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asked
Amalia Carosella:
Hi Amalia, I really loved your book! A lot of the comments mentioned its abrupt ending. Was this done for sequel purposes? Or is that how you had always intended to end the story? While I was reading the book, I suspected the story would end at a certain point. To me, the story was always piece of her timeline; not her whole story. (And I loved that aspect of the book). Thank you, Anne
Amalia Carosella
Hi Anne! Thanks so much for your question!
The answer (as it so often tends to be) is a little bit of both. Without getting spoilery, first and foremost, I wanted to tell the story of this often overlooked piece of Helen's life, and where I chose to end HELEN OF SPARTA (along with the quote from Ovid as a bookend) felt like a natural stopping point for the book, since the rest of the story is so familiar to us. And of course, fitting the rest of Helen's story into one novel after delving so deeply into this small part was pretty impossible! If I'd tried, I wouldn't have been able to do it the justice it deserved.
Which is not to say that I don't have more of Helen's story to tell -- or that I'm not eager to share it! Just that this small piece of Helen's life (and the relationship it explores) was my driving force in writing *this* book *this* particular way. Hopefully that makes sense!
The answer (as it so often tends to be) is a little bit of both. Without getting spoilery, first and foremost, I wanted to tell the story of this often overlooked piece of Helen's life, and where I chose to end HELEN OF SPARTA (along with the quote from Ovid as a bookend) felt like a natural stopping point for the book, since the rest of the story is so familiar to us. And of course, fitting the rest of Helen's story into one novel after delving so deeply into this small part was pretty impossible! If I'd tried, I wouldn't have been able to do it the justice it deserved.
Which is not to say that I don't have more of Helen's story to tell -- or that I'm not eager to share it! Just that this small piece of Helen's life (and the relationship it explores) was my driving force in writing *this* book *this* particular way. Hopefully that makes sense!
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