-old twin girls, who guard the Forest of the Dead, where the empire’s worst criminals are exiled, and every year, they need to placate the spirits of the dead exiles, and this is the first year they do it alone and things go HORRIBLY AWRY (and, though, it’s not actually their fault, they need to deal with the consequences)” Yeah, I need a much snappier logline :)

It’s YA, but not “young YA.” Combine Japan & high fantasy and you get swords, lots of swords, meaning lots of blood and a high body count. The violence is on level with my adult work. So…not intended for 11 year olds.

Hi, I am a big fan of your books and was thrilled when I just saw that you followed me back! The Darkest Powers & Darkness Rising trilogies are by far my favorite reads and I look forward to and was wondering about any new upcoming books you may be working

Next up in YA is the Age of Legends trilogy, starting with Sea of Shadows (click title for details)

I need a decent logline for it. Right now, I just call it “high fantasy based on medieval Japan.” That doesn’t say anything about the actual plot, which goes something like “So, there are these 16-year-old twin girls, who guard the Forest of the Dead, where the empire’s worst criminals are exiled, and every year, they need to placate the spirits of the dead exiles, and this is the first year they do it alone and things go HORRIBLY AWRY (and, though, it’s not actually their fault, they need to deal with the consequences)” Yeah, I need a much snappier logline :)

It’s YA, but not “young YA.” Combine Japan & high fantasy and you get swords, lots of swords, meaning lots of blood and a high body count. The violence is on level with my adult work. So…not intended for 11 year olds.

Hi, I am a big fan of your books and was thrilled when I just saw that you followed me back! The Darkest Powers & Darkness Rising trilogies are by far my favorite reads and I look forward to and was wondering about any new upcoming books you may be working

Next up in YA is the Age of Legends trilogy, starting with Sea of Shadows (click title for details)

I need a decent logline for it. Right now, I just call it “high fantasy based on medieval Japan.” That doesn’t say anything about the actual plot, which goes something like “So, there are these 16-year-old twin girls, who guard the Forest of the Dead, where the empire’s worst criminals are exiled, and every year, they need to placate the spirits of the dead exiles, and this is the first year they do it alone and things go HORRIBLY AWRY (and, though, it’s not actually their fault, they need to deal with the consequences)” Yeah, I need a much snappier logline :)

It’s YA, but not “young YA.” Combine Japan & high fantasy and you get swords, lots of swords, meaning lots of blood and a high body count. The violence is on level with my adult work. So…not intended for 11 year olds.

Teacher: humans are on the top of the food chain because there is nothing else that can eat us.

Teacher: humans are on the top of the food chain because there is nothing else that can eat us.

Me: titans

Teacher: what

Me: what

I'd first like to say you are an amazing writer! Reading your books inspires me in so many ways. I'm an aspiring writer and I wondered, have you ever started writing something you really liked, and then just suddenly lost all interest in it?

It happens to most writers, I think. There are several reasons for it. 1) The story really just doesn’t work. 2) It doesn’t seem as good as it did when you started planning it 3) It hits the point of becoming “work” rather than “all fun and games” :)

If it’s # 1, then stopping is a good idea. But 2 & 3 are just normal parts of the writing process. I used to quit many novel ideas early in the draft, but I’ve learned that I was giving up for reasons 2 & 3. So I haven’t done that in many years. I do, however, sometimes quit short story and novella draft. In those cases, because I haven’t been working on them long enough to experience 2 & 3, I know the issue is 1 and it’s time to find a new idea.

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I love how The Rising ended, but I felt like there were some unanswered questions ... is there a possibility that there will be another book or trilogy following Maya or Chloe?

Not right now. I’ve put them in a “safe enough for now” place, and I’m going to let them stay there and rest :) As for unanswered questions, I don’t believe it’s possible to answer every question raised by a series, and even if I tried, readers would find more. I suspect I could kill off every character, thinking that definitively ends a series, and readers would still say “But what happened to them in the afterlife” LOL There are a few unanswered questions in DP/DR, but that just leaves room for possible future stories.