Bridget Jones is back. The third novel "Mad About the Boy" will be published this October. I greet the news with trepidation. Mostly because the first novel was so utterly of its time and the sophomoric sequel was disappointing. Second, because in order to write a trilogy or a series, you have to lay the groundwork early. In the first book. If you don't, it just feels like you are cashing in. That's why the Hunger Games and even Twilight work--the authors did the tough stuff in book one with the end in mind. I wrote the end of my series The St. Bart's novels after book two. I knew where I was going and that helped me plot how to get there. I can't imagine finishing book one and fourteen years later having to pick up the thread again. It's not just the characters and the times that have changed, it's the writer. Sure, Helen Fielding is more proficient than before, but she's also older. Yes, so's her heroine you may argue, but it was Bridget's wide-eyed enthusiasm that made her so engaging.I don't want her saddled with kids. Nor do I want her, a decade and a half later, trying to decide between Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver. The first scenario would be boring; the second would be pitiful. No, I want her madly in love, kissing her Mr. Darcy in a snowstorm in her underwear. I don't need the wedding. I need the promise.