Since the release of Delinquents (Dusty #2) in October, if I were given a nickel for every time someone asked me one single question, I would be one rich woman.
Will there be a third Dusty book?As I’m typing this, I’m listening to the original Dusty playlist—the one I made on Spotify as I wrote the Edward/Bella version. Before Dusty was Innocents and Delinquents, Thomas and Leighlee … it was simply a Jar of Hearts. This tale of a junk food junkie and her monster was simply reposted photos on Tumblr and the way my heart sped up when Christina Perri sang a song on
So You Think You Can Dance?about the ice inside your soul.
All of these years later, I can literally look up right this second at my bookshelf and see two books with my name printed across them above my worn and loved-too-much Twilight Series.
It’s unreal.
For those who know me from before I became Indie Author Mary Elizabeth—when I was TeamBella23/one part YellowBella—continuing Dusty on Fanfiction.net after it was officially “complete” was something I did for charity, and because if I didn't these characters were going to eat me up.
(They do anyway.)
I still write Dusty and Bliss. There’s a folder in my Dropbox full of half pages and scenes that come alive when I hear or see something that inspires me. There’s entire chapters I’ve written. Entire years of their lives. Alternate beginnings, middles, and ends.
I’m an author. I write when my characters speak.
But that’s a personal problem. I’m plagued by the voices in my head, you know.
Here the deal: There won’t be a third book. Thomas and Leighlee told their story, and their ending was sort of a beginning too. Some of the best moments I’ve had with readers is when listening to different versions of what happens after “Hello”—the good, the bad, and the
what the fuck, Dusty is not a ghost! That’s the beauty of a book.
Know that I appreciate and am inspired by the love Dusty and Bliss have been given by the reading community, fandom and not. I do have a third book on it’s way, but just because it’s not a Dusty book, don’t think that they don’t live on. They do.