FrenzieMcKenzie asked Michael J. Sullivan:

Hi Michael, when you introduce a character into one of your stories do you know they are going to die? What makes you decide to kill them? I recently read The Riyria Revelations which was awesome. I really noticed that there were a lot of people dying and I started to get suspicious how far any new character I met would make it. So I was wondering what goes on with character death from your perspective as a writer.

Michael J. Sullivan Hey Frances,
Thanks for asking. Generally no, I do not. There have been some cases where I did, but for the vast majority, their fates depend on how the story unfolds. There have even been some characters I killed off who were reprieved. A famous example is a character in The Crown Tower. During the beta, a number of readers responded so positively to this person (and mentioned early in the book, before the death, that they would like to see him/her again), that I rewrote the book. In particular, there was one reader who REALLY loved this character and made a great case for keeping him/her to use in the future. Will this person show up again? I have no idea, but at least now I have the possibility of doing so.

For me, death is something that I never do capriciously or for shock value. Death in my books are done because of how the affect the people left behind to provide motivation or to change their trajectories.

It wasn't until I was participating in a book club read that someone pointed out to me just how many people died over the course of Revelations...upon reflection, I did realize that it was a pretty sizable body count, but this was the first time I really took a tally, and was actually surprised it was so high.

There are some people that I felt really badly about killing off, but the fact is their death was necessary on so many levels. I felt the book would suffer had they lived and that is what trumps all decisions on such matters.

Thanks again for asking, and I'm glad you enjoyed the reads.

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