Clara asked Ilsa J. Bick:

This question contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

Ilsa J. Bick LOL! Yes, I know; I’m a horrible person ;-)

Actually, there were two reasons I left the end the way I did. One, Tom said to Chris earlier in the book, when he says he doesn’t have all the answers and can’t tie things up neatly with a bow. The story is so huge and has so many ramification, you really could write another three, four books easy—and I might. But I had finished the story that needed telling right then.

The second reason: if you look at my other books, I rarely provide neat and tidy answers. Almost all end with a question, and I do that for a reason: not to drive you crazy but because life is uncertain; the world is a random place; and while there are books that end with the promise of an HEA my experience has been that life is rarely that way. I wanted to end this in a more authentic way because there are TONS of unknowns and life will not be easy, if it is, indeed, even very long for many of my characters.

I guess there’s also a third reason. I look at the blank page that follows the end of a book as a blank slate for you, the reader. Anything I can imagine that happens next is easily as valuable as what you can imagine, and we all have our different takes. So I look at that blank page as an invitation for you to fill in the blanks.

I hope that makes sense. Will I return to this world? I think of it often, but it’s what I said in a blog post a couple years ago: the characters have to tap me on the shoulder and drop the dime. Their stories just HAVE to be so urgent, I must tell them.

So...possibly. I do have my ideas.

I hope this ends, and doesn’t drive you crazier, Clara. I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my work and I hope you give some of my other books a try.

Thank you for getting in touch!!

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